Triumf
Giant atom-smashing experiment could alter our understanding of the universe
Sat Aug 23, 11:18 AM
By Sean Patrick Sullivan, The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Canadian scientists at the forefront of the world's largest science experiment say discoveries made by a giant atom-smasher now whirring deep under European soil could radically alter our understanding of the universe.
In experiments beginning next month, the $10-billion Large Hadron Collider will re-create what happened in the split second after the Big Bang, mind-bending science that may shatter existing theories of physics and prompt the discovery of new particles and unknown dimensions.
It's also designed to prove the existence of the theoretical Higgs boson, once dubbed the God particle, that is theorized to give mass to everything in the universe. The particle is key to the standard model of physics, yet has never been observed.
The first test-runs to circulate a beam in the collider begin on Sept. 10, leading to the first collisions in late October and early November.
Nigel Lockyer, director of Canada's TRIUMF national particle and nuclear physics laboratory at the University of British Columbia, said the endeavour could also produce tiny black holes and shed light on the existence of dark energy and dark matter.
"We're on the edge of a major breakthrough in understanding the universe," Lockyer said in an interview at TRIUMF's sprawling compound at the university.
This breakthrough may come from this massive experiment 100 metres under the French-Swiss border, where the particle accelerator essentially lets scientists smash parts of atoms together at blinding speed and study the resulting mess.
The world's largest scientific instrument will use unprecedented amounts of energy to shoot two clouds of protons, with trillions of the particles in each cloud, around a 27-kilometre long circular tube.
The clouds collide at almost the speed of light, blowing the protons to smithereens and - ideally - offering a treasure trove of discoveries.
"We'll know what's out there. We'll know what to do for the rest of our lives," said Isabel Trigger, lead scientist for TRIUMF's contribution to the project.
Canadian researchers built components for part of the project. ATLAS is a soda-can-shaped detector that's roughly half a football field long and weighs 7,000 tonnes.
It will analyze the aftermath of the particle collisions and then ship data out to 10 labs worldwide, including TRIUMF, for years of analysis.
Five university sites - the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta in Edmonton and McGill University in Montreal - will crunch the data produced by TRIUMF.
More than 2,500 scientists and engineers from 35 countries helped build ATLAS, and TRIUMF's contribution of parts and expertise has given Canadian scientists access to the massive machine.
"We want our scientists to be involved in the leading project in this field in the world," Lockyer said.
The demand to work on this "mind-bending science" has been so great that TRIUMF has been turning away eager physics students, he said.
And while the mere mention of protons may invoke dreadful memories of high school science classes for some, the technology that powers electronics such as iPods and digital memory chips all owe a debt to physics advances such as this one, not to mention that the World Wide Web was created at CERN, the research centre hosting the particle collider.
"It's where science has been driving us for the last two or three hundred years," Trigger said.
"Asking basic questions: How does electricity work? How do magnets work? When you understand the connection between those different forces, suddenly you can make TVs and cellphones.
"You put that together and you understand something deeper and something more profound."
A number of fantastical discoveries could come from the experiments, but the crown jewel for scientists is the Higgs boson, the yet-unseen particle.
Though the detectors can't see the Higgs, which decays into other particles in a tiny fraction of a second, physicist Rob McPherson said scientists can infer its existence by measuring how those new particles react.
"It's different than any particle we've seen so far. If it doesn't exist, all of our theories of physics start to break," said McPherson, also with ATLAS-Canada.
