A Very Cool, Very Big Machine
by Joy
I have expressed some interest in High Energy Physics and various QC, GUT and SUSY theories on occasion. There are several Swamp denizens (including one doing double duty as commenter here and peanut gallery heckler there) who strongly believe that I have no right to be interested or business following theories and developments at that end of physics. I beg to differ.
Why, anyone interested in what science knows or doesn't know about the nature of nature and/or any part of nature (and what they're doing to plug holes in their knowledge) might find the theories and experiments of HEP of great interest and entertainment value. I figure that when I have no business or right to know what's going on in theoretical and experimental physics, they'll stop reporting what's going on in theoretical and experimental physics. A situation none of us should welcome.
Fortunately, the public still has a right to know some or most of what's going on (at least at the public funding level), and an entire scientific press corps out there attempting to give people information that they can understand if they try. Perhaps those with a bit of background physics will follow with less effort, but if the interest is there, effort is a fair investment. For those interested, here's where things are at as of August 12, 2008…
I am happy to report that the "cool down" phase of powering up the Large Hadron Collider at CERN should be done by now, as all eight sections of the beam tubes housed in a 27-kilometer torus reach their operating temperature of -271ºC (1.9º above absolute zero). Synchronization testing for the magnets was scheduled to begin last weekend…
…Tests will continue into September to ensure that the entire machine is ready to accelerate and collide beams at an energy of 5 TeV per beam, the target energy for 2008. Force majeure notwithstanding, the LHC will see its first circulating beam on 10 September at the injection energy of 450 GeV (.45 TeV).
If all goes well and stable circulating proton beams are established, they'll be brought into collision and the power will be increased to 5 TeV per beam before the end of the year. Though the LHC is not planned to operate in the winter (ski season and all), I imagine this first one will be non-stop. Scientists are hoping to eventually yield collision energies of ~14 TeV. The $8[+] billion dollar machine will provide many years' worth of sub-atomic fun for beam jockeys, megacomputers chock full of data for research teams all over the world to pour over for many more years, and - hopefully (or not) - some lovely new beasties to befriend. Including Wiggly Higgly, whom they're about 95% certain will pop in to visit on a fairly regular basis in the six detector-shrouded target zones.
In fact, the LHC offers some of the very same concerns in and out of the HEP community that Brookhaven's RHIC provoked awhile back - you remember, the possibility that a 'strangelet' might be created that would cause a universal phase shift, alter the false vacuum state and/or otherwise bring an immediate end to all things. Or just produce voracious micro/mini-holes that would sink to the core and consume the planet, a much lesser danger because it would only destroy this solar system. Luckily (or not), the wigs at Brookhaven decided the risk was worth it because… um… they have a machine that offers such cool risks. Why in the world would any human object to that?
Multiply the energies a few times and the concerns don't go away. We are reassured by the confident hypothesis that RHIC's 2005 "fireball" - theorized to have produced a double micro-hole - evaporated in mere femtoseconds even after sucking up a goodly amount of matter that simply disappeared from existence completely, never to be seen or heard from again. Hawking radiation thus being "proved," they say, because the earth's still here. So long as there's a sub-theory out there somewhere that accounts for something and assures everyone it's harmless, then by gum, it's all harmless. Don't Panic.
LHC makes no bones about it, they're going for black holes on purpose (also hoping for monopoles and strangelets). They're also dismissive of concerns, as is of course expected. They figure that if THEY can produce such odd beasties, then the earth is already chock full of 'em due to high energy cosmic ray bombardment. What they're more excited about is the opportunity to directly study "TeV-scale gravity" and the predicted extra dimensions of spacetime that come with. Establishing the nature of mass is not the first or most interesting goal of the project. If Higgs exists, he'll show.
Compared to that, the tiny risk to humanity, the planet and solar system, the galaxy and all other things that currently exist in spacetime is more than worth it. We already know The Answer - it's 42. What we're inventing now is the question!
Much Easy-to-Understand LHC Info
CERN
ALICE Heavy-Ion Portal
M-theory, formerly known as Strings
The Story of Strangelets
MSNBC: Doomsday fears spark lawsuit over collider
August 12th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Well, at least if the LHC destroys the Earth then all the theists will be able to claim science caused more deaths than religion. Well, they likely claim that already anyway, but it would be true for a change.
Still, I'll gladly wager anyone all the money I have that the LHC will not destroy the Earth.
Comment by Todd Berkebile — August 12, 2008 @ 6:59 pm
August 12th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Come on, Todd. You already had us beat with the Great Leap Forward.
Hell, Vendee?! Fuh-ged-a-boud-it…. I'm Catholic. I ain't going to mess with your type. I just hope I haven't offended you. For the sake and well being of my entire family… please, I beg of you.
Comment by Doug — August 12, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
August 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Todd B.:
Yeah, that's what the bet is. Some people are apparently not amused. Might be because it's their money that paid for these gigantic toys for overgrown boys in the first place. Or maybe it's because they're sick of living underneath science's Damocles' Sword and have finally awakened to realize they aren't afraid anymore. Perhaps it's because they don't believe risks like these are any one person's (or group of people's) business or right to make by fiat.
I'd hazard a guess that attitudes like yours don't help generate excitement from the public about the possibilities of knowledge to be gained at risk to everyone's existence. Or make them glad about getting dunned annually to pay for this kind of arrogant garbage. Luckily the only public that has so far exerted its collective raspberry at the ridiculous expense and apparent purposeless-ness of toys like these are confined to the US of A. As the growing recession builds into a worldwide depression (with all attendant sociological upheavals likely to ensue), a lot of professional atom-smashers may be very glad they're safely ensconced in a tunnel more than 16 miles in diameter about 350 feet underground on the border of Switzerland and France. Unless they neglected to stock the vending machines, that is… §;o)
For the record, I don't think they'll destroy the earth either. Stranger things than mere mini-holes have been created, the earth is still here. Still, I've always found the psychological tension between utterly arrogant scientists and the regular people they disdain thoroughly fascinating. In popular lore the Frankensteins always whine that they're doing it "for humanity!" when in fact it's humanity they hate most (and do not feel a part of).
If you're gleefully creating monsters in the basement, you've got no business complaining when the neighbors torch your castle.
Comment by Joy — August 13, 2008 @ 11:29 am
August 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Hi Joy,
Something strange about the comment format for this thread. Todd's reply is up in the top right hand corner, across from the beginning of your thread. The rest are underneath, but in small print. I guess the LHC is messing things up already.
Comment by Bilbo — August 13, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
August 13th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Yeah. I'm on the fast 'pooter today, was able to get into 'edit', discovered an extra 'more' break and thought that was the problem. Apparently not so. I can hardly see these replies! So I tried upping the font on my comment in case Todd had smalled it on purpose, but that just looked ridiculous. Yesterday I was getting two versions of the front page superimposed on top of each other about an inch apart, making the whole thing unreadable!
You just never know when messin' with the quantum sea will lead to horrible side effects… like internet websites that go haywire! Though I suspect this issue is a side effect of trying to update the software last weekend… §;o)
Comment by Joy — August 13, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
August 13th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
There is an error in the last link Joy included in the main article, this breaks the parsing due to mismatched HTML tags. The error is:
The line break in the middle of the link tag messes everything up. Oh, and by the way Joy, thanks for assuming malicious intent on my part, its good to feel loved.
Comment by Todd Berkebile — August 13, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
August 13th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Thanks, Todd. Have repaired the link and it looks to have done the trick.
BTW, I attributed no "malicious intent" to you or your simple posting. I'm not even going to try to figure out where you got that idea from what I actually DID write. I'm just going to suggest that given your persona here, you should probably not be so sensitive.
Comment by Joy — August 13, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
August 14th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I hate it when that happens.
Comment by Bilbo — August 14, 2008 @ 11:12 am
August 14th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Joy,
My wife had a great uncle who was sure there was going to be another Great Depression and all the banks would fail. He kept his life savings in cash hidden in his house-it was, of course, all stolen. He also wouldn't allow a computer in the house because he didn't want to catch a virus from it. This thread just reminded me of him.
Comment by Aagcobb — August 14, 2008 @ 11:55 am
August 14th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Aagcobb:
In what way, Aag? Are you saying the existence of the LHC means you should put your money in freezer bags? That smashing protons together at ~14 TeV is going to infect PCs the world over with a virus? That concerns raised by theoretical physicists in regards to what might be created means Great Depression v 2.0 is here?
Sorry, but the tin foil of your hat is messing with my ability to read your mind. §;o)
Comment by Joy — August 14, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
August 15th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Joy,
You brought up the issues of scary technology and a Great Depression-it just made me think of Great Uncle Johnny.
Comment by Aagcobb — August 15, 2008 @ 3:58 pm
August 16th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Joy,
Have there been any calculations on the probability of any of the worst scenarios occurring?
Comment by Bilbo — August 16, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
August 16th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Bilbo:
The original concerns were raised by theorists on a "non-zero" possibility that something like a strangelet could assemble from a quark-gluon plasma. Strangelets can't exist in our universe (these dimensions), because our universe is dynamically 'unstable'. A particle of all-strange quarks would (theoretically) be completely stable. The concern was that if it were to manifest in these dimensions, it would cause a universal phase change to all-stable matter. Stability cannot support life.
So I'm sure the "non-zero" probability was calculated (but I don't have it, you'd have to go looking for what was submitted at Brookhaven), and dismissed because it was so improbable. Which of course really doesn't mean much on the sub-sub atomic level of things, since it doesn't work like a lottery.
I'm not worried. If they do it and "the worst" happens, we'd never know it, never see it coming. Who would be left to care? The mini-micro holes are far more interesting, particularly in light of parsing from Tevatron that suggests a twin system was created. I can't wait for one of those beasties to show up naked, I suspect the whippersnappers will finally learn something useful. About time, that is.
Comment by Joy — August 16, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
August 16th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Wish I understood what you were talking about. It sounds like those naked beasties aren't very pretty. For someone who isn't worried, you're instilling some fear in me.
Comment by Bilbo — August 16, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
August 16th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Bilbo:
LOL!!! Don't Panic, Bilbo. While those naked holes aren't very pretty, it would not be the first time one has shown up in these environs. They don't last long, even when they're a lot bigger than any that the LHC could ever create. So they're not likely to swallow the earth, they're not likely to change very many people's timeline, and they're not likely to turn any of the target-tenders into toddlers (or mummies).
All any of us have here is a leasehold. When it's over it's over, it doesn't matter if we get to die in our own time, or someone decides our time for us all at once (something I came to terms with during the Cuban Missile Crisis). Even if we were very careful, we're still living on a cosmic billiard table. The only human question that would sadly go extinct if we go extinct is "where does evolution go from here?", and that's not all that interesting a question anyway. When there's nobody home, nobody cares.
Comment by Joy — August 16, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
August 18th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I know what's causing the uneasiness: The start up date — Sept. 10th. The 7th anniversary of 9/11 is the next day. Numerologists unite!
Comment by Bilbo — August 18, 2008 @ 10:24 am
August 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Bilbo:
Well, things are already so far behind schedule - they've been 'scheduled' to start up for a couple of years, I don't expect the new date to go off without a hitch. They kept taking delivery of shoddy parts - you just can't build one of these machines on the cheap, you'd think they would have learned that long ago…
The prospect of micro/mini holes is exciting for the possibility of exploring M-theory, which would unite the five strongest string/superstring theories as differing topological aspects of a multi-dimensional "membrane" in which all realities of lesser dimensionality are embedded. Including our 4-D reality. CERN has a nice article about Lisa Randall's ideas in its July Courier.
Actually, believing that we can somehow manage to obliterate our entire sub-reality is pretty arrogant, even if the probability does appear in the equations. A more interesting question is whether a universal phase change somehow eliminates the dimensions as well. Is there distance, relativity of movement and time in a universe that is completely stable? Could it be that our experiential dimensions of length, breadth, volume and time (measured as distance at c) are mere effects of material instability and not separately existent at all?
…and would that mean that further dimensionalities we might discover by studying micro/mini holes are also mere effects of what inhabits the landscape? We instinctually believe that the universe - these dimensions of spacetime in which matter and energy interact - exists in some more fundamental way than do the transitory forms that inhabit it. Our instinct could be wrong. We evolved here, react to our instincts without thought. Our consciousness brought us to this door, and if Penrose is right exists beyond the door as well.
If everything we know goes away when the door gets opened, it might just be a metamorphosis of sorts. We've been knocking for awhile now, even though it's just a few humans doing that knocking. If LHC gets the response it's looking for, we can be pretty confident whoever/whatever exists on the other side knows we're coming. §;o)
Comment by Joy — August 18, 2008 @ 1:40 pm