Lifeboat Foundation ParticleAcceleratorShield

Overview



The ATLAS detector of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) under construction. The LHC is 27 kilometers (16.7 miles) long and spans two countries. The ATLAS detector of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) under construction. The LHC is 27 kilometers (16.7 miles) long and spans two countries. Enter 3D panoramas with sound!

Higgs Boson



Scientists have run simulations of what they expect to see once the collider is operating. This is a simulation of the decay of the Higgs boson in the CMS detector, an event that virtually everybody hopes to see. Scientists have run simulations of what they expect to see once the collider is operating. This is a simulation of the decay of the Higgs boson in the CMS detector, an event that virtually everybody hopes to see.

Artificial Mini-Black Holes

“According to some theoretical models, tiny black holes could be produced in collisions at the LHC. They would then very quickly decay into what is known as Hawking radiation (the tinier the black hole, the faster it evaporates) which would be detected by experiments.”

Dangers

“It is not inconceivable that physics could be dangerous too. Some experiments are designed to generate conditions more extreme than ever occur naturally. Nobody then knows exactly what will happen. Indeed, there would be no point in doing any experiments if their outcomes could be fully predicted in advance. Some theorists have conjectured that certain types of experiment could conceivably unleash a runaway process that destroyed not just us but Earth itself.”

“There have been speculations that future high-energy particle accelerator experiments may cause a breakdown of a metastable vacuum state that our part of the cosmos might be in, converting it into a ‘true’ vacuum of lower energy density. This would result in an expanding bubble of total destruction that would sweep through the galaxy and beyond at the speed of light, tearing all matter apart as it proceeds.”