Scientists hope the world's most powerful atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, will unlock the secrets of the elusive 'God Particle' when switched on later this year.
Credit: CERN
PARIS: The boundaries of knowledge in particle physics look set to be broken soon with scientists around the globe locked in a multi-billion-dollar race to solve two great mysteries.
Their quest: find the secrets of dark matter and the 'God particle' - a sub-atomic particle that is fundamental to understanding the nature of matter, but so elusive that, physicists quip, it can only be compared to divinity.
Last week, an international consortium stepped up the pace by announcing in Beijing, China, a design for the world's most expensive atom smasher - the US$6.7 billion (AU$8.6 billion) International Linear Collider (ILC).
In a double tunnel 31 kilometres long, particle physicists would collide electrons and their antimatter opposites, positrons, at energies of 500 billion electron volts.
The scheme - which could be extended to 50 kilometres and a trillion electron volts - will hurl these particles at close to the speed of light.
The resultant collision could unlock dark matter and dark energy, the invisible, enigmatic substances that together are thought to comprise 96 per cent of the mass of the universe.
Engineering studies for the ILC will start later this year with the idea of making a decision in 2010 on whether to press ahead with building the machine. If all goes well, ground will be broken in 2012 and the collider itself will be fired up at the end of the next decade.
"The ILC probably represents the maximum that can be achieved with this type of technology," said Guy Wormser, head of France's Linear Accelerator Laboratory, who took part in the Beijing meeting.
Scientists in the U.S. and Europe, meanwhile, are grappling to be first to detect the most eagerly-sought particle in physics - the Higgs Boson. Construed in the 1960s by a British physicist, Peter Higgs, the Boson is thought to exist in an all-pervading field, giving all other particles their mass.
If the Higgs exists, it would fill a worrying gap in the Standard Model, the century-old notional structure for describing the fundamental nature of matter. But if the Higgs doesn't exist, it will be back to the drawing board.
The Europeans are months away from switching on the world's most powerful smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is being built at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland, using a 26-kilometre underground ring.
The LHC will whizz protons, which are far heavier particles than electrons, to energies of up to 14 trillion electron volts.
Until a few months ago, it seemed that the prize of the Higgs would almost certainly go to the LHC. It alone had the power to explore the theorised particle's mass, which was deemed to be a maximum of 166 giga-electron volts (GeV).
But researchers at the Tevatron collider, at the famous Fermilab facility near Chicago in the U.S., believe they could be in with a chance. New calculations suggest that the upper limit for the Higgs is 153 GeV, which is within the Tevatron's range.
Meanwhile, physicists at Stanford University in California said they have conducted an experiment that proves the viability of a low-cost collider technology called a plasma accelerator.
Instead of using a giant magnet and a huge tunnel to accelerate the particles, their accelerator uses a tunnel just three kilometres long to speed up a beam of electrons.
By passing the electrons through a cloud of ionised gas, or plasma, that is just one metre across, the team were able to double the particle's energy - a massive booster effect, they report in the British journal Nature.
Only a tiny fraction of the electrons in the beam were accelerated this way, though, and the beam itself is not 'concentrated' enough to get a good yield of particle collisions.
According to Wormser, "Plasma accelerators are a promising technology and may be the solution for the future, but on a timescale of 20 to 25 years at least."
"Dark Matter is GOD"
They'll be preaching this at church soon, right after they give you the Jesus blood to improve your spiritual journey.
Why?
Honestly this is a bad idea, and could be the end of the world. Isnt it better to live not knowing then to destroy the world and know how the universe began? Is it really that important?
Dark matter, Higgs boson, and consciousness
I find it amazing how whenever humanity is on the verge of new knowledge, there is so many people who evoke apocalyptic fears. Perhaps we are all deeply concerned about the state of the planet – global warming, nuclear bombs, etc. – that having a fear of impending apocalypse is natural or at least understandable. In any case…
I would like to consider another alternative. Instead of thinking dark matter or the Higgs boson are “God” and thus by our trying to detect it we are closing in on some apocalyptic prophesy, why don’t we consider contemplating these potential physical entities in an area of science that is also a great unknown: the nature of consciousness? There are those who think consciousness has some elemental existence, that it is tied in with quantum physics in some way. What if dark matter and/or the Higgs boson somehow are related to consciousness? Could we be getting close to detecting this? If consciousness is somehow “primary” (which many feel possible), then why wouldn’t it be somehow detectable by means other than our own subjectivity?
Now, I realize having consciousness as “primary” is only one possible solution to the problem of consciousness. I’m not saying it is the correct one. It’s just that if we are getting to the place of detecting such elemental aspects of existence, and if consciousness is one of them, perhaps we are detecting it per se.
Nathan
why are you trying to create that thing
why are you trying to create something that can kill people and is not even your problem if god wanted you to know something about the universe he wopuld have tell this long time ago
Blurred out
Many of the facts are always being moved out of the way by superstitious beliefs. Pretty much all beliefs which seem unrealistic and impossible in the real world are not true. At least in science everything is tested. With anything else, if it is presented in a certain way, nearly anybody will believe regardless if it is true or not.
what's safe?
if we as humans only did and questioned when it was safe , just where do you think we'd be now? like someone said in an earlier comment "it's already here so let's just find out " i'm paraphrasing but, these experiments could answer so many questions how could anyone pass up this chance .
Dark matter and god particle.
How did u guys come up with this idea?
i wonder whether scientists read fantasy books like angels and demons cause i do remember reading about some such theory in it.
they both have the same idea.
i just want to know whether this project is something like the one where they (the scientist) announced that they are going to create a invisibility cloak like the one mentioned is harry potter book.
THATS Y GOD IS.......GOD!!
God is in control of everything and all things- he is in all things and all things are in him - he is everywhere all the time - GOD has been & is since b4 time and space - stars & galaxies - he is ever lasting - He is God who created us and all things - does a computer asks itself - where do I come from and how did this desk that I am on come to be? - and u know whats amazing abt God - he has given us a free will to choose whatever we want to be think and do(no gun to head telling you you will do as I say or else) - GOD is GOD - so when ask why.....Gods answer is simple cause I can
Scientists have already admitted that God is GOD in a manner of speaking.......Y because of this fact = 'THE GOD PARTICLE '(Dark Matter) - I arrest my case
Y GOD IS GOD.......
GOD is not a GOD of = I'll take a shot in the dark and hope for the best GOD - He is organised - he planned everyhthing to the last detail - he is perfect and good to the end
Scientists already admitted in a way that he is GOD = by referring to dark matter as the ' GOD PARTICLE ' so do all the experiments and test and calculations and spend all that good money & time as you want - but no man will ever get to the answer purely because you are not and will never be on GOD's level - he is GOD and he can do whatever he wants to - wouldn't you if you were GOD?
u know what is sooooo amazing abt GOD and he's relationship with Man? - GOD gives us a free will - to do as we please-no gun to our heads telling us "you will do as I say when & where" - if u feel/believe that there is no God then by all means - do so