Utilizing The Large Hadron Collider: The Gateway to Finding Our Existence
In the early 1600s, the first astronomical telescope was created by Galileo Galilei in Italy. As technology advances, humans have successfully found a better way to explore the universe today. It is the invention of the largest machine in the world — the Large Hadron Collider.
Built underground on the France-Switzerland border, it is a particle accelerator that collides two beams of particles directly at a speed of light, guided by thousands of superconducting electromagnets. Its purpose is to allow physicists to discover new substances by crashing various particles in the LHC, which hopefully, can contribute to explaining how everything came into existence. With an internal cooling system that operates at a temperature of near absolute zero, the LHC allows scientists to recreate the same particle collision speed and the temperature of the environment right after the Big Bang. It not only has the capability of colliding different particles in a simulated environment, but it can also provide scientists with multiple insights that might explain why all of us exist.
The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2008, after a collaboration of thousands of scientists from hundreds of countries. It forms a giant circle with a circumference of 17 miles underground near Geneva, Switzerland. When particles collide from over 17 miles at the speed of light, something is created due to the high amount of energy produced. Byproducts form immediately due to the first law of thermodynamics — that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Thus, lots of energy is required because particles cannot be seen in low visibility. If only a small amount of energy is converted to light, scientists cannot make conclusions due to its low luminosity.
However, scientists are not randomly colliding particles. In short, they hope to answer some unsolved problems related to quantum mechanics and general relativity by doing so. Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that mainly deals with the smallest levels of energy and particles in nature, while Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes how gravity is the bending of spacetime. Questions regarding the direction of time may be solved by discovering a new particle in the LHC that is the foundation of time flowing.
The LHC consists of 7 detectors: 4 of them are the main particle detectors and the other 3 are built for specialized research purposes. The ATLAS and CMS serve as general-purpose detectors that mainly focus on clues for discoveries, while the other two — ALICE and LHCb — conduct ion collision experiments and research into the coexistence of matter and antimatter. Even though the substances produced by the collisions may be too unstable to exist, the LHC has confirmed something interesting that might explain a part of why we exist. The ATLAS and CMS have detected the existence of Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle nicknamed the “God particle”, after involving two protons in a head-on collision. It is accountable for the existence of mass that relates to hadrons and quarks.
To put it simply, hadrons are formed by two or more quarks holding tightly together by nuclear force. Protons and neutrons are examples of hadrons, meaning they are divisible into quarks while electrons are not. But how does it relate to the Large Hadron Collider? In 2018, the LHC has found the Higgs Boson particles to be interacting with the top quark, the most massive and heaviest of all elementary particles. The high-energy reaction proved that the Higgs Boson theory is correct.
Discovered in 2012, The Higgs Boson originated from a field called the Higgs field that dates back to 1964. A scientist named Peter Higgs theoretically proposed a field that explains why everything has mass. The field interacts with subatomic particles like protons and neutrons and “assigns” each of their mass. Therefore, objects with larger mass interact more with the field than do other particles. In addition, because Higgs Boson particles are all over the field, they interact with each object differently. Imagine that the field is the air, and the Higgs Boson is an air particle. More mass means more aerodynamic drag, and less mass means less drag. The same thing goes to the Higgs field and the Higgs Boson — particles with more mass have more “drag”, thus interacting more with the field. Following the discovery, Peter Higgs and François Englert received the Physics Nobel prize in 2013.
While the Higgs Boson is great at providing new insights, it does have the potential to create something hazardous. The fact it is the foundation of mass for all existing matter means it also has the potential to wipe out the universe. Stephen Hawking once warned us that humans might accidentally disturb the Higgs field as technology advances, causing everything to disappear instantly. The Higgs Boson could be strong enough for the universe to undergo a catastrophic vacuum decay due to the immensity of its mass.¹ The fact that it has an extremely high amount of energy means it might be released if it somehow interacts with other high-energy particles.
Nevertheless, it is more essential to test the ability of the LHC and prevent this from happening if it were to be true. In what ways can humans disturb the field? How can CERN scientists test out vacuum decay in the LHC with the Higgs Boson? There must be some burning questions that the CERN should be concerned about.
Ultimately, it is up to scientists to utilize the largest machine in the world and uncover more secrets of the universe. The capability of the collider is not a big problem for doing certain tasks, but the key is to come up with theories and ideas that can be investigated and proven. The LHC is only a machine that transforms our ideas into reality, so we must be actively thinking and questioning ourselves how we can challenge the machine by implementing new concepts. So far, the discovery of the Higgs Boson has contributed to explaining why most things have mass and why they exist in the universe like each of us does. And recently, it discovered more new fundamental particles.
The LHC is the powerhouse of colliding high-energy particles. It is also the heart of proving our existence. Perhaps one day, each of us can somehow create our own personalized universe.
Footnotes & Sources
[1] Head, Tom. “Will the Higgs Boson Destroy the Universe?” mysteriousuniverse.org, Mysterious Universe, 10 Sept. 2014, mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/09/will-the-higgs-boson-destroy-the-universe/
Greene, Brian. “How the Higgs Boson Was Found.” Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Magazine, July 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-the-higgs-boson-was-found-4723520/.
“High-Energy Physics beyond E=Mc².” symmetrymagazine.org, Symmetry Magazine, 13 Feb. 2009, www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2009/02/13/high-energy-physics-beyond-emc2.
“Large Hadron Collider.” CERN, CERN, 2019, home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider.
“Large Hadron Collider.” The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, edited by Helicon, 2018. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/large_hadron_collider/0?institutionId=7181.
“Large Hadron Collider.” stfc.ukri.org, Science and Technology Facilities Council, 17 Sept. 2018, stfc.ukri.org/research/particle-physics-and-particle-astrophysics/large-hadron-collider/
Nave, C. R. “The Higgs Boson.” Http://Hyperphysics.phy-Astr.gsu.edu, Georgia State University, hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Forces/higgs.html.
