|
|
|
Last Updated: Aug 7, 2008 - 11:16:06 AM |
There are some who think that the new particle accelerator built
outside of Geneva in Switzerland might create tiny black holes -- which
could grow big enough to suck up the Earth. Balderdash, say physicists.
The video looks a bit like a scene from a low-budget sci-fi horror
film. A tiny hole slowly begins sucking in bits of the Earth in
Switzerland with mountains, lakes and cities quickly falling into the
growing gap. And it just keeps on growing -- and growing. By the end of
the 38 second movie, the entire planet has been swallowed up -- and all
that's left is a shimmering ring in the inky blackness of outer space.
Absurd, perhaps. But a brief look around Internet blogs, and especially
YouTube, makes it clear that there are a number of people out there who
believe it is a very real possibility. The gigantic particle
accelerator just now being completed outside Geneva at the European
Organization for Nuclear Research -- known as CERN -- is set to be
switched on soon. And some are concerned that, once the research
facility begins bashing subatomic particles together at 99.999991
percent of the speed of light, dangerous black holes could be created
and spread out of control.
The fear has spread fast and far in cyberspace. In addition, a
scientist at the University of Tübingen, Dr. Otto E. Rössler, has lent
a certain amount of academic weight to the skepticism. So much so that
a group of German physicists has now published an open letter carrying
assurances that the particle accelerator, known as the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC), is in fact safe.
"There is no way that the LHC will produce black holes capable of
swallowing up the Earth," reads the letter from the Committee for
Elementary Particle Physics (KET), a group of leading quantum
physicists in Germany. "This claim is based on extremely well tested
theories of physics and on observations of the cosmos."
The head of KET, Dr. Peter Mättig, a particle physicist with the
University of Wuppertal, concedes that disaster theories have not made
much headway in the general public. "I don't think there are many who
believe it," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "But it is notable how often we
have been asked about the problem. And we especially want to refute
those, like Dr. Rössler, who try to use science to back up their
claims."
Physical Proof of Theory
KET argues that those concerned about a tiny black hole growing into a
large black hole fundamentally misunderstand well-established rules of
quantum physics. For one, mini-black holes, the KET Web site assures
its readers, would be just one billionth of a billionth of a gram in
weight and would be extremely unstable. Indeed, according to a theory
developed by the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, they would vanish
almost instantaneously -- a phenomenon known as Hawking radiation.
Anyone who says otherwise, KET says, doesn't completely get Albert
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
Still, no one is denying that some physicists are hoping the Large
Hadron Collider will allow them to observe, however briefly, the
creation of these -- so far theoretical -- tiny black holes. One of the
goals of the €4.8 billion ($8 billion) project is to create conditions
very much like those in the first milliseconds of the universe's
existence -- right at the beginning of the Big Bang.
By doing so, those who ascribe to string theory -- a mathematical
construct seen by many as a possible means of unifying quantum
mechanics with general relativity (the so-called "theory of
everything") -- hope to find physical proof of an idea which has until
now been little more than an exercise in theoretical physics. String
theory predicts the existence of a number of dimensions beyond the four
we are aware of, as well as a number of ultra-tiny particles and
anti-particles that have not yet been observed.
Because the Large Hadron Collider, 27 kilometers in circumference and
vastly powerful, is so much larger than any particle accelerator ever
built, some see it as the best chance yet to find those particles or
those dimensions.
Growing and Growing
But string theory is not the only unproven physics theory out there.
Hawking radiation has likewise proven a tough nut to crack. Even as the
complex formulae used to back up the theory point to a phenomenon of
black holes emitting invisible radiation -- a necessity if any
mini-black holes created by CERN are to dissipate -- that radiation has
never been observed. If it doesn't exist, say those concerned about a
Large Hadron disaster, there is little to stop mini-black holes from
growing. And growing. And growing.
Indeed, a law suit was even filed in a district court in Hawaii in
March in an effort to delay the opening of the Large Hadron Collider.
According to the New York Times, Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho
contended that CERN hadn't done enough to examine the potential
dangers. The lawsuit mentions black holes as well as "strangelets," a
potential by-product predicted by some physics theories that, they say,
could transform the Earth into a lump of uninhabitable "strange matter."
Some scientists have also wondered aloud just how much risk we should
be willing to accept when it comes to scientific experiments such as
those being conducted at CERN. Even if the chance of things going wrong
is infinitesimally small, they say, the potential disaster is
unimaginably large. The question, "'how improbable does a catastrophe
have to be to justify proceeding with an experiment?' seems never to
have been seriously examined," wrote University of Cambridge physicist
Adrian Kent in a 2003 paper.
CERN, for its part, recently published a new report from the LHC Safety
Assessment Group in which it says "it is impossible for microscopic
black holes to be produced at the LHC." The paper also said that, were
they created, they would disappear immediately. Strangelets too were
discounted, with the report saying "according to most theoretical work,
strangelets should change to ordinary matter within a
thousand-millionth of a second."
Plus, says Mättig, even if tiny black holes were created and Hawking
radiation didn't exist, there wouldn't be a problem. "At CERN, protons
will be crashed into protons," he says. "This is something that happens
billions of times a second in nature. We don't need theories, we can
see it -- the existence of our universe is proof enough that there is
no danger."
Currently, the LHC is in the process of being cooled down to a
temperature of minus 271 degrees Celsius, a necessary step to vastly
improve the facility's efficiency. It should be switched on for the
first time in the next two months. Initial reports of its findings will
likely be produced this winter. If all goes according to plan.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
Top of Page
|
|
|
|