Why build the Large Hadron Collider? - page 10
Keywords: Physics Report Large Hadron Collider Basic Introduction Grand Unified Theory Cosmic Rays Anti Matter Extra Dimensions String Theory Dark Matter Higgs Boson
By Jenny on 02/07/2009
Level: A Level (Year 13)
Page Number: 10 of 16 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
antimatter particle you also produce its partner matter particle, so equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created in the Big Bang. However the Universe seems to be made exclusively of matter. [4][9]
The questions the LHCb are trying to answer are: why didn’t matter and antimatter completely annihilate at the time of the Big Bang? Does this antimatter still exist somewhere else? Otherwise where did it go and what happened to it in the first place?[9]
The LHCb hopes to answer this question and learn more about antimatter in general by studying both particles and antiparticles in depth. It specialises in investigating these slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the 'beauty quark', or 'b quark' (also known as the bottom quark). [1]
QUARK-GLUON PLASMA – WHAT MATTER WAS LIKE IN THE FIRST SECONDS OF THE UNIVERSE?
The ALICE experiment will run when the LHC collides lead ions, instead of protons. This will recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang (10 millionths of a second after) [cit new sci], when a different state of matter called quark-gluon plasma is believed to have briefly existed. [1]
All the ordinary matter in the Universe today is made up of atoms; each of which contains a nucleus which is made up of protons and neutrons; which are in turn made up of 3 quarks, which are joined together by the strong force via the exchange of other particles called gluons (other rare particles called mesons are made up of a quark, antiquark pair, again held together by gluons). This gluon bond is incredibly strong, so no quarks have ever been found by themselves. [4]
The collisions in the LHC will generate huge temperatures and energies (to simulate the extreme heat of the early Universe) and it is predicted that in these conditions, the strong force will weaken causing the protons and neutrons to “melt”, and freeing the quarks from their gluon bonds, so forming the mixture of quarks and gluons called the quark-gluon plasma. [10]
The ALICE experiment will study the quark-gluon plasma as it expands and cools, which should reveal how the original plasma turned into the ordinary matter particles of our Universe.
If a plasma is created it will only exist for a very short time, so it has to be detected by signs such as a large amount of ‘strange matter’ being produced. When gluons collide they can
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