Particle tracks seen in the LHCb vertex detector (VELO) and triggered by the experiment's calorimeter during synchronization tests
The largest piece of scientific apparatus in the world, which will aim to recreate a fireball of energy similar to the energy conditions of the universe one billionth of a second after the Big Bang, has moved one step closer to its launch on 10 September thanks to a team of researchers, led by Dr Ronan McNulty, from UCD’s School of Physics.
The €6 billion giant particle collider, known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is housed at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in a 27km long tunnel 100 metres underground in the Swiss city of Geneva.
To create these Big Bang energy conditions, protons will be accelerated in opposite directions at almost the speed of light and colliding them at four points on the 27km ring. The research scientists involved hope that this will, in time, deliver new data which will shed light on fundamental questions about our universe such as: what is mass, what makes up dark matter, and is there a new ‘supersymmetric’ form of matter? According to UCD physicist, Dr Ronan McNulty, answers to these questions will likely result in a Nobel Prize.
The successful test of the experiment which the UCD team carried out on 22 August involved firing particles down the transfer line from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator to the LHC over a 3km section.
UCD has the only experimental particle physics research programme in Ireland and the university’s research team has been involved with CERN since 2003. Dr McNulty commented: “I am very excited about this. For UCD and the School of Physics, it is very important. We are at the start of a very large programme of research in which scientists from across the world have collaborated. It is cutting edge scientific research comparable to the Hubble Telescope or even the moon landing.”
Dr McNulty believes that the really important scientific findings will begin to emerge in about three years’ time. “It will need up to 20,000 connected computers to analyse the data emerging and UCD’s School of Computer Science and Informatics will play an important role in grid linking these computers around the world.”
Related Links:
