Fantastic machine that discovered the Higgs boson

• Fantastic machine that discovered the Higgs boson

Recently, scientists from the European Center for Nuclear Research CERN in Switzerland have discovered the Higgs boson - a subatomic particle called the "God particle." The search for "divine" particles were almost 50 years. Able to detect the Higgs boson in the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, the main accelerator ring which are in the 27-kilometer underground tunnel.

Higgs is an essential element of the Standard model - physical theory that describes the interaction of all of the elementary particles: it explains the presence of the phenomenon of mass.

We take a closer look with a fantastic machine worth $ 6 billion, which discovered the Higgs boson. Welcome to the world of subatomic particles!

In the photo: English physicist, member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Peter W. Higgs. It was he who in the 60s predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, which is responsible for the mass of elementary particles. In their speeches, Peter said that if the Higgs is not found, it will mean that he and many other physicists do not understand more about how interactions of elementary particles.

The Higgs particle is so important that the American physicist and Nobel laureate Leon Lederman called it "God particle."

So, as already mentioned, the Higgs boson was discovered during experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. It was built in the Research Center of the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, on the border of Switzerland and France.

The Large Hadron Collider is the largest research facility in the world. This is a giant particle accelerator designed to accelerate protons and heavy ions. Let's see how it was created. In the photo: is laying underground tunnel in France and Switzerland, with a circumference of nearly 27 km, 2000 year. The depth of the tunnel location - from 50 to 175 meters.

In the construction and research participated with more than 10,000 scientists and engineers from more than 100 countries, including from Russia.

In the photo: is the mechanical installation of the hadron calorimeter ATLAS detector, which is precisely designed to search for the Higgs boson and "non-standard physics", in particular dark matter. All at the Large Hadron Collider are 4 main and 3 auxiliary detector. August 12, 2003.

The big collider named due to their size: the length of the main ring accelerator is 26 659 meters. Go around the 27-kilometer underground tunnel, designed to accommodate the circular accelerator, it is best to transport.

electromagnetic calorimeter - a device that measures the energy of the particles. In the assembled form, it is a wall height of 6 meters and 7 meters in width. It consists of 3300 blocks.

The idea of ​​the construction of the Large Hadron Collider was born in 1984 and was officially approved ten years later. Its construction began in 1998.

In the photo: the accelerator ring of the Large Hadron Collider, located in an underground tunnel directly under the Geneva International Airport.

is called hadron collider due to the fact that it accelerates hadrons, ie heavy particles composed of quarks.

Delivery to the place of the mechanical magnetic ATLAS detector.

The main purpose of the construction of the Large Hadron Collider has been refinement or refutation of the Standard Model - the theoretical structure of physics, the formation of which was completed in 1960-1970, describes elementary particles and three of the four fundamental forces (except gravity): strong, weak, and electromagnetic. The main task of the LHC was to prove experimentally the existence of the Higgs boson. He was found July 4, 2012.

It is an integral part of the ALICE - one of six experimental units that were constructed at the Large Hadron Collider. 3584 lead tungstate crystals. ALICE is optimized to study collisions of heavy ions.

The experimental setup ALICE.

The official launch of the collider was made September 10, 2008. The data coming from the Large Hadron Collider, is processed in 140 data centers located in 33 countries around the world. Every year, we have to handle 15 million gigabytes of data!

ATLAS detector during assembly. The overall dimensions of the ATLAS detector: length - 46 meters, diameter - 25 meters, the total weight - about 7000 tons. In this experiment the detector carry out the same name, designed to search for superheavy elementary particles, including the newly discovered Higgs boson.

ATLAS detector.

Compact Muon Solenoid - one of the two big department particle detector, created by the European Center for Nuclear Research and designed to study the properties of the microworld. It is located in an underground cave of impressive dimensions: 53 meters long, 27 meters wide and 24 meters high.

The English physicist Peter Higgs, whose name was called boson. Next to the ATLAS detector, in April 2008.

Observations of the Higgs bosons will not only allow to understand the origin of mass, but also help unravel the mystery of dark matter.

Assembling the Large Hadron Collider, June 16, 2008.

27-kilometer underground tunnel comprises two pipes which are parallel and intersect only at the locations of the detectors. In the photo: a linear accelerator of low-energy particles Linac2, located in an underground tunnel. Total Large Hadron Collider has six main accelerators.

ATLAS Inner Detector. The detector produces a huge amount of information - about 1 petabyte = 1,024 terabytes of "raw" data per second!

In the ATLAS experiment, was attended by about 2000 scientists and engineers from 165 universities and laboratories in 35 countries, including from Russia.

A fantastic machine - the Large Hadron Collider. In the photo: a universal particle detector - Compact Muon Solenoid.

The price of the Large Hadron Collider was estimated from 3.2 to 6.4 billion euros, making it the most expensive scientific experiment in human history.

In the photo: one of the end calorimeters ATLAS detector. Incredibly large and complex construction.

Another picture of elementary particle detector - Compact Muon Solenoid.

Around the LHC were many rumors. For example, it represents a great danger for humanity and its launch could lead to the end of the world. The grounds were statements by scientists that, as a result of particle collisions in the collider microscopic black holes can supposedly be formed: then there were opinions that they can "suck" all of our Earth.

Also, there were fears that the discovery of the Higgs boson would cause uncontrolled growth of mass in the universe. There was even anecdote: "Physicists have a tradition - every 14 billion years to assemble and run the LHC." The reason for the rumors turned out to be banal: the words of scientists have been distorted and misinterpreted by journalists.

Installation of circular accelerator in an underground tunnel.

The works inside caves placement calorimeter (an instrument that measures the energy of the particles) in ATLAS detector.

Even more. After the end of a session in 2012, the collider will be closed for a long-term repair. Repairs will be presumed to last at least one and a half years and will take the entire 2013. Some scientists from the US and Japan offer after working on the Large Hadron Collider to start work on a new Very Large Hadron Collider.

In the photo: Eight tubes - a magnet surrounding the calorimeter. All this great design is part of one of the particle detectors of the LHC.

According to the scientists discovered the Higgs boson may shed light on the origin of the universe and to understand that was our universe in the first moments after the Big Bang.

It was a story about the Large Hadron Collider - a fantastic car, valued at $ 6 billion..