Science types: What does the Hadron collider mean for us?

[Nikki Stone1]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/science/15cern.html?8dpc=&_r=1&pagewanted=print

Big question, I know. Thanks in advance.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. an increase in the energy of the collisions between high energy

protons and anti-protons.

What they seek is what some scientists whimsically call the god particle, because it (the higg's boson) would indicate just how particles have mass.
If found, it would ease the way to finding the TOE and might show a way to determine whether string theory is something that can be tested.

They use a linear accelerator to pump up the protons to a certain level of energy, then, they supersize it, THEN they inject the protons into the circular track, which uses superconducting super cooled magnets to speed it up even more.

[papau]

4. The higgs boson - if found - will certainly answer what question?

Q: Why do things fall?
A: because there is gravity
Q: How does gravity work
A: Higg's Boson
Q: What gives a Higg's Boson it's properties?
A: ???

A fantasy particle needed to make a certain idea work. It's mass and energy has to be continually adjusted upwards as it never turns up in any colliders where predicted -The upper bound for the Higgs is about 200GeV. The claim is that if it's not found by the LHC, it doesn't exist. Previous experiments have been "moving the lower bound for it's mass" - currently at about 114GeV.The main conceptual problem of Higgs boson is, it doesn't explain the origin of mass, it just transfers the explanation to the hypothetical Higgs fields concept. The Higgs model of classical physic always requires the presence of inertial Higgs lattice. I am curious how string theory will have predictions verified by finding such a particle.

An undefined mathematical procedure where the integrands don't satisfy the requirements to be directly integrable that require renormalising the results

I'll stick to my actuarial world and let others tell me about the rewind time world.

[wtmusic]

5. Never before in the history of physics

has the theoretical been so far ahead of the empirical. "A fantasy designed to make a certain idea work" is string theory in a nutshell.

And ideas like "The claim is that if it's not found by the LHC, it doesn't exist" should be a red flag that truth isn't being sought, but funding.

[papau]

12. I agree - more like a 50's meeting of a sci-fi club than science - string theory meets

zero point energy(?) and the vacuum expectation value/condensate and Quantum chromodynamics condensates go non-scalar so Lorentz symmetry violation will be observed - and string theory is some how confirmed?

I feel like the shadow of myself, but I'm not because those curled up dimensions don't throw shadows.
Two thousand six hundred years ago the Greeks pondered "what is real - what is reality" - and I am not sure we have progressed much beyond where they were.

I did not understand the math's physical world implications for experiment design 40 years ago - and I do not understand it now - so if a funding request came in and that was my job, my reaction would be - here - take the money. I am so stuck in the 19th century- sigh..... :-(

But it is fun to read about - just like those sci-fi club meetings and books were back in the 50's.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. I believe that the scene at the end of

the movie Men in Black explains our universe perfectly.


that, and the spaghetti monster.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. So it's how we go from energy to matter?

Hmm..

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. for that we need jerry falwell. Damn, too late.

oh well.

[Nikki Stone1]

13. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D

[harlinchi]

2. It means a mach-15 jet is on the way and the Cardinals should...

be careful! (kidding, of course. referring to 'Angels and Demons')

[SoCalDem]

3. Sounds like a car for California commuters n/t

[guitar man]

8. I must be getting dyslexic in my old age

I misread the thread title and was scratching my head for a minute :wtf:

I couldn't see where colliding two of those could be a benifit to science :rofl:


sorry, carry on :evilgrin:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. are you asking what a hadron collider is?

Or what it means for you, outcome wise?

[Deja Q]

11. When I see a hot lookin' person, my hadron wants to collide!

:spray:

Why isn't this in the Lounge? :cry: