Cern? New Particle? Maybe....

Not so long ago we were watching CERN do it's thing and crunch it's numbers - hunting for the elusive Higgs Boson particle.   When confirmed it seemed most of the research community had a collective release, followed almost immediately with a "now what?"

I have to step back here with an observation.  Many of the news outlets treat a possible discovery as the real thing.  Not a maybe but an IS.  

Case in point.  Once the H.B. was confirmed, the data was re-examined for data that seemed to point towards another much more complex particle.   Nothing was confirmed but the data suggested a follow on particle, nothing was confirmed though.   So you can imagine my consternation when I was informed that CERN indeed HAS discovered a new ultra dense particle, leaving Higgs Boson in some sort of particle physics, jerk water by-way, buuuuuuuuuuut..... 

Reading the Wired UK article  - The team at Switzerland's Cern Large Hadron Collider may have discovered a new particle.

Since it's upgrade earlier this year, LHC researchers have observed spikes that could be the
result of particle collisions between a new boson even larger than the Higgs.  In my book, this is a MAY have not an HAS made a discovery. 

The particle -- if truly a new discovery --  would be about four times larger than the top quark,
the heaviest particle so far discovered. And it would be six times bigger than the Higgs. 

In any event, this is still an amazing piece of research on a totally amazing machine. 

To read the complete Wired article  Click Here

Has CERN Finally Done It?

How many times over the past year or so have we heard this statement?

• Scientists at CERN might be on the verge confirming the existence of what they call the "Higgs boson"

Well it is making the rounds again according to an article in the Daily Galaxy blog.  

Peter Woit a Columbia University mathematician is saying that "Cern will soon have to decide.....".   What's to decide you ask?  Well according to Woit,:

•  Cern has got to either announce discovery of the Higgs, or will they wait for some overwhelmingly convincing standard to be met.

Woit goes on to say that:

• "....The bottom line though is now clear: there’s something there which looks like a Higgs is supposed to look."

We shall see, I guess...read the complete article here

Antimatter trapped for a record 16 minutes!

Articles about anti-matter are nothing new here I know, but the research is getting so advanced that it certainly has a wow factor built in now. Anti-matter.... a few billionths of a second after the big bang, theory has it that there was an equal amount of matter and anti-matter. Since matter and anti-matter can not exist in proximity, matter and anti-matter annihilated one another. Now the astute among us is asking uhh if that is so, how come I see a universe full of matter. Well it seems that the matter/antimatter conversion is not 100% efficient and all the mass we see now is a fraction less than 1% of what there was before the conversion. Wild huh? Physics says that there should be way more mass in the universe, now we think we know where it went..

Anyway, that just shows how unbelievably difficult it is to store antimatter. And to consider large amounts for a long time is surely something of science fiction. Not so says an article in Yahoo News sent in by Tim Sayell.

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva say that they have been successful at trapping anti-hydrogen atoms for the unheard of time of 1000 seconds. Yes in the normal world that's a stunning 16 minutes and change! What is a bit weird is Cern scientists are not really "trapping" anti-hydrogen as "cooking" it. From the article:

• In the ALPHA project, the researchers captured anti-hydrogen by mixing anti-protons with positrons — anti-electrons — in a vacuum chamber, where they combine into anti-hydrogen atoms.
• The whole process occurred within a magnetic "bottle"

To detect what they have trapped, the scientists turn off the magnetic fields allowing the anti-hydrogen to interact with normal matter.

Cern scientists are not sitting on their laurels however. The problem with the present trap is that there is no way to interact with the anti-matter directly. They are hoping that by 2012 they will have a new trap built that will allow scientists to study the anti-matter directly with lasers to allow spectroscopic experiments on the anti-atoms.

read complete Yahoo article here

ALPHA Team Traps Antimatter for a Record-setting Time

The Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) located in Switzerland has set a new record for capturing antihydrogen, a form of anti-matter, and storing it for a record setting 10,000 times longer than previous times. ALPHA's newest record is 1000 seconds or approximately sixteen minutes.

With the additional time, physicists can now study antimatter in general and antihydrogen specifically. Some of the crucial information that can be gained are:

• Does antihydrogen have the same level of energy as normal hydrogen?
• Is it an exact mirror image of matter and other fundamental questions.

Gizmodo article
Newscientist

CERN's LHC Finds the Higgs Boson?!

According to The Daily Galaxy blog -

• (there is a rumor that) the world's largest atom smasher may have detected a long-sought subatomic particle called the Higgs boson
• The controversial rumor is based on what appears to be a leaked internal note from physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (that note can be read on the Daily Galaxy page)
  

Researchers reported in January that they have seen hints of what may be the hot, dense state of matter thought to have filled the universe in its first nanoseconds of existence. An in depth discussion on the Higgs Boson event would send most of us screaming after only a few seconds, but suffice it to say:

• The Higgs boson is the only Standard Model particle that has not been observed in particle physics experiments.
  

But as the Wiki article points out:

• If the Higgs boson exists, it is an integral and pervasive component of the material world

Of course the ultimate point here is, how close to the first event in the Universe, the big Bang can the LHC get. Well according to CERN spokesman James Gillies, who stated back in 2010:

• "We're within a billionth of a second of the Big Bang,"

The main stumbling block now is the fact that the LHC is still running on only partial power owing to damage that occurred during the first full power test when several banks of magnets were irreparably damaged due in part to sub par welding. The LHC can only achieve 14 TeV restricting the collider to .001% under the speed of light. It is hoped that LHC will be able to attain full power some time in 2012.

CERN Scientists Capture Anti-Mater for the First Time in History

Ok here is something else weird to think about. Recently we have been hearing some murmurings in the media about anti-matter. We are all up to speed as to what anti-matter is right? For every atomic particle and atom there is a theoretical mirror image opposite that possibly exists. Should a normal and an anti particle meet, they will annihilate each other.

For years, researchers have had great success at trapping anti-electrons and anti-protons. However in 1995 CERN took a giant step into the future when it succeeded in trapping an anti-hydrogen atom and in 2002 began producing large amounts of the anti-matter atoms.

What is weird about anti-matter is there isn't any of it to be found in the universe. Well not much at least. If we understand the dynamics of the big bang there should have been just as much anti-matter as matter in those first few moments. The given wisdom is that when anti-matter meets normal matter each are totally destroyed - completely. Ok, so why is there all kinds of normal matter and no anti-matter? Well it seems that maybe in the weirdness of quantum physics the total annihilation may be tilted in normal matter's favor. So when all was said and done and all the anti-matter had destroyed all the normal matter, there was an infinitesimal fraction of normal matter left over. Yes, the total matter in the universe was left. Does that twist your head a bit?

Here is more then. Why is everyone so interested in anti-matter? Well it seems that when matter and antimatter meet they release a fantastic amount of energy. How fantastic? Well in orders of magnitudes, antimatter is a mind numbing 10 magnitudes greater than chemical reactions and an order of 4 magnitudes greater than nuclear fission reactions and 2 magnitudes greater than fusion! For comparison, 1 kilogram of antimatter with an equal amount of normal matter would release almost the same amount of energy that was ever created by the biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated, Tsar Bomba with a yield 50 mega-tons! Tsar Bomba used hundreds of kilos of nuclear material! Antimatter is a great power source and it is perfectly clean.

So what is all the excitement? Well for the first time Cern has not only able to produce anti-hydrogen but they are able to store it! According to the article sent in by Dan from the Los Angeles Times: The amount of anti-hydrogen stored so far is 38 atoms and were held for just about 1/5 of a second.



wiki anti-hydrogen Wiki on Cern Gizmodo article

Dooms-Day Watch or Monitor Large Hadron Collider's Magnet Temperatures With Real Time Status Website

This is first class geeky awsomeingdom. The Large Hadron Collider is due to be fired up on August 7. Though there is no real danger of accidentally opening up a black hole that swallows the world, it's so very cool to have a page full of screen charts as the collider does its' well collider stuff! The Cern LHC Hardware Commissioning home page is hosting a real time website. On the site you are presented with a graphic of each sectory with which you can track the current temperatures of its 1600+ superconducting magnets in real time. Oh its techie goodness my friend. Pocket protectors are a must while logged in.

click the graphic! Thanks Gizmodo!