Post on 19-Dec-2015
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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David TobackTexas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities Symposium
January 2011
The Big Bang, Dark Matter and
Searching for New Particlesat the
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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AbstractPhysicists have entered a golden age of
science. We are starting to be able to answer some of the most exciting questions ever asked, including questions that touch on the Big Bang, the fundamental building blocks of nature, and the Dark Matter that fills the Universe. There is good reason to believe that by both pointing our telescopes and satellites to study the heavens and using the world’s highest energy particle accelerators we can discover how the biggest things in the Universe (like the Universe itself) and the smallest things (like quarks and electrons) are inextricably linked at the most fundamental levels. Perhaps a new fundamental particle is just around the corner to be discovered.
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Outline•Why is today such an exciting
time to be a scientist?–Cosmology (Big Bang)–Dark Matter–Particle Physics and the LHC
•Evidence for the Big Bang•Evidence for Dark Matter•Can we discover Dark Matter
with giant accelerators like the LHC?
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Edwin Hubble Albert Einstein
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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The Big Bang
Inquiring Minds Want
to Know
What is the scientific
evidence that a Big Bang
occurred 13.5 billion years
ago?
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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What did Hubble See?
Hubble observed lots of galaxies with the world’s
best telescopeHe noticed that All the
far away ones are moving away from us
VERY quickly
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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So What?
All the galaxies will come from a single point in
space ~13.5 billion years ago
Name this time The Big Bang
A moment of Creation
What happened in the past? Run the clock backward in time
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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The Big Bang occurred, then
what? How did we get
from the bang to the Universe we
have today?
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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A Brief History of Time• Zero
• One millionth of one second after the Bang
• A few minutes
• A few hundred thousand years
• 100 million to 1 billion years
• 9 billion years
• ~13.5 billion years
• The Big Bang produces lots of particles
• Quarks combine to form protons and neutrons
• Protons and Neutrons combine to form the nucleus of an atom
• Nuclei and electrons combine to form atoms
• Atoms combine to form Stars and Galaxies
• The Earth and our solar system forms
• You attend this symposium
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Is that the whole story?
Far from it!
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Dark Matter
What’s the
evidence for Dark
matter?
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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As the Solar System Turns
Gravity! Newton figured this out and you can calculate everything yourself
now!
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Is that what our galaxy, the Milky Way, looks like?
Does it spin like our solar system? Closest stars go around
quickest?
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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How the Galaxy Turns
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Lots of Dark Matter out there!
What’s the Matter in the
Universe?
No clue what this stuff is…
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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The Known Particles– No known
particles have the properties of Dark Matter
– Other credible reasons to believe there are new fundamental particles to be discovered
– Maybe Dark Matter is a New Particle!
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Astronomy, Cosmology and Particle Physics: The Dark Matter in the Universe is made up of LOTS of particles that we
haven’t discovered yet!Best Guess: Got created in the Early
Universe like everything else and is still here today!
Big Bang!
Then Universe gets bigger
Dark Matter = New Particle?
High energy collisions between particles in the
early Universe If they created Dark Matter, maybe we can also!
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Particle PhysicsHow might Giant Particle
Accelerators Help us Answer This Question?
Tevatron at Fermilab
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
at CERN
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Can we Make and Discover Dark Matter?
•High energy collisions between particles in the Early Universe
•Recreate the conditions like they were RIGHT AFTER the Big Bang
•If we can produce Dark Matter in a collision then we can STUDY it
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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High Energy Collisions New particles
Tevatron ≈10 ps after the Big Bang
LHC ≈1 ps after the Big Bang
Dark M
atter P
article
Dar
k M
atte
r Pa
rticle
Detector
Proton Anti-Proton
Ok… Its more complicated than this
since Dark Matter Particles don’t easily
interact with detectors…
Nor do we usually produce them directly
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Example DetectorSurround the collision
point with a detector and look at the stuff pops out after a
collision as it interacts with the various
components
Powerful multi-purpose detector
Really Big with LOTS of cool electronics and
other toys!
10 MetersTall!
30 Meters Long!
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Where in the world is the LHC?
Geneva
France
SwitzerlandJura Mountains
100 yardsUnderground!
The accelerator
Actually… It’s down here
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Another view of the LHC
CMS
ATLAS
27 km in Circumference!
One of the largest and the most complex scientific
instrument ever conceived & built by humankind
pp
Collides high energy protons
Two huge detectors
Lake LemanGeneva Airport
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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What does it DO?Accelerates protons to REALLY high energies, then bashes them together
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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High Energy CollisionsSo… The LHC makes
really high energy collisions that might produce Dark Matter so we can discover it
LHC is creating the conditions like they were RIGHT AFTER the Big Bang
Can study Cosmology, Particle Physics and Astronomy with one experiment!
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium
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Interested in learning more?
•Physics department now offers a course entitled “Big Bang, Black Holes, No Math” – Covers Stephen Hawking’s
“Brief History of Time”
•More about what you heard today, plus much more!– Cosmology – How do Stars form?– Black Holes– General Relativity– Quantum Mechanics– Particle Physics– Etc…. Astronomy/
Physics 109
January 2011 David Toback, Texas A&M UniversityTexas Junior Science and Humanities
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Conclusions
• It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a scientist!
• Astronomy, Cosmology and Particle Physics are all coming together!
• Starting to understand the Big Bang and Dark Matter!
• If our understanding is correct, a major discovery may be just around the corner at the LHC!
Wanna join us? We need your
help!