The Large Hadron Collider: The Challenge of Human Brain - Essay Example

Khalid Al-Gharbi   PROF. Bowers   RPW_110   12/5     LHC-The Challenge of Human Brain                  The Large Hadron Collider, usually abbreviated as (LHC), is a very large scientific instrument found near the city of Geneva, whereby is extents the border between France and Switzerland about one hundred meters underground. Physicists use it as a particle accelerator in the study of the negligible common particles, the basic building blocks of everything. It revolutionizes peoples understanding, from the very small or diminutive world deep within the atoms to the universes vastness. Two subatomic particles beams known as hadrons; that is either lead ions or protons, does not travel in same directions within the circular; obtaining energy with each lap. The LHC is used by physicists in the recreation of conditions immediately after the Big Bang. This is done by the collision of the two beams at a very high energy. However, groups of physicists from allover the world then examine the particles that are formed as a result of the collisions by the use of particular detectors in several tests dedicated to it. There are several theories that describe the outcomes of these collisions. For long, the particle physics Standard Model has served scientists well as a way of comprehending the basis laws of Nature, however, it tells only part of the story. Only the trial data by the use of high energies that are arrived at by the LHC can be able to push the knowledge forward, thus challenging those that seek proof of the found knowledge, as well as those who tend to dream past the paradigm (Rossi 50).        Rumors from an internal memo has it that one of the CERNs Large Hadron Collider detectors has picked up some signals that could actually be the particle that has been sought after for a long period of time, which is known as the Higgs boson. Nevertheless, one of the major scientific objectives of the massive six billion Euros atom smasher was to demonstrate or confirm the Higgs bosons presence, a hypothetical practice that is believed to provide everything in the world or universe mass (Steiger&Uhl 73). Nevertheless, the particle is a critical part of the typical model that is used in physics in the description of the way in which atoms and particles are constituted. “Unconfirmed reports that physicians are currently working on the LHC indicated that the Higgs boson started circulating after a theoretical internal memo was published on the internet. Scientists quickly urged carefulness over the assertions as most particles candidates that appear in the collision tests at the LHC are consequently disregarded on further analysis" (Beech 23).           The question has lingered on the minds of several individuals and scientists, and answers are needed. What if the recent woes of the Large Hadron Collider are more than just technical problems or bad luck? Two popular physicians project that the future might be pushing back on the Large Hadron Collider to avoid the problem of Higgs Boson observation." The pursuit of observing the Higgs boson has definitely been hampered by its share of problems, from the cancelling of Superconducting Supercollider during the year 1993 to the continuous technical problems of the LHC" (Campanelli& Wu 35). The projects have in fact suffered a very bad luck that Niels Bohr Institutes HolgerBech Nielsen and Yukawa Institute for the Theatrical Physics Masao Ninomiya, through the future influences back the current to sabotage them. In a paper like "Search for Future Influence From LHC", we are told that the observation of the Higgs boson would actually be a very distasteful occurrence that the future is attempting to avert from occurring (Campanelli & Wu 39).           According to Campanelli & Wu (42), the Large Hadron flows or circulates beam of the charged particles (particularly hadrons, possible either lead ions or protons) via a tube that maintains a continuous space. The particles are moved and directed through the continuous space within the round tube by the use of magnetic superconductors chain which speeds up and direct the particles that are charged. "For the purpose of maintaining the magnets superconducting characteristics, they stay super-cooled around absolute zero by an immense cryogenic system"(Rossi 55). "Immediately the beam arrives at its highest levels of energy, got by progressively raising the energy as the beam circulates constantly via the magnets, we find that it will be kept in a storage ring. Nonetheless, this is a ring of tunnel whereby the magnets keep on with the circulation of the beam so as to maintain its kinetic energy, at times for sometime on end. This beam can consequently be routed out of the ring of storage to be taken to the different experimentation areas of the Large Hadron Collider (Bostrom 162).   Bostrom, (162) claims that the levels of energy that the beams are expected to reach 7 TeV. However, since two beams collide with one another, the collisions energy is thus expected to go up to 14 TeV from the protons. By the heavier lead ions acceleration, they expect collisions with the energies in about 1,250 TeV levels of energy on the order of those that are acquired just a short while after the Big Bang, and not the ones that are acquired during that period (Datta & Raychaudhuri 62). The scale of TeV energy is around 1016 times lesser that the energy scale of Plank mass, for instance, the one used by Lee Smolin as his article energy scales top in the "Trouble with Physics." In all probability, the energy levels of the Big bang would have been at some point on this energy scale of plan or even higher, whereby the general reactivity and quantum physics features of reality both starts breaking down (Datta & Raychaudhuri 67).              Since the LHC will be experiencing collisions of very high energy levels, it is hoped that there will be the releasing of exotic particles that are usually observed. "The outcomes of the collisions of the Large Hadron Collider should have a substantial effect on the peoples understanding or comprehension of physics, either refuting or confirming the anticipations from the particle physics Standard Model" (Panagiota 401). Nevertheless, Higgs boson is one of the major products being looked for; this is the last particle from the particle physics Standard Model that has not been seen. It is also likely that the Large Hadron Collider will form some indicators of the strange dark matter that makes up about ninety five percent of the world but cannot be seen directly. In a similar manner, there may be some proof of the additional dimensions anticipated by the string theory. However, the truth is that we just do not know until the tests or experiments are performed (Panagiota 404).             There are different experimental systems that are built into the CERN that are currently going on:             The A Toroidal LHC Apparatus (ATLAS) and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), are the two gigantic all-purpose indicators that will be in a position of examining the produced particle in the collisions of the Large Hadron Colliders. With such two indicators, operated and designed on various concepts, it becomes easy for the independent outcomes confirmation.            "A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE); this test collides lead ions, thus forming energies that are similar to the ones immediately after the Big Bang. Here, there is hope to form a quark-gluon plasma that is believed to have been in existence at these levels of energy" (Panagiota 399).           The LHC beauty (LHCb) - this is a detector that particularly searches for the beauty quark that enables it to examine the differences between antimatter and matter, which include the reason why the world seems to have a lot of matter and very little antimatter.            The Total Elastic and Diffractive cross section Measurement (TOTEM) is a small indicator that examines the forward particles that just brush past one another rather than having the face-to-face or confrontational collisions. "It will be in a position of determining the size of the proton, for instance, the luminosity that is within the Large Hadron Collider" (American Chemical Society and Chemical Abstracts Service 70).            "LHC forward (LHCf) is a small indicator that also analyses forward particles, but examines the way the charged particles cascades within the Large Hadron Collider relates with the cosmic rays, which barrage the universe from the outer vacuum, helping in the interpretation and the calibration of cosmic rays" (Lincoln 24).           "The LHC was established by CERN (The European Organization of Nuclear Research). The organization is staffed by physicians from allover the world" (Halpern 36). Countries that take part in the experiments and construction include the following:            United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Slovakia, Hungary, Sweden, Canada, Armenia, India, Pakistan, Korea, Republic of Azerbaijan, Norway, Republic of Czechoslovakia, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, China, Germany, Cyprus, Morocco, Austria, Estonia, Belarus, Brazil, Russia, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Ukraine, Israel, Greece and Uzbekistan.           "The accelerators building, which includes material and manpower, is about three billion Euros, approximately Four billion U.S dollars (this is in accordance with the conversion in September 4, 2008). Besides this is of course the cost of the different computing power and experiments" (Evans 42).            The LHC at first went online on the month of September in the year 2008 and, within a period of about one week, it was forced to close down following a leak in one of its seals that were insulating the supercooled space from the outside. "After nearly a period of one year of repairs, the large Hadron Colliders once again went online, whereby this time it was done with a lot of success" (Erdmann & Müller 53). In December of the year 2009, it started producing beams that had an energy level of 1.18 TeV, leading to collisions of about 2,36 TeV, which is the strongest test ever performed in the Universe (Erdmann & Müller 56). Presently, physicians are still carrying out analysis of the outcomes of the collisions to find out what the results imply.           "Past tests demonstrate that the simplest particle of Higgs has a mass that is somewhere in the range of 114 and 184 GeV, whereby one GeV is nearly equivalent to a protons mass, which is a subatomic particle that is present in all atomic nuclei. The presence of a particle of Higgs with a mass ranging between 158 and 176 Gev has been ruled out by the Tevatron, and will extend its research until it discovers the truth." (American Chemical Society and Chemical Abstracts Service 73). Technicians and engineers have come up with a list of tweaks, which should squeeze additional collisions out of the Larger Hadron Collider, thus boosting the chances of researchers coming up with something novel to physics. Read More