Possible Dangers of the CERN LHC Experiment

[Panda]

2000 odd Tonnes of Magnet has just been installed into the new CERN LHC complex.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The world's leading center for research into the origins of matter on Wednesday took a giant step toward the launch of a 15-year experiment which scientists hope will unlock many secrets of the universe.

A huge magnet, weighing 1,920 tonnes or the equivalent of five jumbo jets and a key element in the program, was lowered into a vast cavern 100 meters below ground at the multinational center, CERN, on the Swiss-French border near Geneva.

"We think this project is going to uncover things we cannot dream of at the moment," said Professor Jos Engelen, Chief Scientific Officer of CERN, the 26-nation European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Some of his colleagues say the experiment, smashing particles together at high speed in a Large Hadron Collider (LHC), may bring new knowledge such as the possible existence of multiple dimensions beyond the four of traditional physics -- width, length, height and time.

Others speak, if cautiously, of venturing into realms long regarded as those of speculative science fiction -- multiple universes, parallel worlds, black holes in space linking different levels of existence.

"This is a very exciting time for physics. The LHC is poised to take us to a new level of understanding of our universe," says Tejinder Virdee, spokesman for the key particle detector part of the project, known by its initials as CMS.

Not being a Quantum Physicist can one of you clever chaps tell me what would happen if "we ventured into realms long regarded as those of speculative science fiction -- multiple universes, parallel worlds, black holes in space linking different levels of existence" in the center of Europe.

I heard a psedoscientist ranting about the dangers of CERN and how if they created a black hole it would drop to the centre of the Earth and consume our Solar System. Is it matrhematically impossible to create a black hole in the LHC, or are the CREN scientists keeping their fingers crossed because their not quite sure what will happen.

Also are there any goals identified for Quantum Physics, such as Quantum computers operating close to the speed of light, matter/data teleportation, FLT, Unlimited power etc. etc. or is it just looking at what happened at the big bang for the sake of it.

 

[ziad1985]

...I heard a psedoscientist ranting about the dangers of CERN and how if they created a black hole it would drop to the centre of the Earth and consume our Solar System. Is it matrhematically impossible to create a black hole in the LHC, or are the CREN scientists keeping their fingers crossed because their not quite sure what will happen...

I'm not quiet familiar with the probability of creating a micro black hole in The LHC, but I can tell you that if it does, it will evaporate quickly due to hawking radiation.

 

[ziad1985]

I have a question of my own:
Why the Creation of magnetic monopoles could catalyze proton decay?

 

[tehno]

Not being a Quantum Physicist can one of you clever chaps tell me what would happen if "we ventured into realms long regarded as those of speculative science fiction -- multiple universes, parallel worlds, black holes in space linking different levels of existence" in the center of Europe.

Ohoho-Hold your horses.You're too much into Star Trek?
Physicists are just in search for some other things there,breaking symmetries and God's (Higgs) particle.

 

[UrbanXrisis]

yeah, the LHC is a discovery machine. it's built to see whether supersymmetry is in fact a valid theory and to look for the Higgs Boson. It's actually a very exciting time for physicists!

 

[magnetar]

I do not think that a minic black hole created by LHC can destroy our earth(if it can creat it)

Because, very high energy cosmic-rays have much energy than the particles created by LHC! They can created "air shower"in our atmosphere!
If LHC can make minic black hole ,very high energy cosmic-rays also can do it.If LHC can destroy Earth ,very high energy cosmic-rays also can do .The fact is that we are all very good now!

So,do not worry about it!

 

[vanesch]

The kind of pep talk given in the quote by the OP is the kind of nonsense that makes me sick. I don't know why smart people tell such nonsense officially to the public. There is going to be interesting physics done at the LHC, but no science fiction. Of course, LHC is going to explore a previously rather unexplored domain of energy/luminosity in particle physics, so indeed it is unknown. By definition. So in principle, anything can happen, from the creation of black holes to the materialization of little green men with antennae on their head, and who knows, maybe even some works of Shakespeare will come out of it. That's the idea of "unknown": we don't know.
But that said, there are some guesses. As pointed out by others, the main thing to look for is the single piece yet undiscovered, but necessary in the standard model: the Higgs particle. The other thing to look for is supersymmetry (that is, a whole new family of particles). And then, all the rest is speculation.
Each time, a new accelerator was build, a new, and unknown domain was opened to investigation. That's now already more than 70 years that people do that, and LHC is just the "next in the row". Probably the reason for all this crazy speculation is that:
1) theorists are being "idle" for more than 30 years now, the standard model having been confirmed each time, and speculation of what could go beyond it has now explored a vast area of ever more bizarre ideas.
2) the building of the LHC being so long, and the investments huge, this invites to give "more importance" to the event than it really merits.

This gives time to people to invent crazy stories.

As was also pointed out by others: yes, in the universe (and in the upper atmosphere) there are much more energetic processes going on than in the LHC. However, at the LHC, they will be produced more systematically and in more quantity.

 

[humanino]

the kind of nonsense that makes me sick

In particular, we probably want to go somewhere after LHC. Now of course, once you've promised science-fiction, first you'd better get it, and second even if you got it what can you promise afterwards !? And if you don't get it, people won't give you any money anymore.

 

[MelissaSweet]

I do not think that a minic black hole created by LHC can destroy our earth(if it can creat it)

Because, very high energy cosmic-rays have much energy than the particles created by LHC! They can created "air shower"in our atmosphere!
If LHC can make minic black hole ,very high energy cosmic-rays also can do it.If LHC can destroy Earth ,very high energy cosmic-rays also can do .The fact is that we are all very good now!

So,do not worry about it!

I believe this argument has already been shown to be false. Please read:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=122375&page=7

No, the point was something different. Some people argued that eventual nano black holes produced in cosmic rays (of much higher energy than the LHC accelerator will produce) have high momentum wrt the earth, and hence will just fly once through the earth, so the fact that these collisions are regularly happening is no proof that nano black holes aren't dangerous.
That reasoning is correct: indeed, even if we underwent showers of nanoblack holes, they would at most eat one or two iron atoms before having traveled through the Earth and fly off in the blackness of space.
So the observation that cosmic rays exist, is no proof of the "safety" of nanoblack holes, is entirely correct.

Note: Bold in the quote is mine.