Does the CERN’s New Atom Smasher Reveal The Universe’s End?
Earlier last month, representatives of CERN, the premier particle physics research organisation in the world, made progress towards constructing the largest particle accelerator ever imagined: a device that can accelerate molecules into near-lightspeed collisions.
The projected supercollider would be three times larger than the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), measuring a massive 91 kilometres in length. The Future Circular Collider (FCC), as the new device is called, will enable scientists to collide particles more precisely and energetically than in the past.
Is The CERN – Atom Smasher A Big Deal?
It’s a big deal, to put it gently. The FCC is expected to assist scientists in resolving some of the greatest riddles in the universe, including the reasons behind the greater abundance of matter than antimatter, the composition of dark matter and energy, the possibility of hidden extra dimensions, and even the possibility of the universe ending as a whole.
To put it succinctly, it has the potential to drastically alter our understanding of the fundamental components of our universe. The first phase of the massive collider might go online around 2045 if the CERN Council approves the ideas, with construction possibly starting in the mid-2030s. Research will continue into the 2070s as part of a planned second phase, establishing the FCC as a multigenerational scientific effort.
The FCC will eventually strive to attain energy seven times greater in the pursuit of a new and comprehensive knowledge of physics, even if the LHC can achieve collision energies of up to 14 TeV. First and foremost, the FCC wants to significantly improve the accuracy of measurements made by physicists. In order to create millions of the Higgs boson—a particular particle—it will smash electrons and positrons, which are the antimatter equivalents of electrons.
The Higgs field, which fills space and provides other particles their mass, is carried by the Higgs boson. Given that matter is composed of various particles, such as protons, neutrons, and electrons, it may seem sense that matter has mass.
By “taking a surgeon’s scalpel to the Higgs boson,” scientists will be able to precisely determine what is happening inside during the first stage of the FCC. “Is there a substance that its made of? Is it interacting with as-yet-undiscovered particles?
CERN Studies the Beginning and the End: Conclusion
Scientists have a clear understanding of the Higgs boson’s significance in the universe, despite the fact that little is known about its possible composition or the interactions it may have. Based on present understanding of the Higgs Boson, the calculations indicate that we are nearing the edge of instability and stability. In other words, an unstable universe could collapse into a whole new state, while a stable universe would continue to expand as it does.
Since it impacts the Universe’s stability, the Higgs boson is crucial to comprehending how the Universe might end. As of right now, we know that the universe is expanding faster than ever before and that it will do so until everything eventually the “heat dies.” However, this scenario is dependent on our knowledge of the Higgs boson and is by no means definitive.
Using the FCC, scientists hope to solve the fundamental question of how it all ends by unlocking the mysteries that lie within the Higgs boson.
One could compare the fate of everything in our universe to a ball rolling down a hill in order to understand the impact of the Higgs boson. It will take energy to move the ball after it settles at a low, or stable, point. Researchers intend to use the FCC to measure the precise mass of the Higgs boson in order to determine whether our Universe has settled at a local minimum point or the lowest conceivable state.
