Spring Break
ND physicists help with 'Big Bang' experiment
Jenn Metz
Issue date: 9/11/08 Section: News
Notre Dame particle physicists are participating in an experiment almost 20 years in the making designed to uncover the mysteries of the universe moments after its creation.
The experiment, which uses a particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), launched Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Notre Dame team, part of a larger contingent of American physicists and scientists from many countries around the world, at the forefront of the field of particle physics, has been working on the project since its inception in 1993, Associate Professor of Physics Colin Jessop said.
"We've been a part of this community for many, many years," he said.
Six faculty members are involved in the project: Professors Randy Ruchti, Michael Hildreth, Mitchell Wayne, Kevin Lannon, Dan Karmgard, along with Jessop.
Two post-doctoral researchers, Jeff Kolb and Nancy Marinelli, are currently at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known by its French acronym, CERN, in Switzerland, the operation center for the LHC.
The LHC collides protons - subatomic particles - together at extremely high energies. The $10 billion machine is located about 300 feet beneath the ground on the French-Swiss border and spans a circumference of 17 miles.
A ring of superconducting magnets accelerates the particles to extremely high energies, "almost to the speed of light," Jessop said.
As the particles circulate around the ring, they gain more and more energy until they are smashed together, he said.
Large detectors, "sort of like a giant digital camera," which were in part designed by the Notre Dame team, will be there when the collisions happen to collect data, Jessop said.
These machines detect all the particles that are created in the collisions, which will replicate the particles in existence about one microsecond after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
This, Jessop said, is extremely important.
The experiment, which uses a particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), launched Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Notre Dame team, part of a larger contingent of American physicists and scientists from many countries around the world, at the forefront of the field of particle physics, has been working on the project since its inception in 1993, Associate Professor of Physics Colin Jessop said.
"We've been a part of this community for many, many years," he said.
Six faculty members are involved in the project: Professors Randy Ruchti, Michael Hildreth, Mitchell Wayne, Kevin Lannon, Dan Karmgard, along with Jessop.
Two post-doctoral researchers, Jeff Kolb and Nancy Marinelli, are currently at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known by its French acronym, CERN, in Switzerland, the operation center for the LHC.
The LHC collides protons - subatomic particles - together at extremely high energies. The $10 billion machine is located about 300 feet beneath the ground on the French-Swiss border and spans a circumference of 17 miles.
A ring of superconducting magnets accelerates the particles to extremely high energies, "almost to the speed of light," Jessop said.
As the particles circulate around the ring, they gain more and more energy until they are smashed together, he said.
Large detectors, "sort of like a giant digital camera," which were in part designed by the Notre Dame team, will be there when the collisions happen to collect data, Jessop said.
These machines detect all the particles that are created in the collisions, which will replicate the particles in existence about one microsecond after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
This, Jessop said, is extremely important.