Scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research fired up their weapon again in April. The collider has been offline for three years for repairs and improvements. The collider will start creating sparks of primordial energy in July.
The great game of searching for the secret of the universe is about to be resumed. Nature could be hiding something amazing, even before the collider was renovated. The data from his previous runs was the most exciting set of results I have seen in my career.
Physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) made global headlines a decade ago with the discovery of a long-sought particle. What are the last things to be found? Physicists say it's almost everything.
The universe was at stake when the collider was first turned on. The biggest and most powerful machine ever built was designed to find the particle that gives rise to the universe. The Standard Model is a set of equations that explains everything scientists have been able to measure about the particles in the universe.
The Standard Model doesn't explain where the universe came from. It's made of matter, not antimatter. There is a dark matter in the universe. The mass of the particle.
The large collider was supposed to answer some questions in 2010. There was no new particle that could explain the nature of dark Matter. The standard model was unshaken.
At the end of last year, the collider was shut down for repairs. According to the current schedule, the collider will shut down for two more years in order to install new equipment. Improvements to the giant detectors that sit at the four points where the protons collide are included in the upgrade. The work that those detectors will have to do is going to be difficult.
Data will be coming in at a faster rate than before. There will be more than one collision at each beam crossing.
It makes our lives harder because we have to be able to find the things we are interested in. It means you are more likely to see the thing you are looking for.
A variety of experiments have shown possible cracks in the Standard Model. The results involve rare behaviors of particles that are not familiar to most people.
Last year the muon became famous. Fat electrons have the same negative electrical charge, but are 207 times larger. When muons were discovered in 1936, Isador Rabi asked who ordered that.
Nobody knows where muons fit in the bigger picture. They are created by collider events and decay radioactively in a matter of seconds.
A group of 200 physicists from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois reported last year that muons spinning in a magnetic field had wobbled faster than predicted.
In the eighth decimal place of the g-2 value, there was a discrepancy between theoretical predictions and actual results.
The fractional but real difference to the quantum whisper of as-yet-unknown particles was attributed by scientists. The Standard Model would be broken by confirmation of the existence of the particles.
Two groups of theorists are trying to reconcile their predictions of what g-2 should be while waiting for more data from the experiment.
Aida X. El-Khadra is a physicist at the University of Illinois who helped lead a three-year effort called the Muon g-2 Theory Initiative. I think the cracks in the Standard Model will cause an earthquake. The exact location of the cracks could still be a target.
The muon is in a different situation. A particle called a B quark, one of six types of quark, is the main character in this drama. It's possible that B is for bottom or beauty. There are two quarks in B mesons. The quarks are prone to fall apart in ways that seem to violate the standard model.
There are some decays of a B quark that involve a daisy chain of reactions, ending in a different, lighter kind of quark and a pair of lightweight particles. The Standard Model believes that both electrons and muons will show up. The heavier lepton called the tau decays too fast to be observed. There are more electron pairs than muon pairs.
The Standard Model could be killed by the B quarks. The muon's magnetic anomalies hint at a particle or force interfering with the reaction.
If this data holds up in the upcoming collider run, it's possible that it's a leptoquark. The gap between the two classes of particle that make up the material universe could be bridged if the particle existed. There are six different types of quarks and six different types of leptons.
There is more optimism that there could be a revolution. There's a chance.
The weak force responsible for radioactive decay is conveyed by the W boson, a strange particle. A 10-year effort to measure the mass of this particle was reported by physicists in May.
The unit of mass-energy favored by physicists is the W boson's weight. 125 billion electron volts is equal to the weight of an atom. The C.D.F. measurement of the W was higher than expected. There was only one chance in 2 trillion, according to the experimenters.
If it holds up, it could be another crack in the standard model.
With more data, the hopes for a revolution could be wiped out. All three points in the same direction towards hidden particles or forces interfering with known physics.
Kyle Cranmer is a physicist at the University of Wisconsin who works at the L.H.C.
At least 70 papers have been published suggesting explanations for the new W-mass discrepancy.
New particles that may be accessible to the L.H.C. are required in many of the explanations. Did I mention that? There are a lot of things to keep an eye out for.
The upcoming run will be exciting, said Dr. We want to see what we have and whether there is something exciting in the data.
It's possible to go through a scientific career and not say that once. It feels good.
There is a guide to the space craft.
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