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I've just come back from mars

Can some one please bring me up to speed as to the purpose of the LHC .

I understand experiments are going to be carried out - what are these experiments - how long will they take ?

Merci

BertiWooster Thurs 04/09/08 00:47

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Azalian
Thurs 04/09/08
03:48

The machine is looking for several things.

Evidence of Supersymmetry, (SUSY)

the existence (or not) of the Higgs gauge boson

The function of the b meson.

Any other exotic particles not yet seen by smaller less powerful smashers

jake-the-peg
Thurs 04/09/08
08:23

You must have been on Mars a long time this started off when Maggie was at the helm.

The prime purpose of the LHC is to attempt to discover the Higgs Boson. At the time the science minister William Waldegrave - a history graduate (don't laugh it's not funny) - set a competition to the science community.

Explain in words that a politician can understand on 1 side of A4 what is the Higgs Boson and why should we try to find it.

The prize was a crate of vintage champagne (I told you he was a history graduate)

The winning entry was this:

http://www.etp.physik.uni-muenchen.de/fp-versu ch/node18.html

It will take many years. The Atlas detector which is the main "microscope" part of the LHC is the largest scientific intrument ever built and the computers needed to analyse the data is the largest computing array on the planet. The data is the equivilent of 100,000 DVDs a year.

Its a big job

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