However, by the late twentieth century, scientists realized the complexity of the subato ic particles and that these fundamental particles were made up of even smaller particles The device used to reveal these even smaller particles is called a partic accelerator, which takes a small particle, such as a proton or electron, and get it to smash into an atom at close to the speed of light. It is the same as taking a machine and breaking it to see what was inside. The only way to collide highenergy particles in the 1 920s was through the use of cosmic rays.
Earth is always hit with cosmic rays, so scienti sts conducted experiments on mountain tops where they were more common. With a particleaccelerator, the particle is pushed through a series of electromagnets and accelerates until it hits a target on the other end. Once the particles hits the ta rget, what was inside can now be observed. Borai 2 particle accelerators are laid out in a straight line, which was far too long and unwieldy for labs during that early time period.
Ernest Lawrence, an American physicist, wanted to overcome this problem and realized that by making it circular, he c ould accelerate a particle in a much more compact accelerator. The circular acceler ator, called a “cyclotron”. ould be set between two poles of an electromagnet in which t he charged proton would be held while moving in a spiral path. Lawrence won the 1 939 N obel peace Prize in physics for inventing a method for creating highenergy particles witho ut the high voltages and a particle accelerator that can fit in a laboratory.
Particle accelerators grew much larger in the second part of the twentieth cen tury and were used to discover the inner workings of the atom. This lead to the dis covery that here were more fundamental particles than the proton, electron, and the neu tron;quarks nd leptons were even smaller particles. particle accelerators have confirmed theories of the standard model of the atoms as well as opening new fields of research. The Large Hadron Collider, with a circumference of sixteen and a half miles, i the largest particle accelerator in existence, crossing the border of France wit h Switzerland four times.
It is so gargantuan that anybody can enter it in one co untry and leave the facility in a totally different country. Physicists at the European Orga nization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN, are attempting to recreate the con ditions ust after the big bang at the beginning of the universe with the Large Hadron Collider. It took hundreds of scientists from different countries all over the world to com e together to design, plan, and build this complex machine. The cost for materials and man power was over five billion dollars.
The LHC circulated protons for the first time on Septe mber 19, 2008, with about one billion people watching the switchon live worldwide. The circular tunnel of the collider contains two beam pipes that run parallel but intersect at four different points. During the experiments, each pipe has a beam of small parti les; the particles either moving clockwise or counterclockwise. The protons at the opp osing beams collide at the intersections while moving as fast as the speed of light. s ome experiments have ions collide, for example, heavy lead ions.
The collisions release concentrated energy that imitates the same conditions of the aftermath of the big bang at the beginning of the universe, when there are th ought to have been different types of shortlived particles and quarkgluon plasma( a highly e nergized form of matter that contains unbound quarks and gluons, believed to have be en present en millionths of a second after the big bang), and antimatter, a subject scienti Sts know little of. Particle detectors in the intersection points of the beam pipes look fo r new, different types of particles, the origins of mass, extra dimensions, antimatter, quarkgluon plasma.
Physicists also predict that the collider may produce tiny black holes. The black holes in outer space are formed when enough matter from o ne or more collapsing stars are squashed into a small enough, compact space to reach cri tical density. The same critical density can be reached if two particles are slammed violentl y together ith the help of the Large Hadron Collider, according to theory by the scientis ts. Luckily for us, since black holes would rip us into tiny particles, it will immediately eva porate.
The Large Hadron Collider has helped discredit theories or support them wit evidence from the experiments that take place. It has made a variety of new d iscoveries in the recent years and opened new fields of studies for physicists on the origins Of the universe. Currently, the Large Hadron Collider has discovered the “God particl Or Higgs boson, which was confirmed by scientists at the CERN on July 4th, 2012. The Higgs boson, named after British physicist Peter Higgs, is an elementary partic Ie in the Standard Model of Particle physics.
It is significant because it proves that our understanding of the basic workings of the universe is true and accurate. The Higgs boson opens up its own field of research for scientists to figure out why there is more matter than antimatter, mass, and the reason for the great amount of dark m atter in the universe. On May 24, 201 1, it was reported that the densest matter, quark gluon, which even more dense than black holes, has been created in the Large Hadron Coll der. The Large Hadron Collider also helped with the advancement of supersymmetry, nicknamed SUSY.
SUSY is a theory that deals with issues such as why there is mass for so particles and what composes dark matter, Physicists hope that the Large Had ron Collider will further support the theory of SUSY with evidence from the experiments c on ducted. In 2013, the machine made physicists doubt their theory in the Standard mod el. The decay of a particle, Bmeson into Kmeson, did not follow the pattern predicted by the standard model. The Large Hadron Collider has proved and disproved parts 0 the standard model.
The Large Hadron Collider is considered controversial for a plethora of reaso ns; a few people believe that it undermines religion and that it has the potential to cause a great disaster and destroy the planet if anything goes wrong. Some fear that the tin y black holes that are created when the protons smash up together might envelope the pla net; however, the CERN discredits such accusations. The scientists themselves do not know what they might discover with the Large Hadron Collider, and, as a result, people believe that cientists might be getting into something much bigger than what they presu med.
The Citizens Against The Large Hadron Collider, a nonprofit organization, is curren pursuing legal actions to prevent the use of the Large Hadron Collider until sa fety tests are performed. The Higgs boson, also nicknamed the “God particle” gives the credit for the creation to the universe to science, not God. Such religious opposition wa s a main theme of the film Angels and Demons(2009). In 2008, security concerns were raised when hackers attacked the Large Hadron Collider, a dangerous machine to pu t into the hands of criminals.
