Earth Will Survive After All

This came out last Friday, but I've only finished reading the whole thing just now. As reported in The NY Times today, all the concerned regarding the safety of our Earth due to the LHC has no significant probability of happening. This is based on the report that was released a few days ago.

And note the argument that I've used all along from the Auger Observatory results.

Do I think this will silenced all those doomsday-sayers? Nope, because most of them have already made up their minds with their so-called "facts". They'll still be singing the same tune even 10 years after LHC has gone into operation, because people never learn. A few of the people that I know will probably be at there when the LHC begins not only the first particle beam this July, but also the first collision, which from what I've been told, probably will begin in Sept. I told everyone to take some pictures, especially if a black hole starts appearing. I want to be the first to post a picture of a black hole swallowing up a part of Earth!

:)

Zz.

EDIT: The preprint by Giddings and Mangano has now appeared on ArXiv.

http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.3381

The abstract is VERY clear:

Abstract: We analyze macroscopic effects of TeV-scale black holes, such as could possibly be produced at the LHC, in what is regarded as an extremely hypothetical scenario in which they are stable and, if trapped inside Earth, begin to accrete matter. We examine a wide variety of TeV-scale gravity scenarios, basing the resulting accretion models on first-principles, basic, and well-tested physical laws. These scenarios fall into two classes, depending on whether accretion could have any macroscopic effect on the Earth at times shorter than the Sun's natural lifetime. We argue that cases with such effect at shorter times than the solar lifetime are ruled out, since in these scenarios black holes produced by cosmic rays impinging on much denser white dwarfs and neutron stars would then catalyze their decay on timescales incompatible with their known lifetimes. We also comment on relevant lifetimes for astronomical objects that capture primordial black holes. In short, this study finds no basis for concerns that TeV-scale black holes from the LHC could pose a risk to Earth on time scales shorter than the Earth's natural lifetime. Indeed, conservative arguments based on detailed calculations and the best-available scientific knowledge, including solid astronomical data, conclude, from multiple perspectives, that there is no risk of any significance whatsoever from such black holes.

Any challenges MUST be done with physics, using at least the same level of meticulous study, and not by a series of quotations attributed via 2nd hand information from other people.

Peter Higgs on the Dawn of the LHC

I mentioned earlier of an article referring to Peter Higgs and the impetus for him to come up the Higgs mechanism. One doesn't hear much about Higgs since he's a very low-key individual. So it is rather nice to read about him and what he's up to nowadays, especially on his recent visit to CERN. This news article is basically an update on him especially with regards to the LHC about to be powered up.

Zz.

Behind a Scientific Success, a Failed Texas Experiment

As the dawn of the LHC is upon us and the excitement growing by the day, a relic of what could have been the most powerful particle collider ever built sat decaying and gathering dusts in Texas. This article looks back at the debacle that was the Superconducting Supercollider what was supposed to be built just outside of Dallas.

The Tevatron ring measures about 4 miles in circumference. The SSC ring was to have been 54 miles in circumference, producing collisions 20 times more intense than the Tevatron.

The new European accelerator, called the Large Hadron Collider, will not be as powerful as the mighty SSC would have been. The Large Hadron Collider's ring, about 17 miles in circumference, should be capable of producing collisions about one-third as powerful.

The collapse of the SSC is also an example on how politics got into the way of a science project, especially in how Fermilab lost the opportunity to build it there. It also shows very clearly for the first time that physicists are not united behind such huge and horribly expensive machine. Phil Anderson, for example, testified on why he was opposed to such a facility.

The SSC would have made the LHC moot. However, the SSC collapse has also foreign partnerships with the US more weary about the US commitment to such endeavor. The recent budget cutbacks on the ILC and ITER only reinforced such point of view.

Zz.

Accelerator Disaster Scenarios, the Unabomber, and Scientific Risks

I just want to say that I had a lot of fun reading this preprint by Joseph Kapusta. It is entertaining, insightful, and has a ton of information for both scientists and non-scientists alike. It reinforces the point that I've been trying to make, which is the constant miscommunication between scientists and non-scientists. The blame goes on both sides - scientists for not considering how what they say is being interpreted by the public, and the public for not self-educating themselves into trying to understand not just the science, but the vocabulary that science uses. Not being aware that there are discontinuity in the communications and understanding of the two parties is the first significant problem. This is also a very good opportunity to again highlights the wonderful essay written by Helen Quinn that I've mentioned a while back. Everyone should read it!

If you have some time, I'd recommend reading this article by Kapusta, even for just for its "storytelling" aspect.

Zz.

Thousands Showed Up for CERN's Open House

Fifty thousand, to be exact. It was the last time the public will get to see many parts of the facility before they are closed down for the expected start-up in July. I suppose all the brouhaha about CERN and the black hole creation created even more publicity and even more interest in it.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, start your engine!

Zz.

Follow-Up To The LHC Lawsuit

I was reading Bob Park's entry (April 4, 2008) of this LHC lawsuit yesterday, and it brought back memories of the almost-identical issue being faced when RHIC was about to start up. It was such a brouhaha that even Comedy Central covered it! :)

It is worthwhile to note of the in-depth study that was done at that time to dispel the myth that RHIC would create not only black holes in its collisions, but a catastrophic one. And unlike the joker who filed that lawsuit, this scenario was brought up not by an ignorant individual, but rather by a few physicists themselves. So certainly it warranted a careful consideration.

However, there were two different issues involved here. The first was the careful study of the claims made within the scenario, i.e. can there be a catastrophic creation of blackholes that could spell disaster. This was easily dispelled because of the existence of the moon (you'll have to read the full report). The second one was more difficult to explain to the general public. In many instances in physics, we see different phenomena that share the same mathematical description or formulation. The similarities of the mathematics from some aspect of condensed matter physics and elementary particle physics is one example. This is again what happened in a RHIC blackhole scenario. The problem here is that once that comparison got out, it caught fire among the media and the general public, who weren't able to know the significance of such a comparison. All they see is the "headlines" of blackholes being created, and that's that.

Again, this is where, if one doesn't have the necessary knowledge to decipher the information, one can be easily mislead by news reports. Sometime, it is the fault of scientists themselves for sensationalizing the issue (example: quantum teleportation, and anything Michio Kaku has written in his latest pop-science book). The public does not have the understanding and the formalism in mind when they read these things, unlike physicists. All they can do is associate what they read with what they know, and what they know come mostly from the media, TV, movies, etc. So it should not be a surprise that they can't tell the different between the "quantum teleportation" as a demonstration of quantum entanglement, and the teleportation they saw in Star Trek. When you use the same word, you should expect the pedestrian meaning of it to dominate, where it is accurate or not.

Zz.

Addendum: Looks like the Editorial in the NY Times has it right.

More than once over the years we have felt as if we were transported to another universe listening to lawyers and judges wield the complexities and arcana of their trade. It would be fun to watch them struggle with theoretical physics. But if the courts have any sense, they will drop this suit into the nearest black hole.

Lawsuit: Huge Atom Smasher Could Destroy World

This news has been making the rounds around various blogs and news wires. A couple of wackos have decided to file a lawsuit against the US Dept. of Energy (DOE) and CERN to stop them from building the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

I debated on whether I want to dignify this stupidity by reporting it on here. But then again, it is going to be reported anyway. This news report has some brief description of the background of the yoohoos that filed the lawsuit.

Not included among the documents is Wagner's own indictment last month on identity-theft charges tied to an ongoing legal battle over a botanical garden on the Big Island of Hawaii, but you can read about that here.

Most physicists say Wagner's worries are unfounded. Micro black holes would evaporate nearly instantly instead of combining to form larger ones, they say, and the "strangelet" particles he frets would freeze the world would in fact fall apart quickly.

Wagner's own background is a bit fuzzy. He claims to have minored in physics at U.C. Berkeley, gone to law school, taught elementary-school science and worked in nuclear medicine at health facilities — but he doesn't appear to have an advanced degree in science.

Sancho's qualifications are even murkier, but the lawsuit identifies him as a Spanish citizen residing in the U.S., even if his presence makes the entire case a bit, um, quixotic.

And before someone accuse me of simply trying to attack the credibility of the wackos rather than address the "physics", let me point one very glaring and important observation here. There are already extremely energetic particles colliding with other particles in our universe. For example, the recent Auger Observatory results studied the origin of the these cosmic particles, that have energies in the 100's of TeV, something that CERN cannot even come close to. These particles have been around for million (even billions) of years, and have made gazillions of collisions. If such high energy collisions can create blackholes, we would have been swallowed and destroy by them already by now. Hello? Is this not obvious?

It looks like the crackpots are now getting a bit more daring. But now, rather than just being an internet nuisance, they are now being a pain-in-the-rear-end with their frivolous lawsuits. So anyone who thinks that these crackpots are just a "harmless" bunch of losers, think again. They're still losers, but they're definitely not always harmless.

Zz.

Under Control: Keeping the LHC Beams on Track

While people do have some idea of the size and the complexity of the LHC, most do not have a good 'scale' of the issues involved here. There are some astounding issues and problems that they have to deal with. Keeping the LHC beam under control, and what to do when it veers off course is a major issue.

This article tries to impart some idea on the control and contingency issues of the LHC beam. For example:

The complexity means that repairs of any damaged equipment will take a long time. For example, it will take about 30 days to change a superconducting magnet. Then there is the question of damage if systems go wrong. The energy stored in the beams and magnets is more than twice the levels of other machines. That accumulated in the beam could, for example, melt 500 kg of copper. All of this means that the LHC machine must be protected at all costs. If an incident occurs during operation, it is critical that it is possible to determine what has happened and trace the cause. Moreover, operation should not resume if the machine is not back in a good working state.

So this is not case where you can just simply pull the switch if something goes wrong. They have to make sure they dump the beam properly without causing damage to all the components along the ring.

This is, of course, a common issue at large particle accelerator facilities, including the Tevatron. I am still at awed at some of the things they are able to do, and at the scale that they are doing in. I some time wish the most of the general public has some clue on the level of complexity and the accomplishments at just being able to run such an experiment.

Zz.

The LHC As A Time Machine?

Report on this has been circulating the news wire for a few days ever since the silly editors at New Scientists proclaimed that it can happen (shall I mention for the gazillion'th time why I consider New Scientist as the science's supermarket tabloid?). I suppose when colliders like RHIC didn't actually produce blackholes, some people need to come up with other more creative ways to get them free publicity. So why not a wormhole?

We finally have a sensible article that discusses this. Still, the crackpots of the world are already rejoicing and jumping all over this.

Zz.

Entering The Higgs Habitat

This is an article from Symmetry on the physics of the Higgs boson, and the search for it. It is nicely done at a very elementary level that most people without a physics background can possibly understand.

So if you know of someone who is curious on what's the big deal with the Higgs, the Tevatron, the LHC, etc., then this might be the article you want to him to him/her.

Zz.

Higgs Hiding in Plain Sight?

Could the Higgs already have been discovered and no one knew it?

Not likely, but with a headline like that, who can resist reading it? A Science news article reports on a paper that proposes that a very light "Higgs" may already be in the data as far back as the LEP at CERN, and could be hiding in the data from the Tevatron.

But experimenters may have already overlooked a Higgs particle, argues theorist Chien-Peng Yuan of Michigan State University in East Lansing and his colleagues. They considered the simplest possible supersymmetric theory. Ordinarily, theorists assume that the lightest of theory's five Higgses is the one that drags on the W and Z. Those interactions then feed back on Higgs and push its mass above 121 times the mass of the proton, the highest mass searched for at CERN's Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider, which ran from 1989 to 2000. But it's possible that the lightest Higgs weighs as little as 65 times the mass of a proton and has been missed, Yuan and colleagues argue in a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters.

Unfortunately, this may not be the Higgs that everyone is looking for. It seems that this Higgs does not endow any mass to the W and Z, since it doesn't couple to them.

However, this lightweight Higgs is not exactly the Higgs everyone is looking for, says Marcela Carena, a theorist at Fermilab. "The Higgs they are talking about is not the one responsible for giving mass to the W and Z," she says. It can't be because it hardly interacts with those particles, Carena says. Indeed, in Yuan's model, the role of mass-giver falls to one of the heavier Higgses, which is still heavier than the LEP limit, she notes.

Oy!

Zz.

String Theory In the Era Of The Large Hadron Collider

Whether you buy into String Theory or not, this is a good article to read in this month's issue of Physics Today. Michael Dine discusses the issues surrounding String Theory, and whether the LHC can produce anything to verify String Theory.

Zz.

New Particle Accelerator To Be Built In Germany

Without much fanfare, and without much fuss, a new particle accelerator will be built in Germany. Named the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), it will cost a total of $1.7 billion.

One of its goals is to try and recreate the conditions during the Big Bang.

"This laboratory will be recreating a mini version of the Big Bang," Horst Stöcker, scientific director of the German Society for Heavy Ion Research (GSI), which will oversee the facility, told the news agency DPA. "The substance we will be making resembles that in the first microseconds of the Big Bang, when it was a million times hotter than the center of the sun. We're talking a million times 10 million degrees Celsius."

How will this new accelerator differ than the LHC being constructed at CERN?

The project differs from the massive new particle accelerator currently nearing completion at CERN near Geneva in Switzerland in that it will focus more on the intensity of its particle beam rather than on the speed achieved. The CERN project, which hopes to begin experiments in 2008, hopes to find subatomic particles and antiparticles to help provide evidence backing up string theory.

I wish the process in building the International Linear Collider (ILC) is as unfussy as this. Unfortunately, with a $10 billion price tag, the ILC is naturally more complicated and more involved.

Zz.

Postcards From the LHC

I like pictures, don't you?

Here are some rather cool pictures from the LHC. While the pictures can't do justice in terms of the size and scale of some of these things, one can still have some idea of how large these things are.

Zz.

US/LHC

The US Dept. of Energy has produced a website that highlights the contribution from the US in the building of the LHC. While the mission is rather narrow, the website actually has quite a lot of information on the LHC itself, including various blogs of people directly involved in it. Besides, there's plenty of neat pictures there that give you a sense of scale on the size of these detectors, especially ATLAS.

Zz.

Multiple Problems Push LHC Start to Next Spring

So one can't just blame it on the failure of the superconducting magnet made by Fermilab! :)

This is a rather good summary of the reasons for the delay in the start up of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Still, for something this huge, the delay is not unexpected, but it will be costly.

Zz.

Fears Over Factoids

I always try to play close attention to the bastardization of physics in the media. This time, Frank Close of Oxford University takes on two myths that have been popularized on the BBC TV program "Horizon". He debunked the myth of destructive black holes being created at the LHC, and the mining of He3 for fusion reactors.

This is a good one and clearly shows that if one doesn't understand the subtlety in the physics, one would be fooled into being convinced by false information.

Zz.

Nature Insight: The Large Hadron Collider

The new issue of Nature (19 July 2007) has an extensive special section on the LHC. So don't miss it if you have a subscription or access to it. If you don't, there are two articles that are available for free from this website, so you can still read a little bit on it. But get the whole coverage if you can.

Zz.

The Compact Muon Solenoid

This is an MSNBC news article on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), which is one of the massive detector at the LHC at CERN.

"It is the heaviest scientific experiment ever," said Steven Nahn, a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is a member of the CMS research team.

To call this contraption "compact" seems like a gross misnomer: The CMS is compact only in relation to its rival sibling, the ATLAS detector, which is roughly twice as large but only half as massive. The contrasts in the weights and dimensions hint at the different designs for ATLAS and CMS - two detectors that are designed to probe the same types of subatomic mysteries.

If you ever had the chance to see one of these beast yourself, don't miss that opportunity. It is quite impressive.

Zz.

Unparticle Physics

Hum... looks like this is another theory that could possibly be tested with the LHC (I think they need to start putting out the "Now Serving...." number machine there at CERN).

In scale-invariant theory—where objects don’t change when their dimensional qualities are multiplied by a rescaling parameter—the concept of particles doesn’t work because most particles have a definite nonzero mass. In quantum mechanics, this isn’t a problem because the standard model does not have scale-invariance. But Georgi suggests that there could be an undiscovered sector of the standard model that is exactly scale-invariant.

Zz.