2,500 researchers, 1 supermachine, 1 new snapshot of the universeApril 01, 2008Deep in the bowels of the earth -100 metres below ground in Geneva, Switzerland - lies a supermachine of 27 km circumference called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that has been built to unlock the mysteries of the universe. Claude Leroy, a Université de Montréal physics professor, was among the 2,500 scientists from 37 countries recruited to help design, test and build the ATLAS detector at the supermachine that will provide a new perspective into what occurred at the time of the Big Bang and immediately after. Designed for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the ATLAS detector, the largest among the four detectors operating at the supermachine in question, is 46 metres in length, 25 metres in height and 7000 tonnes in weight - or the size of three football fields. Prof. Leroy was responsible for the radiation and irradiation studies conducted to ensure the ATLAS detector will run smoothly. His investigations also led to the creation of MPX, a small device attached throughout the supermachine and ATLAS that uses pixel silicon detectors to perform real-time measurements of the spectral characteristics and composition of radiation inside and around the ATLAS detector. The small devices essentially capture images of what's inside the detector and its environment, such neutrons and photons, a world-first. He also participated in physics studies that targeted the production of heavy leptons, excited leptons, quarks and supersymmetry, in particular the study of neutralinos as dark matter candidates. Prof. Leroy's experiments were critical in ensuring the viability of the ATLAS detector at the core of the supermachine, which is the world's biggest particles physics detector. Indeed, before the LHC can be started up, some 38,000 tons of equipment of the supermachine must be cooled down to minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit for the magnets to operate in a superconducting state. This will be achieved by using liquid helium for magnet. Parts of the ATLAS calorimeters use liquid argon cooled at minus 312 degrees Fahrenheit. "The radiation field produced by the operation of the machine and ATLAS is stronger than a nuclear reactor, so it is vital that its design master all aspects of physics," said Prof. Leroy. Supermachine's Big Bang The LHC will recreate conditions akin to the Big Bang - which many scientists believe gave birth to the universe - by colliding two beams of particles at close to the speed of light. Since it is estimated that only 4 percent of the universe has been charted, the supermachine will help answer the following questions in physics when it is turned on in summer 2008: * What is the unknown 96 percent of the universe made of" * Why do particles have mass" * Why does nature prefer matter over antimatter" * What lies beyond Earth's dimension" University of Montreal |
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| Related Large Hadron Collider Current Events and Large Hadron Collider News Articles Physicists seek to keep next-gen colliders in 1 piece Controlling huge electromagnetic forces that have the potential to destroy the next generation of particle accelerators is the subject of a new paper by a University of Manchester physicist. Intense heat killed the Universe's would-be galaxies, researchers say Our Milky Way galaxy only survived because it was already immersed in a large clump of dark matter which trapped gases inside it. 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. Argonne cloud computing helps scientists run high energy physics experiments A novel system is enabling high energy physicists at CERN in Switzerland, to make production runs that integrate their existing pool of distributed computers with dynamic resources in "science clouds." 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. Brown physicists play key role in single top quark discovery Brown University physicists have played a key role in observing particle collisions that produce a single top quark, one of the fundamental constituents of matter. The discovery was announced Monday by scientists of the CDF and DZero collaborations at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Secrets behind high temperature superconductors revealed Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) have found evidence that magnetism is involved in the mechanism behind high temperature superconductivity. Physicists create BlackMax to search for dimensions in space at the Large Hadron Collider A team of theoretical and experimental physicists, with participants from Case Western Reserve University, have designed a new black hole simulator called BlackMax to search for evidence that extra dimensions might exist in the universe. What to do with 15 million gigabytes of data When it is fully up and running, the four massive detectors on the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN particle-physics lab near Geneva are expected to produce up to 15 million gigabytes, aka 15 petabytes, of data every yea More Large Hadron Collider Current Events and Large Hadron Collider News Articles |
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