I think it's just mindblowing. We're about to artificially recreate the conditions right after the Big Bang! How many species can boast that? Well, it has doubtlessly been done before by other beings in the Universe, but I'd still say it's a pretty select club we're about to enter.
It seems to lie in our nature to try to explain the phenomena we see as best we can. Should the Large Hardon Collider (LHC) prove the existance of the Higgs boson, then it's damn good proof we're on the right track. And if not, well then we just have to build a bigger ring!
To be honest though, I don't fully understand the theories here. The way I understand it, the Higgs boson is the force carrier particle of the Higgs field, which permeates the entire Universe. And the interaction between the elementary particles and the Higgs field (through the Higgs bosons), the Higgs mechanism, is what gives elementary particles their mass. Or something along those lines. But if the Higgs boson is an elementary boson (i.e. force carrier particle), wouldn't the Higgs mechanism then be considered a fundamental force? If anyone is more read up on these things I'd love a "Higgs Mechanism for Dummies".
NovembersDirge said:
Anyway, my feeling is "go for it!" The 'mysteries' of the universe are even cooler when they're known, IMO, and I don't see how this could be risky. Can you clear that up for me?
Concerns:
Some people (fucking party poopers!) have raised concerns that the LHC might create a miniature black hole which if the theory of Hawking radiation (which causes black holes to slowly "evaporate") would prove to be false would have no way to disappear, and would keep accreting matter and eventually swallow the entire Earth.
Another concern is that the experiments could create a
strangelet, a lump of strange matter, which is a matter made up by strange quarks in addition to the up- and down quarks of ordinary matter. If the strangelet would be more stable than ordinary matterb it could convert the ordinary matter it comes in contact into yet more strange matter, which in turn converts even more matter... And so on. Effectively destroying the Universe as we know it.
Yet another concern is that magnetic monopoles, which as the name implies are magnetic particles with just one magnetic pole, could be created. And that these monopoles could catalyze proton decay, which means that protons disintegrate into lighter subatomic particles. A chain reaction of proton decay would, again, destroy the world.
Assurances:
Now, apart from these events being incredibly unlikely, there are some comforting assurances. The strongest one being:
If this could happen, it would already have happened. The Earth has been bombarded with particles millions of times more energic than anything we can create in the LHC, and the Earth and the Universe is still here.
About the mini black holes: According to the standard model theory the energies produced at the LHC are to low to create black holes, and even if they were created, they should be unstable and shouldn't accrete matter.
About the strangelets: Apart from the extreme unlikeliness of them being created, the conversion from ordinary matter to strange matter doesn't have to be a quick process. Because there is a "barrier" between the ordinary matter state and the strange matter state the time before the ordinary matter decays into strange matter could be longer than the age of the Universe.
About the magnetic monopoles: Firstly, neither magnetic monopoles nor proton decay has been observed. But even if it does prove to be real, a monopole which could catalyse proton decay should quickly leave the Earth.
In other words: The concerns are groundless.
