Can particle physics at the LHC have a practical purpose? | 125 comments (125 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Mention LHC, someone's gonna ask ... (none / 0)

I think you're talking about concerns that a quark gluon plasma could recreate the conditions near the big bang to the extent of producing a primordial black hole which would then proceed to swallow the earth whole.

There is no experimental evidence of primordial black holes and the theoretical evidence is tenuous (mostly based on "semiclassical" reasoning). In addition, a quark-gluon plasma has already been produced in heavy ion collisions in other experimental facilities and we're still here.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 04:18:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mention LHC, someone's gonna ask ... (none / 0)

Actually I thought nicta's comment was already enough on that.

Although I'm not sure if sun winds really have LHC energies, cosmic rays can have up to 10^7 times the energy of the LHC as reported by the Auger collaboration.
So whatever is created at the LHC, it was already created by cosmic rays.

If it is created, and that would likely require rather big extra dimensions, Hawking radiation will likely destroy it in about 10^(-40) seconds. The nice thing about is is (a) it would immediately prove really fancy new physics, and (b) it is very easy to detect, as a lot of muons (heavy electrons) come out of it.

Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den Menschen
Volker Pispers

by Martin (weiser.mensch(at)googlemail.com) on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 05:26:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mention LHC, someone's gonna ask ... (none / 1)

Martin:

Although I'm not sure if sun winds really have LHC energies, cosmic rays can have up to 10^7 times the energy of the LHC as reported by the Auger collaboration.
So whatever is created at the LHC, it was already created by cosmic rays.

You're forgetting the luminosity... though cosmic rays have been at it for geological time...

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 05:29:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mention LHC, someone's gonna ask ... (none / 1)

And if it is a supersucking Black Hole, it could suck Jupiter or the sun or any neighbour star as well. So the effective area we have to observe this is really big.

Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den Menschen
Volker Pispers

by Martin (weiser.mensch(at)googlemail.com) on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 05:43:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mention LHC, someone's gonna ask ... (none / 0)

And (sorry, me again) another objection is that 'Hawking radiation' has never actually been observed and might not exist, so that whatever is created might not be destroyed in such a short time frame. Is that true or not?

by wing26 on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 08:13:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mention LHC, someone's gonna ask ... (none / 0)

Hawking radiation is another "semiclassical" result. IMHO Hawking radiation is much more solid than primordial black holes, theoretically speaking.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 03:47:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mention LHC, someone's gonna ask ... (none / 0)

So to sum up:
There is no theoretical model which predicts sucking the world.
Any black hole going through the earth would as well leave some wholes, even if it would not suck the earth, so even the cosmic ray argument is completely valid. We would have observed the beasts.

Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den Menschen
Volker Pispers

by Martin (weiser.mensch(at)googlemail.com) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 09:01:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Can particle physics at the LHC have a practical purpose? | 125 comments (125 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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