Of Particular Significance

LHC Starts Collisions; and a Radio Interview Tonight

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON 05/06/2015

In the long and careful process of restarting the Large Hadron Collider [LHC] after its two-year nap for upgrades and repairs, another milestone has been reached: protons have once again collided inside the LHC’s experimental detectors (named ATLAS, CMS, LHCb and ALICE). This is good news, but don’t get excited yet. It’s just one small step. These are collisions at the lowest energy at which the LHC operates (450 GeV per proton, to be compared with the 4000 GeV per proton in 2012 and the 6500 GeV per proton they’ve already achieved in the last month, though in non-colliding beams.) Also the number of protons in the beams, and the number of collisions per second, is still very, very small compared to what will be needed. So discoveries are not imminent!  Yesterday’s milestone was just one of the many little tests that are made to assure that the LHC is properly set up and ready for the first full-energy collisions, which should start in about a month.

But since full-energy collisions are on the horizon, why not listen to a radio show about what the LHC will be doing after its restart is complete? Today (Wednesday May 6th), Virtually Speaking Science, on which I have appeared a couple of times before, will run a program at 5 pm Pacific time (8 pm Eastern). Science writer Alan Boyle will be interviewing me about the LHC’s plans for the next few months and the coming years. You can listen live, or listen later once they post it.  Here’s the link for the program.

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42 Responses

  1. I still have a hard time understanding how people can make statements without proof on this site, and have an actual discussion about it.

    1. I have a hard time understanding how physicists can’t understand the particle always travels through a single slit in a double slit experiment?

      Are they unable to understand a boat travels through a single slit in a boat double slit experiment when they close their eyes?

      Q. Why is the particle always detected traveling through a single slit in a double slit experiment?
      A. It always travels through a single slit. It is the associated wave in the dark mass which passes through both.

        1. Accepted by whom?

          It’s like its impossible for the ‘water and boat’ experts to realize boats move through and displace the water.

          The Milky Way moves through and curves spacetime.

          The Milky Way moves through and displaces the dark mass.

          The state of displacement of the dark mass *is* curved spacetime.

          1. By Nassim Haramein and many other researchers. This spacetime that waves back is more than a passive medium vibrating when displaced, it is a dynamic, and torques, spin, and Coriolis force in this fabric of spacetime driven by a black hole / white hole (BlackWhole) dynamic -see http://hiup.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/torque_paper.pdf

            I know it is accepted by many, because there are many theorists and technologist pursing technology that is now made possible by this unified physics theory AND NOT explained by mainstream science.

            There are many things mainstream science does not and CANNOT explain.

          2. Who in mainstream physics understands it is the dark mass that waves in a double slit experiment?

    2. Most statements are without proof here. In physics it’s oft impossible to go out and prove anything yourself so most of us rely on the fact that a given statement is accepted by mainstream physics. Once you reject that then any statement is as good as any other and open to discussion.

      1. There is evidence of the dark mass every time a double slit experiment is performed, it’s what waves.

        The Milky Way’s halo is lopsided due to the Milky Way moving through and displacing the dark mass.

        There is an offset between the light lensing through the space neighboring galaxy clusters and the center of the galaxy clusters themselves due to the galaxy clusters moving through and displacing the dark mass.

        The ripple created when galaxy clusters collide is a wave in the dark mass analogous to the bow waves of two boats interacting as the boats pass by each other closely.

        What ripples when galaxy clusters collide is what waves in a double slit experiment, the dark mass.

        It doesn’t matter how much evidence there is that boats move through and displace the water if you insist on not understanding boats move through and displace the water.

  2. Proton decay :
    “Is the neutrino a goldstone particle?”
    A neutrino is a spin-1/2 fermion, not a boson. Suppose two massive neutrinos form a Bose-Einstein condensate, with effective spin-0 (analogous to Cooper pairs of electrons, an effective boson in superconductivity).

    Goldstone boson and Right-handed neutrinos (like electron-positron) will annihiliate at vacuum state ?
    But “Time dilation and Rest Mass cannot coexist” (time dilation derived from Lorentz invariance), this annihilation does not happen ?

    The symmetey of vacuum state was broken in favour of Chosing Gravity (massive) – But right-hand neutrinos always try to annihilate – making the paradox of anti-Gravity (space expansion or dark energy) ?

    1. You really have to go back to basics, to the fundamental statements of The Standard model and the definitions of all of these “”particles”” you are discussing. The stability of the proton is billions of years, and this and the island of stability is easily comprehended in the framework of the unified physics.

      This requires a worldview change and different thinking even before one begins.

  3. ‘Hubble Scientists Map a Massive Halo of Gas Around Andromeda Galaxy’
    nbcnews [dot] com/science/space/hubble-team-maps-huge-halo-gas-around-andromeda-galaxy-n355521

    “The nearly invisible halo has half as much mass as all the stars in Andromeda combined, and perhaps more — so could such halos account for the mysterious dark matter that astronomers have been puzzling over? Not even close, Lehner said. “It’s a very massive halo, but it’s still less than a tenth the mass of the dark matter,” he told NBC News.”

    Physicists are starting to realize the notions of dark matter and the dark matter particle are incorrect. They are referring to the mass which fills ’empty’ space as the ‘dark mass’ in order to distinguish it from the baggage associated with dark matter.

    ‘Dark Energy/Dark Mass: The Slient Truth’
    tienzengong [dot] wordpress [dot] com/2015/04/22/dark-energydark-mass-the-silent-truth/

    “That is, all that we are certain about [is] the dark mass, not dark matter, let alone to say about the dark ‘particle’.”

    Particles of matter move through and displace the dark mass, including ‘particles’ as large as galaxies and galaxy clusters.

    The Andromeda Galaxy is not traveling with a clump of dark matter analogous to the gas in its halo.

    The Andromeda Galaxy is moving through and displacing the dark mass.

    The state of displacement of the dark mass is curved spacetime.

    1. Yes, very close to a complete description of the nature of the vacuum. Simply to your wavy fabric of spacetime add a super-fluid like dynamical Aether – a vacuum energy density fluctuation – a super-crystalline fabric of spacetime that is circulating in a dual-toroidal-like flow powered by a black hole / white hole dynamic where all information is conserved.

      This is the fundamental dynamic that powers the universe.

    1. phxmarker,

      Having an equation for the Proton radius does NOT solve the Proton radius puzzle.

      The puzzle, assuming there even is one, is a small discrepancy (~4%) between the proton radius as measured by muons (~.841 fm) versus the radius as measured by electrons (~.878 fm). These experiments are not simple and it is possible that something has been overlooked, so there may be no puzzle…or it is possible that the discrepancy is real and indicates physics beyond the Standard Model. Further experiments are planned.

      Also your equation is overly complicated. Why not just say that you believe the proton radius = 4λp where λp is simply the reduced Compton wavelength of the proton? You will get the same number without including unneeded constants, like ‘G’ which cancel out.

      1. It’s way more than an equation that works, it’s a deep theory behind the deviation of the equation.

        It is an extension to the standard work of Einstein and Planck.

        The theory, logic, and measurements that are the scientific method are being used as is standard practice.

        1. phxmarker.blogspot.com is going over the theoretical derivation of MpRp=4LM (proton mass.radius relationship and origin of mass), step by step, and as anyone who ever has peer reviewed an article for a technical journal or authored an article for a peer reviewed journal (IEEE author, M. Rohrbaugh = phxmarker), reviewing a technical paper IS A LOT OF WORK. Nassim’s 30+ years of work will take many years to review…

  4. I was referring to the ‘dark mass’ referred in the following.

    ‘Dark energy/dark mass: the silent truth’
    https://tienzengong.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/dark-energydark-mass-the-silent-truth/

    “Matt is right if and only if the dark matter is made of ‘particles’ which is a preconceived notion, total speculation. The dark matter are inferred from the galaxies gravitation data and the CMB (Cosmic microwave background) data analysis. That is, all that we are certain is about the dark mass, not dark matter, let alone to say about the dark ‘particle’.”

    Dark mass is an awesome label to distinguish it from the baggage associated with dark matter.

    The Milky Way’s halo is not a clump of dark matter anchored to the Milky Way.

    The Milky Way moves through and curves spacetime.

    The Milky Way moves through and displaces the dark mass.

    The Milky Way’s halo is the state of displacement of the dark mass.

    The state of displacement of the dark mass is curved spacetime.

    The Milky Way’s halo *is* curved spacetime.

    1. We have paradox, whether there is distinguish between proton and neutron or not, like in quantum decoherence, we (nature) “chose” one, ie.. the difference – that become 99% of the mass ?

      All the observable or speculated phenomena like Aether, Piolet waves, Spacetime, Gravitational waves, were all confirm this “CHOSE” of the nature.

      We can also choose another one at higher energies – if we could create the Paradox, the INVOLUTION.

      Proto-Proton collision shows, the unfolding (decay) of particles as fundamental waves to its reality of masslessness (photons).
      In MORE SPACE, energy of photons is increased. In “reverse”, If energy of photon increased, means more Space.
      At high energy, there will be Paradox, whether there will be singularity (Black hole) or “oppisite” ie.. More Space.

      More space means Dark Energy – the decay of Proton. ?

      1. Our Universe is a larger version of a galactic polar jet.

        ‘Was the universe born spinning?’
        physicsworld [dot] com

        “The universe was born spinning and continues to do so around a preferred axis”

        Our Universe spins around a preferred axis because it is a larger version of a galactic polar jet.

        ‘Mysterious Cosmic ‘Dark Flow’ Tracked Deeper into Universe’
        nasa [dot] gov

        “The clusters appear to be moving along a line extending from our solar system toward Centaurus/Hydra, but the direction of this motion is less certain. Evidence indicates that the clusters are headed outward along this path, away from Earth, but the team cannot yet rule out the opposite flow. “We detect motion along this axis, but right now our data cannot state as strongly as we’d like whether the clusters are coming or going,” Kashlinsky said.”

        The clusters are headed along this path because our Universe is a larger version of a polar jet.

        It’s not the Big Bang; it’s the Big Ongoing.

        Dark energy is dark mass continuously emitted into the Universal jet.

      2. We cannot find gravity, by quantum decoherence, we can only choose between Gravity and AntiGravity (dark eneegy) – What we call decay.
        Lorentz invariance is not always intact. Nature chose gravity by eating !? Goldstone bosons, but the paradox (involution) chose proton decay (dark enetgy).

        So the space expansion is the apperance of other side of the paradox ?

        1. Dark energy is not related to decay.

          Dark energy are the effects caused by the dark mass continually emitted into the Universal jet.

          1. George Chapline says that ordinary matter would break apart because the protons and neutrons in the matter would disintegrate. Further, Chapline says black holes do not really exist. Instead, he proposes that the mass of compact astrophysical objects consists of the same dark energy that makes up 60 percent of the mass of the universe.

            According to general relativity, a black hole results from the death of a massive star and its eventual collapse under its own gravity to a single point; space and time switch places inside a boundary called an “event horizon.” Quantum mechanics, however, dictates that space and time continue to play their usual roles inside compact objects, causing a whole barrage of strange behavior – behavior that Chapline says occurs in a dark energy star as well as on Earth when studying quantum critical phenomena. In such phenomena, small changes in the external conditions of a material can cause dramatic and anomalous subatomic changes, called quantum phase transitions, in the material’s properties.

            But information is not lost only if Lorentz invariance is intact – as in the case of creation of Maas through Higgs mechanism – without Chiral Anomaly. Matter decay into dark energy is complete Phase (Vacuum) transsition – different nucleation (choise).
            Dark energy cannot be retrieved, if we tunnel into it by Choise – it expands forever.

          2. Our universe is a larger version of the following artist’s image of a galactic polar jet.

            discovermagazine [dot] com/~/media/import/images/c/9/4/mcg63015.jpg

            Dark energy is dark mass continuously emitted into the Universal jet.

  5. Just listened to your interview. Your usual clear explanations! Reviewing a lot of things I have read in this blog but one comment puzzled me: You mentioned that a top quark, or something like a top quark has an effect on the Higgs field, pushing it more on, or more off. Now I have followed your articles on field theory and the Higgs field in particular. (I admit to zoning out a bit when you mention ALL of the known particles) But I don’t recall your mentioning that some heavy particle could influence the Higgs’ field strength. I assume you mentioned it, but I confess to not understanding how this works at the moment. Can I have a pointer?

    Thanks, Sue

  6. Sorry numbers may have been publish which I am not aware of but, considering that there were scientists who were concerned about the LHC possibly creating black holes (albeit micro) now that the energies are increasing, is there a threshold (range) of energy that could create a large enough momentums that could collapse to a black hole?

    1. OakTree, It is possible that the LHC may create microscopic black holes, but not possible that these black holes would be of any concern to Earth. The short answer why is that collisions of much higher energy than will be available at the LHC have already been occurring in Earth’s atmosphere from cosmic rays, and we are still here. I seem to recall Prof. Strassler discussing this topic before, but I was not able to find the article in a quick search. A recent and thorough explanation of this topic is at Starts With A Bang by Ethan Siegel, here: https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/could-the-lhc-make-an-earth-killing-black-hole-886d9e600c28

      1. “So even if you make a black hole, and even if the laws of physics that we know are wrong and it lives forever, it is still harmless. No matter how many of the laws of physics you throw out, revise or tweak, the Earth will still be okay.” … Ethan Siegel

        This analysis sounds weak, since if you assume the laws of physics are wrong then you really don’t know the rate at which the BH will “gobble up” (fuse the resonances) the protons.

        1. Siegel’s analysis is weak only if you take that statement out of context. You are ignoring the first point – that the universe has been bombarding Earth with higher-energy particles than available at the LHC for a long time, and we are still here. So even if our understanding of black hole physics turns out to be completely wrong, the fact that high-energy collisions in the atmosphere that dwarf what the LHC can do have been happening, and have not destroyed us, means we don’t have to worry about the LHC.

    2. It is possible though not expected, and if so it would be a remarkable theoretical boon. But small black holes are quite harmless. The universe itself has only managed to send us a proton with the energy of a baseball. A black hole with a mass of a million tons, far, far above that, would be smaller than a proton. It would fall *through* atoms maybe bumping into a proton by sheer chance. At the same time it would be emitting several kilos of radiation per second so there would be no way it could ‘eat’ enough mass to survive.

      1. No Black holes. Black holes are formed due to Quantization (by strong force) – of change from one quark to another – where Lorentz invariance is intact – and all have left handed “Chirality”.

        We can only choose between either Gravity or AntiGravity (paradox). The choose of Gravity by the Nature made masslessness of photons and left-handedness of weak interaction.

        (.) Why my mirror image is not me ? – The handedness of polorized light is also reversed when it is reflected off of a surface at normal incidence.
        (.) My mirror image will be me, if the Reversal of Handedness happens by “Phase (vacuum)” change !

        In Quantization, there is a “flip” at ground (vacuum) level. Nature does not quantize, only Humans (phenomena) quantize. The “flip” does not fit into it – leading to quantum corrections in weak interactions.
        Like Van der Waal’s interrection, residual of the strong interaction is the quantum correction of quantization.

        ‘There is no reason why an invariance of the Hamiltonian of a quantum-mechanical system should also be an invariance of the ground state of the system” – Coleman (1975), when introducing the notion of spontaneous symmetry breaking.

        The Gravitational interaction is responsible for the attractive force betewwn Masses.

        1. …. Neutrino mixing is not possible if neutrinos are purely left-handed.
          Because neutrinos have Mass, neutrinos must not be entirely left-handed.
          There is a contribution from right-handed neutrinos which allow them to change Flavour as observed. Because right-handed neutrinos do not undergo weak interactions or any other StandardModel interaction, it is clear that they only undergo Gravitational interaction. Right handed neutrinos are the Dark matter of the Universe.
          The weak interaction is the only process in which a quark can change to another quark, or a lepton to another lepton – the so-called “flavor changes”.

          The weak interaction acts between both quarks and leptons, whereas the strong force does not act between leptons. “Leptons have no color, so they do not participate in the strong interactions.

          Helicity and Chirality are same at Masslessness…

          1. … Within our so called spacetime, in the Ground (vacuum) level, Helicity (left-handed) and Chirality are same. Only oppositee level the Chirality changes ?

            The Helicity of photons is called circular polarization. But because photons and their “antiparticles” are both electrically neutral, they are normally not distinguished, So the circular polarozation of a “photon” can be either left-handed or right-handed, which appears to justify the “conservation of parity” for electromagnetism.

            However, if the right-handed photon is actually an “antiproton”, then the parity Is not being conserved, because the “MIRROR IMAGE” of the photon with left handed helicity then an antiparticle, with opposite “CHIRALITY” – making the masslessness of photon, because chiraliry and helicity are same at masslessness.

            If the Chirality changes with Phase (vacuum) change, by Tunnellinh – then the particle become “Real”. My mirror image become “me” ?

            But the “Chiral Anomaly” produce Proton decay – changing Mass into Dark-energy, or antiGravity ?

          2. Gravity = the Choise.
            Mass appears due to Righthandedness.
            So right-handed neutrino only reacts Gravitationally.
            The cause for mass is not within spacetime or Lorentz invariance. ?

  7. I hope you get an opportunity to discuss ‘dark mass’.

    Particles of matter move through and displace the dark mass, including ‘particles’ as large as galaxies and galaxy clusters.

    What ripples when galaxy clusters collide is what waves in a double slit experiment; the dark mass.

    Einstein’s gravitational wave is de Broglie’s wave of wave-particle duality; both are waves in the dark mass.

    Dark mass displaced by matter relates general relativity and quantum mechanics.

      1. The ‘fabric’ of spacetime is the mass which fills ’empty’ space.

        You are correct, it isn’t dark matter. It’s the ‘dark mass’ particles of matter move through and displace.

        It is the dark mass that waves.

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