The world’s most powerful proton smasher is preparing for its biggest run yet, which scientists hope will uncover new particles that could dramatically change our understanding of the universe.
“We are exploring truly fundamental issues, and that’s why this run is so exciting,” physicist Paris Sphicas told reporters at European physics lab CERN last week.
“Who knows what we will find,” he said.
Late last year, before CERN shut down its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a technical break, two separate teams of scientists said they had discovered anomalies that could possibly hint at the existence of a mysterious new particle.
The discovery of a new particle could prove the existence of extra space-time dimensions, or explain the enigma of dark matter, scientists say.
The LHC, housed in a 27km tunnel straddling the French-Swiss border, has shaken up physics before.
In 2012 it was used to prove the existence of the Higgs boson — the long-sought maker of mass — by crashing high-energy proton beams at velocities near the speed of light.
A year later, two of the scientists who had in 1964 theorized the existence of the Higgs, also known as the God particle, earned the Nobel physics prize for the discovery.
‘TOTALLY UNTHINKABLE’
The Higgs fits in with the so-called Standard Model — the mainstream theory of all the fundamental particles that make up matter and the forces that govern them.
However, the anomalies, or “bumps,” seen in the data in December last year could indicate something completely new.
Going beyond the Standard Model would “mean that there is yet another unbelievable idea out there. Something that is totally unthinkable,” Sphicas said.
The LHC, he said, could unveil whole new dimensions, help explain dark matter and dark energy, of which we have no understanding, but which together make up 95 percent of the universe.
The giant lab might also prove the exotic theory of supersymmetry (SUSY), which suggests the existence of a heavier “sibling” for every known particle in the universe.
The unexpected excess pair of photons spotted last year could be a larger cousin of the Higgs, according to one theory.
“Who knows, maybe there’s a whole Higgs family out there,” Sphicas said.
However, to determine whether the observed data “bump” is merely a statistical fluctuation or could actually be the first cracks in the Standard Model, much more data is needed.
Scientists had been gearing up to resume experiments at the LHC last week, but the plans were delayed after a weasel wandered onto a high-voltage electrical transformer on Friday, causing a short-circuit.
CERN said that experiments were now expected to get underway later this week.
When the massive machine comes back online, it is expected to quickly pile up astounding amounts of data for scientists to pick through for clues.
VERY RARE PHENOMENA
After the Higgs discovery, the LHC underwent a two-year upgrade, reopening last year with double energy levels which will vastly expand the potential for groundbreaking discoveries.
The LHC ran for six months last year at the new energy level of 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV), but since the machine was just getting started again, it was not pushed to create the maximum number of collisions.
Once it gets started again, the machine at its peak should see two beams each containing around 273,600 billion protons shoot through the massive collider in opposite directions, slamming into each other with a joint energy level of 13 TeV to produce 2 billion collisions per second.
“We are really at an energy level that enables discoveries,” CERN director for accelerators and technology Frederick Bordry said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in