Mischievous baguette-dropping birds be damned! The LHC had another milestone this weekend, as the CMS experiment detected “splash” events.
They’re not quite to the promised land yet (even remembering that the beam energies are a lot lower than we eventually want them to be). A little while ago we had beam traveling through the accelerator, which is obviously a big step. These splash events happen when the beam collides into something “upstream,” creating a splash of particles that are then detected by the experiment. The big step will be when beams moving in opposite directions actually collide with each other inside the detector. I predict you’ll hear soon when that happens.
You can follow CMS at its Facebook fan page. 528 fans, I’m sure we can boost that number.
I already have a bet with Brian Schmidt that we will fine at least 3-sigma evidence for the Higgs within five years (either at Fermilab or the LHC). Feeling pretty optimistic right now.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
<Kermit>YAYYYYYYYY!!!!</Kermit>
November 8th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Why did Brian make that bet? Fundamental distrust of the standard model?
November 8th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Fundamental pessimism of the experimentalist.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Bet all U can on 3sigma evidence for Mh = 128.5 Gev…The CC & inflation demand it.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Hi Sean,
This comment is irrelevant to the particular post, but I don’t know how else to communicate with you. There’s an interesting article called “Quantum Theory and Beyond: Is Entanglement Special?” by Borivoje Dakic, Caslav Brukner (http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.0695), that laymen like myself can not hope to decipher. I would like to understand what they say, though.
Would it be too much trouble to ask you to take a look at it and post your thoughts on it?
November 9th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Now witness the power of this fully armed and fully operational battle station!
November 9th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Sean,
What does the winner of the bet get?
November 9th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Almost there
Progress!
November 9th, 2009 at 3:04 am
732 fans as of this moment.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:28 am
How do the detectors work? Specifically, how do you image the myriad of subatomic particles using macroscopic instruments? I’ve yet to see the definitive blog post on this one.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Oh, crumbs!
November 9th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Here are two of the definitive blog posts:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/12/14/detectors-101/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/07/26/billion-dollar-baby-the-cms-silicon-tracker/
November 9th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I am positive Higgs does not exist, I am not so sure it will prevent it’s “discovery” though.
November 9th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Nah, Higgs exists. I’ve seen pictures of him and heard him on the radio.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Rockindicular!! i’ve been just ignoring all the positive recent signs, too worried something disastrous is gonna happen again.. and of course, it yet may. but this is an excellent milestone, and the moment that one first has beam collisions at a new collider is one never to be forgotten — i remember the exact day this first happened at BaBar in 1999. ok, we’re still not there yet, but it looks *finally* right over the horizon. and much as this pleases me, i’m quite sure all my friends on the LHC are even more tickled by it. BTSM (whatever that will mean) — watch out, here we humans come!!!
November 10th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
This is the machine which will invent time travel…..(and this is what they are trying to do, but won’t tell you). In order to travel through time, one must be anti-matter, undetected by both light and black holes. In other words, one must be matter and anti-matter at the same time (or else, travel through an object that is both). Time travellers exist today (UFO’s) and are causing the world to become what it is—controlled by governments! And, your tax dollars are paying for it.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:20 am
So does this mean now we are no longer all in the big toe of a green giant but are now in the vacuum cleaner of a Mexican cleaning lady who might stub her toe? Why do physicists and cops think their one liners are funny? Kitchen or the bedroom,Jane…
November 11th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Meh. We’ll get really close to finding all the answers, then the funds will get cut. Just like with the superconducting monkey collider.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30420
November 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
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