In 2012, scientists made the incredible discovery of the Higgs boson, a particle fundamental to understanding the universe’s beginning and giving particles mass. Now, after more than three years spent on upgrades, the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is looking for much more evasive particles: dark matter.
Built from 1998 to 2008 by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, the LHC is located around 328 kilometers underneath the France-Switzerland and the city of Geneva and has a circumference of roughly 17 mites.
After shutting down in 2018 for upgrades, the LHC is now back online with even more advanced data collection sensors and monitors and is now running at its highest energy level yet, 13.6 trillion electron volts.
Dark matter is one of the most mysterious things in the universe. Making up 95% of the universe, but not interacting with the electromagnetic light spectrum at all, we have only detected it through its gravitational effects. Without this dark matter, galaxies would rip apart at the speed they rotate. They provide the extra mass and in turn, gravity to hold the galaxies together.
Within the LHC, superconducting magnets are cooled down to -456 degrees Fahrenheit, colder than space, and with less than 4 degrees to absolute zero. Two particle beams are sent traveling at close to the speed of light before colliding. At such low temperatures and with such high collision speed, this mimics the Big Bang.
Using cutting-edge sensors, monitors, and other data collecting software, this info will be sent to scientists who will analyze the data for potential new particles. The legendary Higgs boson was discovered after thousands of collisions and the collective analysis of all the data.
When the universe first formed, particles did not have mass, leading scientists puzzled over how stars, planets, and galaxies formed. In 1964, physicists Francois Englert, Peter Higgs, and others theorized about a force field that gave particles mass when connected. However, they weren’t able to prove the existence of such a field at the time.
The discovery of the Higgs boson, part of this mass-giving force field, won Englert and Higgs a Nobel Prize in physics. This legendary particle has even been nicknamed the “God particle.
Many theories say that dark matter is light enough to be created in the LHC. If they were created during the collision, dark matter would escape undetected, but the missing mass would still be detectable.
Scientists at CERN plan to use the LHC to smash particles together, and then, using the improved sensors, analyze the total mass between the particles smashed and the resulting particles. If there is “missing” mass, then that infers that dark matter exists and was created during the collision.
Should dark matter not be detected within the next 4 years, another wave of upgrades will further improve the chances of detection.
After unveiling the “God particle,” the LHC is now tracking some very mysterious things. Scientists hope that the most powerful collider, coupled with its recent upgrades, will be able to shed some light on the invisible binding force of galaxies.
Original Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1657469905951x897264529099337400/CERN%20researchers%20turn%20on%20Large%20Hadron%20Collider%20in%20dark%20matter%20quest%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Supporting Articles:
https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter
https://home.cern/science/physics/higgs-boson
https://home.cern/news/news/cern/third-run-large-hadron-collider-has-successfully-started
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
Built from 1998 to 2008 by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, the LHC is located around 328 kilometers underneath the France-Switzerland and the city of Geneva and has a circumference of roughly 17 mites.
After shutting down in 2018 for upgrades, the LHC is now back online with even more advanced data collection sensors and monitors and is now running at its highest energy level yet, 13.6 trillion electron volts.
Dark matter is one of the most mysterious things in the universe. Making up 95% of the universe, but not interacting with the electromagnetic light spectrum at all, we have only detected it through its gravitational effects. Without this dark matter, galaxies would rip apart at the speed they rotate. They provide the extra mass and in turn, gravity to hold the galaxies together.
Within the LHC, superconducting magnets are cooled down to -456 degrees Fahrenheit, colder than space, and with less than 4 degrees to absolute zero. Two particle beams are sent traveling at close to the speed of light before colliding. At such low temperatures and with such high collision speed, this mimics the Big Bang.
Using cutting-edge sensors, monitors, and other data collecting software, this info will be sent to scientists who will analyze the data for potential new particles. The legendary Higgs boson was discovered after thousands of collisions and the collective analysis of all the data.
When the universe first formed, particles did not have mass, leading scientists puzzled over how stars, planets, and galaxies formed. In 1964, physicists Francois Englert, Peter Higgs, and others theorized about a force field that gave particles mass when connected. However, they weren’t able to prove the existence of such a field at the time.
The discovery of the Higgs boson, part of this mass-giving force field, won Englert and Higgs a Nobel Prize in physics. This legendary particle has even been nicknamed the “God particle.
Many theories say that dark matter is light enough to be created in the LHC. If they were created during the collision, dark matter would escape undetected, but the missing mass would still be detectable.
Scientists at CERN plan to use the LHC to smash particles together, and then, using the improved sensors, analyze the total mass between the particles smashed and the resulting particles. If there is “missing” mass, then that infers that dark matter exists and was created during the collision.
Should dark matter not be detected within the next 4 years, another wave of upgrades will further improve the chances of detection.
After unveiling the “God particle,” the LHC is now tracking some very mysterious things. Scientists hope that the most powerful collider, coupled with its recent upgrades, will be able to shed some light on the invisible binding force of galaxies.
Original Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1657469905951x897264529099337400/CERN%20researchers%20turn%20on%20Large%20Hadron%20Collider%20in%20dark%20matter%20quest%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Supporting Articles:
https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter
https://home.cern/science/physics/higgs-boson
https://home.cern/news/news/cern/third-run-large-hadron-collider-has-successfully-started
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
