 |
|
Big magnet ready to face the big questions of the universe
November 21, 2006World's largest superconducting magnet switches on
The largest superconducting magnet ever built has successfully been powered up to its operating conditions at the first attempt. Called the Barrel Toroid because of its shape, this magnet is a vital part of ATLAS, one of the major particle detectors being prepared to take data at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator scheduled to turn on in November 2007. ATLAS will help scientists probe the big questions of the Universe - what happened in the moments after the Big Bang? Why does the material in the Universe behave the way it does? Why is the Universe we can see made of matter rather than anti-matter? UK scientists are a key part of the ATLAS collaboration and Dr Richard Nickerson, UK ATLAS project leader, who is from the University of Oxford welcomed this important milestone "The toroidal magnets are critical to enabling us to measure the muons (a type of particle) produced in interactions. These are vital to a lot of the physics we want to study, so the successful test of the magnets is a great step forward."
The ATLAS Barrel Toroid consists of eight superconducting coils, each in the shape of a round-cornered rectangle, 5m wide, 25m long and weighing 100 tonnes, all aligned to millimetre precision. It will work together with other magnets in ATLAS to bend the paths of charged particles produced in collisions at the LHC, enabling important properties to be measured. Unlike most particle detectors, the ATLAS detector does not need large quantities of metal to contain the field because the field is contained within a doughnut shape defined by the coils. This allows the ATLAS detector to be very large, which in turn increases the precision of the measurements it can make.
At 46m long, 25m wide and 25m high, ATLAS is the largest volume detector ever constructed for particle physics. Among the questions ATLAS will focus on are why particles have mass, what the unknown 96% of the Universe is made of, and why Nature prefers matter to antimatter. Some 1800 scientists from 165 universities and laboratories (including 12 from the UK) representing 35 countries are building the ATLAS detector and preparing to take data next year.
The ATLAS Barrel Toroid was first cooled down over a six-week period in July-August to reach -269oC. It was then powered up step-by-step to higher and higher currents, reaching 21 thousand amps for the first time during the night of 9 November. This is 500 amps above the current needed to produce the nominal magnetic field. Afterwards, the current was switched off and the stored magnetic energy of 1.1 GJ, the equivalent of about 10 000 cars travelling at 70km/h, has now been safely dissipated, raising the cold mass of the magnet to -218oC.
"We can now say that the ATLAS Barrel Toroid is ready for physics," said Herman ten Kate, ATLAS magnet system project leader.
The ATLAS Barrel Toroid is financed by the ATLAS Collaboration and has been built through close collaboration between the French CEA-DAPNIA laboratory (originator of the magnet's design), Italy's INFN-LASA laboratory and CERN. Components have been contributed in-kind by national funding agencies from industries in France (CEA), Italy, Germany (BMBF), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), an international organization based near Moscow. The final integration and test of the coils at CERN, as well as assembly of the toroid in the ATLAS underground cavern, was done with JINR providing most of the manpower and heavy tooling.
Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council
At 46m long, 25m wide and 25m high, ATLAS is the largest volume detector ever constructed for particle physics. Among the questions ATLAS will focus on are why particles have mass, what the unknown 96% of the Universe is made of, and why Nature prefers matter to antimatter. Some 1800 scientists from 165 universities and laboratories (including 12 from the UK) representing 35 countries are building the ATLAS detector and preparing to take data next year.
The ATLAS Barrel Toroid was first cooled down over a six-week period in July-August to reach -269oC. It was then powered up step-by-step to higher and higher currents, reaching 21 thousand amps for the first time during the night of 9 November. This is 500 amps above the current needed to produce the nominal magnetic field. Afterwards, the current was switched off and the stored magnetic energy of 1.1 GJ, the equivalent of about 10 000 cars travelling at 70km/h, has now been safely dissipated, raising the cold mass of the magnet to -218oC.
"We can now say that the ATLAS Barrel Toroid is ready for physics," said Herman ten Kate, ATLAS magnet system project leader.
The ATLAS Barrel Toroid is financed by the ATLAS Collaboration and has been built through close collaboration between the French CEA-DAPNIA laboratory (originator of the magnet's design), Italy's INFN-LASA laboratory and CERN. Components have been contributed in-kind by national funding agencies from industries in France (CEA), Italy, Germany (BMBF), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), an international organization based near Moscow. The final integration and test of the coils at CERN, as well as assembly of the toroid in the ATLAS underground cavern, was done with JINR providing most of the manpower and heavy tooling.
Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council
Science News and Science Current Events Tag Cloud
This tag cloud is a visual representation of term frequencies of random science news topics with common terms grouped together and emphasized by their display size.
Amygdala Shade Trees Wheat Leukaemia Flu Virus Miscarriage Quantum Cancer Drugs Parkinson's disease Siblings Neuroticism Honey Bee Discrimination Cell Growth Ozone Layer Minimally invasive surgery Medical Imaging Hydrogen Peroxide Cognitive Impairment Carbon Monoxide Warfarin Cholera Radiation Therapy Natural Selection Ultraviolet Radiation
See More: Science News Tags
Particle Physics Current Events and Particle Physics News RSSNew Exotic Material Could Revolutionize Electronics
Move over, silicon-it may be time to give the Valley a new name. Physicists at the Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have confirmed the existence of a type of material that could one day provide dramatically faster, more efficient computer chips.
Theorists Reveal Path to True Muonium
True muonium, a long-theorized but never-seen atom, might be observed in future experiments, thanks to recent theoretical work by researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Arizona State University.
Cosmology's Best Standard Candles Get Even Better
Members of the international Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory), a collaboration among the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a consortium of French laboratories, and Yale University, have found a new technique that establishes the intrinsic brightness of Type Ia supernovae more accurately than ever before.
NASA's Fermi Explores High-energy
Since its launch last June, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered a new class of pulsars, probed gamma-ray bursts and watched flaring jets in galaxies billions of light-years away.
Atomic physics study sets new limits on hypothetical new particles
In a forthcoming Physical Review Letters article, a group of physicists at the University of Nevada, Reno are reporting a refined analysis of experiments on violation of mirror symmetry in atoms that sets new constraints on a hypothesized particle, the extra Z-boson.
Particle physics study finds new data for extra Z-bosons and potential fifth force of nature
The Large Hadron Collider is an enormous particle accelerator whose 17-mile tunnel straddles the borders of France and Switzerland. A group of physicists at the University of Nevada, Reno has analyzed data from the accelerator that could ultimately prove or disprove the possibility of a fifth force of nature.
MSU scientists help lead teams in detection of fundamental component of matter
Michigan State University scientists and colleagues around the world took a step closer to understanding the universe with the discovery of a fundamental building block of nature.
NASA's Fermi Mission, Namibia's HESS Telescopes Explore a Blazar
An international team of astrophysicists using telescopes on the ground and in space have uncovered surprising changes in radiation emitted by an active galaxy.
NASA's Fermi Telescope Reveals Best-Ever View of Gamma-Ray Sky
A new map combining nearly three months of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is giving astronomers an unprecedented look at the high-energy cosmos. To Fermi's eyes, the universe is ablaze with gamma rays from sources ranging from within the solar system to galaxies billions of light-years away.
Fermilab collider experiments discover rare single top quark
Scientists of the CDF and DZero collaborations at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have observed particle collisions that produce single top quarks.
More Particle Physics Current Events and Particle Physics News Articles
 |
Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close (Author) In Particles: A Very Short Introduction, best-selling author Frank Close provides a compelling and lively introduction to the fundamental particles that make up the universe. The book begins with a guide to what matter is made up of and how it evolved, and goes on to describe the fascinating and cutting-edge techniques used to study it. The author discusses particles such as quarks, electrons, and the neutrino, and exotic matter and antimatter. He also investigates the forces of nature, accelerators and detectors, and the intriguing future of particle physics. This book is essential reading for general readers interested in popular science, students of physics, and scientists at all levels. |
 |
Independent Lens: The Atom Smashers Starring: n/a Directed By: n/a Physicists at Fermilab, the world's most powerful particle accelerator laboratory, are closing in on one of the universe's best-kept secrets: why everything has mass. With the Tevatron, a four-mile underground particle accelerator, the scientists smash matter together at nearly the speed of light to find a particle theorized forty years ago by Scottish scientist Peter Higgs. Scour the subatomic world for the Higgs. Will the discovery happen? |
 |
Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics by Bruce A. Schumm (Author) A useful scientific theory, claimed Einstein, must be explicable to any intelligent person. In Deep Down Things, experimental particle physicist Bruce Schumm has taken this dictum to heart, providing in clear, straightforward prose an elucidation of the Standard Model of particle physics—a theory that stands as one of the crowning achievements of twentieth-century science. In this one-of-a-kind book, the work of many of the past century's most notable physicists, including Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, Feynman, Gell-Mann, and Weinberg, is knit together in a thorough and accessible exposition of the revolutionary notions that underlie our current view of the fundamental nature of the physical world. Schumm, who has spent much of his life emmersed in the subatomic world, goes... |
|
The Great Courses Video Series - Tour of the Microcosmos - Particle Physics for Non-Pysicists - 6 Video Tapes Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture) Course No. 1247 Taught by Steven Pollock University of Colorado at Boulder Ph.D., Stanford University Would you like to know how the universe works? The science that has found many of the answers to that profound and age-old question is particle physics: the study of those impossibly tiny particles with unbelievably strange names: bosons and leptons, quarks and neutrinos. In Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos, Professor Steven Pollock translates the language of the remarkable science that, in only 100 years, has unlocked the secrets of the basic forces of nature. You will become familiar with the fundamental particles that make up all matter, from the... | |
 |
Particle Physics for Non-Physicists DVD Lecture: A Tour of the Microcosmos - The Teaching Company Also With: Steven Pollock (Narrator) In this course, Professor Steven Pollock translates the language of the remarkable science that, in only 100 years, has unlocked the secrets of the basic forces of nature. You will become familiar with the fundamental particles that make up all matter, from the tiniest microbe to the sun and stars. You will also learn the "rules of the game"the forces the particles feel and the ways they interactthat underlie the workings of the universe. This course is designed to be for everyone, regardless of scientific background or ability. Virtually all you will need to enjoy and benefit from it are curiosity, common sense, and "an open mind for the occasional quantum weirdness," according to Professor Pollock. As he leads you through the seemingly complex but surprisingly understandable field of... |
 |
An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics by W. N. Cottingham (Author), D. A. Greenwood (Author) The new edition of this introductory graduate textbook provides a concise but accessible introduction to the Standard Model. It has been updated to account for the successes of the theory of strong interactions, and the observations on matter-antimatter asymmetry. It has become clear that neutrinos are not mass-less, and this book gives a coherent presentation of the phenomena and the theory that describes them. It includes an account of progress in the theory of strong interactions and of advances in neutrino physics. The book clearly develops the theoretical concepts from the electromagnetic and weak interactions of leptons and quarks to the strong interactions of quarks. Each chapter ends with problems, and hints to selected problems are provided at the end of the book. The... |
 |
Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction by Oxford University Press, USA In Particles: A Very Short Introduction, best-selling author Frank Close provides a compelling and lively introduction to the fundamental particles that make up the universe. The book begins with a guide to what matter is made up of and how it evolved, and goes on to describe the fascinating and cutting-edge techniques used to study it. The author discusses particles such as quarks, electrons, and the neutrino, and exotic matter and antimatter. He also investigates the forces of nature, accelerators and detectors, and the intriguing future of particle physics. This book is essential reading for general readers interested in popular science, students of physics, and scientists at all levels. |
 |
The Ideas of Particle Physics: An Introduction for Scientists by G. D. Coughlan (Author), J. E. Dodd (Author), B. M. Gripaios (Author) The third edition of this well-received book is a readable introduction to the world of particle physics. It bridges the gap between traditional textbooks on the subject and popular accounts that assume little or no background knowledge. Carefully revised and updated, this new edition covers all of the important concepts in our modern understanding of particle physics. The theoretical development of the subject is traced from the foundations of quantum mechanics and relativity through to the most recent particle discoveries and the formulation of modern string theory. It includes a full description of the prospects for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will allow many key ideas to be tested. The book is intended for anyone with a background in the physical sciences who wishes to... |
 |
Particle Physics for Non-Physicists DVD Lecture: A Tour of the Microcosmos - The Teaching Company Course No. 1247 Taught by Steven Pollock University of Colorado at Boulder Ph.D., Stanford University Course Lecture Titles 1. Nature of Physics 2. Standard Model of Particle Physics 3. Pre-History of Particle Physics 4. Birth of Modern Physics 5. Quantum Mechanics Gets Serious 6. New Particles & New Technologies 7. Weak Interactions & the Neutrino 8. Accelerators & Particle Explosion 9. Particle "Zoo" 10. Fields & Forces 11. "Three Quarks for Muster Mark" 12. From Quarks to QCD 13. Symmetry & Conservation Laws 14. Broken Symmetry, Shattered Mirrors 15. November Revolution of 1974 16. A New Generation 17. Weak Forces & the Standard Model 18. Greatest Success Story in Physics 19. The Higgs Particle 20. Solar Neutrino Puzzle 21. Back to the Future (1)Experiments to... |
 |
Introduction to Elementary Particles by David Griffiths (Author) In Introduction to Elementary Particles, Second, Revised Edition, author David Griffiths strikes a balance between quantitative rigor and intuitive understanding, using a lively, informal style. The first chapter provides a detailed historical introduction to the subject, while subsequent chapters offer a quantitative presentation of the Standard Model. A simplified introduction to the Feynman rules, based on a "toy" model, helps readers learn the calculational techniques without the complications of spin. It is followed by accessible treatments of quantum electrodynamics, the strong and weak interactions, and gauge theories. New chapters address neutrino oscillations and prospects for physics beyond the Standard Model. The book contains a number of worked examples and many end-of-chapter... |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |