A person stands in front of the huge ATLAS detector, one of six detectors that are part of the Large HadronCollider near Geneva. (Credit: Maximilien Brice, CERN)
“What we did was a calculation,” Choptuik tells PhysOrg.com. “Wesolved some of the Einstein field equations describing head on solitoncollisions at certain energies.” Choptuik and Pretorius present theirwork, and their conclusions, in Physical Review Letters: “Ultrarelativistic Particle Collisions.”
“Our calculation produced results that most were expecting, but noone had done the calculation before. People were just sort of assumingthat it would work out,” Choptuik says. “Now that these simulations havebeen done, some scientists will have a better idea of what to look forin terms of trying to see if black holes are formed in LHC collisions.”
Choptuik points out that there has been an effort for more than 50years to marry particle physics with the idea of gravity.“At the level of classical physics we think we understand gravitypretty well,” he explains. “However, at the quantum mechanical level,gravity is not at all well understood. Scientists have been looking for away to understand quantum gravity in the same way as we understand howthe smallest particles work on a quantum level. While solving theseequations doesn’t answer all the questions, it does substantiate what wehave already assumed.”
One of the keys to the principles behind these field calculations is string theory. String theory suggests that there areseveral dimensions beyond the three spatial dimensions (plus time) thatwe see in classical physics. “If extra dimensions doexist, they could be as large as 10s to 100s of a micrometer. And ifthose extra dimensions are big enough, then there is a chance that theparticle collisions at the LHC might be able to form black holes,”Choptuik says.
Of course, these black holes would be quite tiny, and difficult todetect. On top of that, they would evaporate almost instantly, making iteven more difficult to detect whether they had even existed. “Incollision like this, you would have to look at the debris,” Choptuikexplains. “You’d look at the decay pattern in space. In a normalcollision, you would get jets of debris. If a black hole was created andevaporated, the pattern would look more spherical than jet-like.”
However, the fact that the solution of these Einstein fieldequations suggests that black hole formation could be possible at theLHC is a far cry from actually detecting it. “Some are already takingthis very seriously,” Choptuik says. “However, I don’t think that we arelikely to actually see any black holes at the LHC, even if it is possible.”
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More information: Matthew Choptuik and Frans Pretorius, “Ultrarelativistic Particle Collisions,” Physical ReviewLetters (2010). Available online:http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.111101
Copyright 2010 PhysOrg.com.
Replies
There was a remake of the film starring Guy Pearce.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leA_X_gYzRs
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268695/
I posted this--> "I just noticed the date of the article. April the 1st! It's an April Fool's joke." after the first comment when I realized it was April fool's. Confirming my suspicions the story wasn't real. :)
Here's an interesting article by Dr Bruce Goldberg on time travelers he met. http://www.drbrucegoldberg.com/TimeTravelers2.htm
"Maybe in the future they've discovered how to convert rubbish or whatever he was looking for in the bins into fuel."
^This was a rhetorical statement. I know there's technology that exists today to convert waste into energy. In the future they probably could invent/create a device that is compact in size to be used as a "power unit."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10140500-54.html
http://www.ecoworld.com/energy-fuels/ist-energy-to-provide-onsite-w...
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/converting-waste-renewable-...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html
1. "He was attempting to disrupt by stopping supplies of Mountain Dew to the experiment's vending machines"
How can disrupting supplies of Mountain dew to the vending machines prevent the Hadron Collider from working? Was he planning to kill the Haldron collider operators from thirst?
2. "CERN security guards spotted him rooting around in bins. He explained that he was looking for fuel for his 'time machine power unit', a device that resembled a kitchen blender."
What's he doing searching for fuel in bins for his "time machine power unit?" Thinking logically I assume a "power unit" would require fuel that originates from an advanced scientific lab of some sort and not from bins. Maybe in the future they've discovered how to convert rubbish or whatever he was looking for in the bins into fuel.
3. "The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I'm here to stop it ever happening."
Is this an example of humour/sarcasm from the future? Good to know humour hasn't died in the future. Or was he being serious? I'm looking forward to the future, especially when limitless power and elimination of poverty becomes a reality. Actually, we don't have to wait for the future with technology that provides"Limitless power." It's already been invented but the knowledge has remained hidden because of the elite/darkhats. Eloi Cole's story isn't convincing and the article contains several flaws. It would need to be verified/confirmed from various sources. Thanks for posting it because I do have an interest in time traveling.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49305387,00.htm