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The Cern Collider and the End of the World

Fenton

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With the recent discovery of the " God Particle " actually they discovered a particle that " behaves " as the Higgs Bosun should, it's rekindled a interest of mine. Particle Accelerators and their applications.

The CERN Hadron Collider is the largest most powerful Hadron Collider in the world, using thousands of Super Conducting electro magnets cooled down to -271.3 C using liquid Helium.

Thats Colder than the vacuum of outerspace and superconductivty means virtually NO loss to resistance.

It zips and focus's sub atomic protons at 99.999999 % the speed of light.

Well, when I saw an article that discussed some of the safety concerns of particle acceleration on this scale and the possibillity of producing instantaneous Micro-Black Holes or even singularities ( zero mass, infinite gravitational pull and are thout to be at the center of every black hole ) I didn't give it much thought .

Cosmic rays have been raining down on earth with energies that are multiples of what the Hadron Collider can produce, and the random collision with a atomic nuclei could actually create cosmic black holes in our atmophere that exist for only a micro second and then disintergrate.

Black holes give off radiation and according to Stephen Hawking, even the largest will eventually disipate.

But " stranglets ", ( strange matter or quark matter ) are a toss-up. Stranglets or strange matter is a theoretical cosmological object composed of "exotic matter" and is produced at the core of massive Nuetron Stars.

Protons and electrons compress into Nuetrons and produces a matter that is exponentially more dense than conventional matter.

If this happened ( and I sincerely doubt it ever will ) it would start with a high energy particle collision that would produce one " stranglet ". ( one UP Quark, One DOWN Quark and one STRANGE Quark ).

Now one STRANGE Quark is infinitely more massive than a normal UP Quark, and could potentially collide with the atomic nuclei of one of the Collider atoms, causing an immediate conversion of that nuclei into more strange matter.

The Contagion would repeat and repeat with no technological means for containment eventually leaving one huge slug of HOT Strange Matter known as the Earth.

I know, unlikely but theoretically possible.

In the published list of ways our world could end, Apocalypse via Scientific Experimentation is pretty high up on the list.
 
I am no expert on a lot of things, least of all this, but my gut instinct is that which happens in the relative vacuum of space would not necessarily get the same result in atmosphere on a planet. I would say it would be akin to the difference between pouring hot grease into water and pouring water into hot grease. There are other factors at play in what ensues.
 
I am no expert on a lot of things, least of all this, but my gut instinct is that which happens in the relative vacuum of space would not necessarily get the same result in atmosphere on a planet. I would say it would be akin to the difference between pouring hot grease into water and pouring water into hot grease. There are other factors at play in what ensues.

Well, it would begin in the super vacuum that is the tubes of the Large Hadron Collider. If the contagion were to continue, instantaneously changing Hadron Collider Atomic Nuclei into more massive pools of Nucleus ( Strange Matter ) by the time it breached the CERN Hadron Collider Walls, the temperature would be akin to the Core Temperature of a massive Neutron Star.

That amount of heat would immediately ignite the atmosphere and as long as there were surrounding atoms and their atomic nuclei, the process would continue. By now it would be growing exponentially and although our atmosphere has the capacity to absorb almost instantly, billions of joules of energy, it wouldn't offer up much of a fight to the presence of " Exotic matter "

There were people that tried to stop the Cern Hadron Collider from starting up for a variety of reasons. Some people thought that we were getting in way over our heads, producing enough energy to fracture Hadron's and imitate processes that usually only happen in the interior of stars.

Personally I'm fascinated by Super colliders and the Cern Hadron Collider has taught us so much about the origins of our Universe.

To get this close to verifying the existence of the Higgs bosun particle is one of mans greatest scientific achievements. It's not celebrated as that because most people don't understand the implications of the discovery.

To understand the Higgs Bosun you have to understand the " standard model". The "Standard Model " speculated that our entire Universe was comprised of 12 different matter particles, and four forces.

The particles are 6 leptons, ( sub atomic particle that makes up electrons and electrino's, the electrons neutrally charged counterpart ) and 6 quarks ( which make up protons and neutrons )

The four forces are " Strong, Weak, Electromagnetic and Gravity " This theory was developed in the early 1970's.

With this model Physicist have been able to predict the existence of particles long before they could be verified.

Well in short Physicist have theorized that the 4 forces all have there own particle, or " Boson", and that's how those forces act upon matter.

But Higgs Boson theory states that all matter that exist in the Universe is without mass UNTIL it passes through a field. That field is known as the Higgs field and it exist throughout the entire Universe.

Anyway, the science doesn't appeal to everyone, but the implications of the existence of this particle explains the fundamental nature of all matter throughout the Universe.

I should have named the Thread. " Cern Hadron Collider: We're all Going to Die "
 
I too am thrilled about the LHC, and what we've learned thus far, albeit somewhat skeptical. I post often at a real science forum, and we get updates on the LHC and other fascinating physics stuff. One little nit pick though. Hawking stated that BH will eventually evaporate, not disintegrate. ;) Disintegration implies that it is destroyed, or split apart and we both know that matter cannot be destroyed. In truth though, I prefer the disintegrate label, as opposed to evaporate, but that's just me. Hawking is a little more well-read on the subject so if he wants to say evaporate, I can live with it. :)

Tim-
 
I too am thrilled about the LHC, and what
we've learned thus far, albeit somewhat skeptical. I post often at a real science forum, and we get updates on the LHC and other fascinating physics stuff. One little nit pick though. Hawking stated that BH will eventually evaporate, not disintegrate. ;) Disintegration implies that it is destroyed, or split apart and we both know that matter cannot be destroyed. In truth though, I prefer the disintegrate label, as opposed to evaporate, but that's just me. Hawking is a little more well-read on the subject so if he wants to say evaporate, I can live with it. :)

Tim-

They've been working on this problem for 40 years and their latest discovery at the LHC is groundbreaking and may finally completely validate the Standard Model.

I've known about the Higgs Field for some time, but actual evidence of the Higgs boson is verification of the existence of the Higgs Field, which gives all particles their mass ( except the particles that have no mass like photons and gluons )

Scientist believe that immediately after the Big Bang ( when our Universe sprang into existence from a singularity ) there were particles zipping around space with no mass until they encountered the Higgs Field.

The Higgs Field is not a force as it cannot accelerate particles, it's Universal field that particles "swim" through and is the reason there is mass in our Universe.

An explanation for the existence of mass but also more evidence that our entire Universe started from a point that was without mass but had infinite gravitational pull.
 
They've been working on this problem for 40 years and their latest discovery at the LHC is groundbreaking and may finally completely validate the Standard Model.

I've known about the Higgs Field for some time, but actual evidence of the Higgs boson is verification of the existence of the Higgs Field, which gives all particles their mass ( except the particles that have no mass like photons and gluons )

Scientist believe that immediately after the Big Bang ( when our Universe sprang into existence from a singularity ) there were particles zipping around space with no mass until they encountered the Higgs Field.

The Higgs Field is not a force as it cannot accelerate particles, it's Universal field that particles "swim" through and is the reason there is mass in our Universe.

An explanation for the existence of mass but also more evidence that our entire Universe started from a point that was without mass but had infinite gravitational pull.

True, and the best layman analogy I've heard is that particles are flying around like sand in a perpetual sifter. The different sized and shape of the sand is analogous to the mass (size and shape) of a particular particle, and the sifter is analogous to the Higgs field. As sand passes through one sifter it can either go through, or is too large and must stay back and attempt to go through another sifter with larger holes. Currently, scientists are exploring this intriguing hypothesis in that there may be more than one field, and each field affects only certain particles or a single particle. Of curse these fundamental particles all still use the 4 forces to come together to play, but their mass is determined by which sifter it can go through. :)


Tim-
 
True, and the best layman analogy I've heard is
that particles are flying around like sand in a perpetual sifter. The different sized and shape of the sand is analogous to the mass (size and shape) of a particular particle, and the sifter is analogous to the Higgs field. As sand passes through one sifter it can either go through, or is too large and must stay back and attempt to go through another sifter with larger holes. Currently, scientists are exploring this intriguing hypothesis in that there may be more than one field, and each field affects only certain particles or a single particle. Of curse these fundamental particles all still use the 4 forces to come together to play, but their mass is determined by which sifter it can go through. :)


Tim-

I think your'e refering to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model which predicts the existence as many as 5 Higgs Bosuns particles.

Supersymmetry is applying the absolute minimal terms to the Standard Model theory .

From what I've read the Higgs Field is the reason some particles have mass in our Universe and yes different particles react differently to the field.


Particles like photons pass right through but all mass that exist in the Universe today stems from particles that recieved their mass by passing through this field almost instantaneously after the Big Bang.

It's why the discovery of the Higgs Boson is assailed as proof that finally unifies the Standard Model. ( Yes I realize they haven't completely Confirmed THAT was the Higgs Bosun.

Theoretically the four forces that make up the Standard Model have Bosons that are specifically attributed to that force ( Strong, Weak, ElectroMagnetic and Gravitational Pull ) which allows those forces to act upon different types of matter.

So IF they did find the Higgs Boson particle one of the things it tells us is that our Universe is now in a meta-stable state and that eventually with enough time here will be a change to a more stable state.

The Higgs theory and the theory of observed mass predicts that somewhere in the cosmos a bubble of stabillity would appear and then it would spread out at light speed changing all matter as we know it until the laws of physics would not apply anymore.
 
Given that CERN has been up and running for a while now, I figure we're safe from doomsday for now.
 
Given that CERN has been up and running for a while now, I figure we're safe from doomsday for now.

The Op's title is more tongue in cheek and NO, I don't expect the CERN Super Collider to be swallowed up into a singularity of it's own making.
 
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