Higgs Bosonand my Ballpoint

What is a teraelectronvolt

and why the crisis forced LHC

to find a Higgs boson

Daniel Crespin

The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) speeds up atoms (a nucleus is an atom

stripped of electrons) up to very large velocities. Atom beams crash against one another with energies up to 7 TeV, some 10 -6 J, or millionth joule. How much energy is this?

In the International System the unit of energy is the joule, J in short.

It is the work realized by a force of one newton (about 100 grams) along one meter.

It equals also the potential energy of a very large egg at one meter (three feet) heigth. When falling, the potential energy of the egg transforms into kinetic energy until it hits the ground with an energy of 1,0 J.

Another energy unit, a much smaller one, is the electronvolt, denoted eV.

It is the energy an electron aquires when pushed by a one volt tension.

A teraelectronvolt, abridged TeV, is one trillion (1012) electronvolts.

One joule equals 6,25 × 1018 eV, same as 6,25 million TeV.

1 J = 6.250.000.000.000.000.000 eV

= 6.250.000 TeV

BIC Cristal ballpoints are among the cheapest. I have a blue one here atop my desk. The cap of my BIC weights 1,0 grams (0,9 grams would be more precise), the hundredth part of 100 grams …

… and one centimeter is the hundredth part of one meter.

The cap, at one centimeter height above the desk, has potential energy equal to one hundredth of hundredth of a joule, or 10-4 J, one ten-thousandth joule, equal also to one ten-thousandth of the falling egg, and hundredfold the 10-6 Jof the LHC ...

… I let the cap go, it falls, bounces, makes noise, and stands still.

In less than one second an energy amount of 10-4 J dissipated in the form of sound and heat.

But the 10-6 J of the LHC is 100 times less energy.

What weights 100 times less than the cap?

A square piece of bond paper, 12 × 12 millimeters, when crumpled, becomes a small paper ball that has 2 millimeter diameter and weigths 1 centigram. Falling from 1 centimeter it hits the desk with almost inaudible noise and stops. This little falling paper ball has dissipated 7 TeV of energy. Same energy as atoms colliding inside the LHC.

The paper ball collides against the desk with energy 7 TeV.

The atoms collide inside the LHC with energy 7 TeV.

Furthermore, the LHC aims atoms toward a small volume where collisions can be seen as fireworks. These atomic collisions are more or less repeatable, and happen inside a laboratory where experiments can be set up and measurements are taken.

The atomic mass of lead is 208.

The mass of the paper ball is 3 × 1021 times larger than the mass of an atom of lead.

The paper ball weighs three billion trillion times more than one atom of lead.

= 3.000.000.000.000.000.000.000

Collision energies of 7 TeV, as inside the LHC, or when the small paper ball

falls one centimeter, and much larger energies up to 10.000.000 TeV, are observed in cosmic rays, for example, the Oh-My-God particle, a natural phenomenon.

It seems unlikely the 7 TeV of the LHC will ever produce a planetary catastrophe, as feared by some.

If the LHC could accelerate a 9mm caliber lead bullet (weighing 8 grams)

providing all its atoms with an energy of 7 TeV the total energy would be 3,85 megatons, triple the maximum energy of a B83, the most popular of thermonuclear bombs. It would be a fearsome lead bomb.

Comparing the lead atoms accelerated by the LHC with hydrogen bombs is ridiculous, but can impress the naive and originates the myth of particles within the LHC having an enormous energy. After all, it is not really that much, not even compared with cosmic rays.

Summing up, the LHC gives a small energy, as measured against energies we humans use daily, to an extremely small particle, and does it in a more or less predictable, controllable, reproducible way, within a laboratory environment. Quite a technological feat.

The LHC is necessary in order to detect Higgs boson, a particle predicted by the standard theory and called God’s particle …

… that“explains” the origin of the Universe …

… allows ”viewing” how the Universe began …

… and, hopefully, makes time travel possible.

Even Stephen Hawking , a Pop Physics star and favorite of reporters, admitted he made a mistake when he thought that the LHC would not be able to observe any Higgs boson.

Predicting, searching and finding is expensive and risky …

The cost of building the LHC was ten billion dollars, yearly operational cost is one billion dollars, and groups of theoretical physicists questionthe highly publicized finding.

In spite of an investment much higher than in the LHC,

and of using all cutting edge technologies,

it took 10 years to find out where Osama Bin Laden hid.

The Higgs boson has been predicted, and found by the LHC.

Let’s hope they predict the electron. Why don’t they predict its charge and mass with paper and pencil. No cathode ray tubes, no oil mist. And since the electron was already found in 1897, the billions for a LLC (large lepton collider) can be saved.

There was in Waxahachie, Texas, USA, a plan for a 20 TeV collider, the Superconducting Super Collider, or SSC, a.k.a. Desertron. Projected since 1983, with construction started in 1991, was canceled in 1993 due to excessive overhead costs.

Europe suffers economic septic shock …

… in bed next to the USA, intensive care unit.

After years of prodromes, the economic crisis burst in Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, USA, etc.

Politicians decided to rescue bankers, that finance their election campaigns, are overlords of media and originators of the crisis.

The economic shipwreck includes cuts in education …

… medical services ...

… retirements ...

… contraction of production …

… consumption decline …

… massive unemployment …

… evictions ...

… and many other social dramas daily reported by the press.

As was the case with Titanic passengers, second and third class citizens will only have remaining available places, if any, in the few lifeboats.

In this political scenario leaders of the LHC announce that they found, with 95% certainty, God’s particle.

Development of scientific and technological knowledge is welcome. But amid the economical crisis the LHC is a white elephant of 27 kilometers circumference.

The LHC, according to its authorities, found Higgs boson. So much the better…

The time of guillotining costs has arrived. Members of parliaments are devoted to pleasing bankers. What would they do if after more than a decade and billions of financing, the LHC did not find something? The LHC would take the neoliberal charette to the same fate than Louis XVI and Antoine Lavoisier.

And how regrettable if the LHC is used to originate new and terrible weapons, worse that the ones the world already suffers.

In contrast with Physics, there will never be a great 10 billion dollar undertakingin Biology, Chemistry, Engineering or Medicine, with social transcendence and practical applications limited to the media scene. For that money any sane society asks for a proportioned return of services that are necessary and cannot be obtained with a smaller investment.

Let science be a useful activity for a more just and peaceful world.

Daniel Crespin

Oteyeva, July 21, 2012

danielcrespinbryden gmail.com