The Large Hadron Collider is now officially the world's most powerful particle accelerator
Posted 04.22.2011 at 12:59 pm
8 Comments
Particles Collide Like Fireworks
Lucas Taylor via Wikimedia
The LHC smashed a record-breaking number of particles at midnight Geneva time last night, setting a new standard for beam intensity. CERN replaced Fermilab’s former record of 4.024 × 1032cm-2s-1 with a smug 4.67 × 1032cm-2s-1. That’s a lot of zeros, ranging somewhere in the billions of billions. Of billions.
What do all those zeros really mean? Like in a game of molecular bowling, the LHC’s hunt for the Higgs boson depends on a high number of collisions. But in this game, when the ball hits the pins, it creates bright lights--the brighter the lights, the more potential collisions. A strike would look like a blazing solar explosion, while a gutter ball would look depressingly dark.
This beam intensity record is a strike, but the game isn’t over. CERN scientists is bowling for data, hoping to prove the existence of the Higgs boson, a theoretical molecule thought to give mass to all the other particles. Last night’s smash means a lot more data, which brings the LHC a frame closer to their goal.
The collider will continue running until the end of this year, when it will take a well-deserved break.
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You go, large hadron collider, you go!
Yes, But did they get as smashed as I did that night in Missoula?
"...hoping to prove the existence of the Higgs boson, a theoretical molecule thought to give mass..."
Do you mean „Particle” and not „Molecule“?
Also, I am bit surprised that exponents and units for a publicaiton like Popular Science are written as
4.024 × 1032cm-2s-1
I think instead of "CERN scientists is bowling for data" you mean "CERN scientists are bowling for data."
Subject verb agreement. Awesome to know, though!
The discovery of gravity’s exact mechanism along with that of dark matter has already taken place, way back in fall 2010. It is impossible to find any traces of Higgs boson as a QCD particle in the Hadron collider, neither can it show the existence of dark matter. The details of my discovery of how gravitation exactly works, www.anadish.com , and how it is produced in the framework of quantum mechanics are lying in wraps with the USPTO and I can only make it entirely public after there is clarity on how the USPTO is going to settle the issue of secrecy on my application. I consciously did not report to any peer-reviewed journal, fearing discrimination and possible piracy, because of my non-institutional status as a researcher. However, if the USPTO also continues with their non-committal secrecy review under LARS Level 2, then, anyway, my discovery may not get published for a long time to come, in spite of me having filed the US patent application (US 13/045,558) on March 11, 2011, after filing a mandatory Indian patent application on January 11, 2011.
They can keep smashing apart atoms all they want. I doubt they will find the elusive Higgs boson…because it doesn’t exist. They will find new particles…but theoretically, what holds the nucleus together and gives the nucleus mass is a mini-black hole in the center of all atoms.
http://users.accesscomm.ca/john/
@QLLL: That was funny XD.
Anyway, is anyone else worried they are going to cause some kind of supernova or black hole or nuclear world kerplosion?.... Just saying..... ▲Bruno▲
thats the most idiotic thing ive ever heard. atoms are NOT held to gether black holes. Wheres the sense in that? they make us up. and, a supernova is an explosion of a large star, not of a minute particle. Even if it did create a black hole, atomicfedora, it would be smaller than picoscopic, and would last for less than one billionth of a billionth of a millionth seconds.