What exactly does the Hadron Collider do?
The Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful accelerator in the world. It boosts particles, such as protons, which form all the matter we know. Accelerated to a speed close to that of light, they collide with other protons. These collisions produce massive particles, such as the Higgs boson or the top quark.
Why is the Higgs boson particle so important?
The Higgs boson particle is so important to the Standard Model because it signals the existence of the Higgs field, an invisible energy field present throughout the universe that imbues other particles with mass. Since its discovery two years ago, the particle has been making waves in the physics community.
What is the Hadron Collider trying to prove?
The LHC’s goal is to allow physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics, including measuring the properties of the Higgs boson searching for the large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories, and other unresolved questions in particle physics.
What would happen if I put my hand in a particle accelerator?
Nothing. You’re being hit by particles from cosmic and Earth radiation all the time. Most are stopped by clothing or even just your skin, but some cosmic rays are more energetic than we produce in accelerators.
How many detectors have been constructed at the Large Hadron Collider?
Seven detectors have been constructed at the LHC, located underground in large caverns excavated at the LHC’s intersection points. Two of them, the ATLAS experiment and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), are large general-purpose particle detectors.
What is the abbreviation for Large Hadron Collider?
For other uses, see LHC (disambiguation). The Large Hadron Collider ( LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle collider.
How are protons made in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?
The LHC protons originate from the small red hydrogen tank. Before being injected into the main accelerator, the particles are prepared by a series of systems that successively increase their energy.
Is the Higgs boson predicted by the standard model?
On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 125 GeV. This particle is consistent with the Higgs boson but it will take further work to determine whether or not it is the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model.