LARGE HADRON COLLIDER

OUTLIN E
In the Presentation, I will be dealing with: Basic explanation on terms like The Atom, Mass, Forces, and the Higgs Field. Basic questions concerning the What, How, Why, Where of LHC The Principal working of the LHC Showing you a Picture Gallery of the LHC along with a Video

The LHC is the biggest scientific experiment in the world.

OVERVI EW

The LHC is the largest and most expensive machine ever built. It involves a team of about 10000 scientists from all over the world. It has taken about 16 years of hard work to build.

WHERE ? Located near the

Franco-Swiss border in Geneva, Switzerland. Tunnel 27 km in circumference, 175 m deep.

Matter, everything around us, is made up of fundamental building blocks, called Atoms.

A BITE OF THE ATOM

Atoms ,further comprise of particles. Mainly Protons, Neutrons and Electrons.

The atom is extremely small in size, and the particles are smaller further.

A BITE OF THE ATOM

Particle Physics is the study of the very tiny particles, and their interaction with other particles.

A BITE OF THE ATOM

These are the distances that Particle Physics and the LHC works with.

A BITE OF THE ATOM MASS

The amount of matter present in a body, is in simple terms, its mass.

It is evident that the subatomic particles give every body its mass. But physicists are now asking the question: What gives everything Mass?

Matter occupies Space. Therefore, what we see as empty space, isn t empty at all.

A BITE OF THE ATOM

Forces that we feel in day to day life are due to exchange of special particles. In Physics, a Field is any region in space where force-carrying particles can interact.

According to a theory, something called the Higgs Field is the field where particles interact with each other, resulting in mass.

A BITE OF THE ATOM

This special particle, which interacts with other subatomic particles to give mass, is called the Higgs Boson.

Imagine yourself in a party. The party here, is the Higgs Field. All people are happily chatting with other people (interaction).

A BITE OF THE ATOM

THE SAME IS WITH THE HIGGS FIELD!!

Suddenly, a very important person enters the party. At once, everyone in the room surrounds the VIP (strong interaction)

A BITE OF THE ATOM With that bit of background, let us

now see how the LHC works and WHY IT IS HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

HOW IT WORKS
It is the world s Largest Particle Accelerator, or in simple words, it is an atom smasher.

In it, particles like protons are accelerated at 99.99% the speed of light. Two beams of particles travelling in opposite directions then collide.

HOW IT WORKS
The collisions between the particles are detected and are processed by supercomputers.

When particles collide with each other, new particles are formed. This is what scientists are looking for. The program is expected to give scientists a deeper understanding of nature.

HOW IT WORKS
How do scientists know when a new particle has been created?

SIMPLE. They study particle trajectory animations.

According to what we have seen with mass, the Heavier particles will travel less distance than the lighter particles, which will race!

WHY LHC?
The Large Hadron Collider replicates conditions present at the time of the Big Bang, in our Early Universe. Thus, something about the beginning of our universe can be learnt.

By collision of particles and formation of new particles, many unsolved problems in physics hope to be solved.

HOPES FROM LHC The Hunt is on for the elusive Higgs Boson,
which is thought to be the origin of mass in our universe. To understand the nature of Dark Matter, which is different from normal matter that accounts for 23% of our universe. To verify the existence of multiple dimensions (other than length-breadthheight), as predicted by a theory called String Theory.

LHC EXPLAINED The LHC can be explained easily using the

three words themselves:

1. LARGE 2. HADRON 3. COLLIDER

LLARGE

The Tunnel

Everything about it is Huge.

The Massive energies it generates

The Size of the Whole Apparatus

The Electromagnets

We have seen that the atom is made up of the subatomic particles - Electrons, Protons and Neutrons.

HHADRON All particles

inside the atom are bound together by forces.

But that s not where it stops. Protons and Neutrons are further made up of fundamental particles called Quarks.

In Particle Physics, A Hadron is any particle which is: Composed of Quarks

HHADRON

&
Bound by a force known as the Strong Force

A Proton
U, U and D - Quarks

The LHC accelerates Hadrons mostly Protons

Curved Line Force that holds together the quarks and the proton

CCOLLIDER
Collisions of particle beams (protons) are carried out at LHC.

Scientists record and study these collisions in hope to find newer particles.

ANTIMAT TER
Antimatter is the exact opposite of Matter. That is, for every particle of matter, there is an Antiparticle of Antimatter . But, when Antimatter and Matter meet together, they annihilate (destroy each other) to give out pure energy. At the beginning of the universe, there were just a little more particles of matter, than antimatter. These particles of matter make up what we see today.

HAPPENINGS AT THE LHC

The first Proton Beams were fired on 10 Sep 2008. On 24 May 2011, something called the Quark-Gluon Plasma, which is the second densest material after a Black Hole, was created at CERN. On Jun 5 2011, Antimatter was successfully stored for 16 minutes at LHC.

PICTURE GALLERY

PICTURE GALLERY

PICTURE GALLERY

PICTURE GALLERY

PICTURE GALLERY

EXPLANATORY VIDEO
Here s an explanatory video on the LHC, released by CERN itself. (http://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=qQNpucos9wc)

THANK YOU
Let the Questions fill the Room!
Presentation by Atharv Joshi