Next Big Bang in 2008?

The 17-mile-long tunnel on the Swiss-France border could usher in another miracle year

MUMBAI: Not much is known about the Big Bang – the explosion which is said to have created the Universe. A thorough knowledge about it eludes even scientists. However, come 2008, it seems that the conditions thought to have existed 13 billion years ago will be recreated in a 17-mile-long tunnel on the Swiss-France border. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), scheduled to get operational in May 2008, may be the biggest thing ever in experimental physics.

Physicists hope that the LHC, which is the biggest and highest energy particle accelerator, will be able to find the elusive Higgs boson and other mysterious particles that hold the key to a clear picture of the Universe — from its beginning to the present.  Higgs boson, also called the “God particle”, is the key to understanding the nature of matter. “By studying Higgs boson, we will understand how nature has organized itself,” said Professor Mayank Vahia from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Physicists also expect LHC experiments to provide information about dark matter, a mysterious entity which exists but cannot be seen or traced. It accounts for a majority of ‘matter’ in the Universe.

By recreating the primordial conditions where all the four forces were supposed to be together, physicists hope they could come up with a ‘Theory of Everything’; one that accommodates the forces of nature .

The LHC could provide a conclusive answer to this ultimate theory, something which many scientists, including Albert Einstein had been trying to figure out. Physicists also believe LHC could produce new elementary particles. The $8 billion project would be a litmus test for physics and physicists and  also put the credibility of many particle physics theories to test.

Using 14 trillion electron volts of energy,  the LHC will smash protons or lead ions head on. Four detectors around the tunnel would track specific particles. The protons would be accelerated along the tunnel with the help of superconducting magnets. These would be cooled by 128 tonnes of liquid helium. The operating temperature of LHC would be 1.9 degree Kelvin or -271 degree Celsius, slightly above Absolute Zero.

If the LHC produces spectacular results, 2008 would be hailed as another miracle year — the first being 1905 in which Einstein proposed a series of papers, including the one related to Special Relativity.