CERN launched the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator designed to simulate the beginning of the universe, on September 9th. While the assumed end of the world didn’t occur, the results of the experiments could finally settle a bet between Professors Stephen Hawking and Peter Higgs.

The LHC is the largest particle accelerator in the world, at almost 17 miles in length. It is situated 100 metres below CERN headquarters in Switzerland, and has taken 10 years to construct. The first beam was circulated on September 10th but the first high-energy collisions won’t occur until after October 21st.

Physicists have already been arguing over whether the LHC is going to revolutionise our understanding of the universe or result in the planet being consumed from the inside out. But two high profile physicists in particular have a lot riding on the outcome of these experiments.

In 1964, Peter Higgs postulated on the existence of the Higgs Boson, or God particle, which has become part of the Standard Model, the framework of modern theoretical physics. The problem is, this particle has never actually been detected.

The LHC experiments are likely to reveal whether the God particle does in fact exist. If it does, Peter Higgs, now 79 and retired from physics, will be in line for a Nobel Prize. But there is an alternative theory, one postulated by Stephen Hawking, who suggests that a number of “partner” particles will appear as a result of the experiments. This outcome would prove Higgs wrong and potentially destroy the fabric of the Standard Model.

Professor Hawking once had a $100 bet that the Higgs Boson doesn’t exist, and it looks likely that this bet will be settled one way or another over the next few years.

Hawking told the BBC Today programme:

The LHC will increase the energy at which we can study particle interactions, by a factor of four. According to present thinking, this should be enough to discover the Higgs particle, the particle that gives mass to all the other particles.

I think it will be much more exciting if we don’t find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of $100 that we won’t find the Higgs.

But Higgs has fought back with a stinging attack against Hawking and his theories. He told Times Online:

I have to confess I haven’t read the paper in which Stephen Hawking makes this claim. But I have read one he wrote, which I think is the basis for the kind of calculation he does. And frankly I don’t think the way he does it is good enough.

My understanding is he puts together theories in particle physics with gravity . . . in a way which no theoretical particle physicist would believe is the correct theory.

From a particle physics, quantum theory point of view, you have to put a lot more than just gravity into the theory to have a consistent theory and I don’t think Stephen has done that. I am very doubtful about his calculations.

This is the first time I have seen scientists come to loggerheads in this way, but it’s kind of exciting, as are the experiments taking place at the LHC. I may not quite understand all of the theories being expounded by great thinkers such as Stehpen Hawking and Peter Higgs, but I’m finding the elements I do understand thoroughly intriguing.

The Large Hadron Collider is unlikely to bring about the end of the world, but it will bring about the end of a debate that has been running for the last 40 years. Either outcome will increase our knowledge of the universe, and that’s got to be a good thing.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 3:42 pm under Opinion, Science and technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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