UNDERSTANDING OUR UNIVERSE…FROM THE REALM OF THE VERY, VERY SMALL…THE MICROSPHERE OF QUANTUM PHYSICS
Did you know that subatomic particles appear to be in two places at once? Did you know that photons of light behave sometimes as waves, and sometimes as particles? Did you know that such behaviors are also dependent upon the observer? Odd questions and issues that arise in the realm of the very, very small microsphere of quantum mechanics, where the laws and theories of the larger macrosphere of planets don’t seem to apply in the same way.
Research and studies in quantum physics have accelerated with the advent of large particle accelerators here in the United States—the Firmalab accelerator, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermilab, and the newest and largest particle accelerator, the Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider. Particle accelerators are comprised of a circle of electromagnets, miles in circumference. The aim is to take two subatomic particles and send them in opposite directions so that they eventually collide at a great speed. This collision creates an explosion resulting in many more, and smaller, subatomic particles. By studying this process through these controlled collisions, scientists can actually observe quantum behaviors of these particles. Quantum behaviors of subatomic particles in the microsphere don’t follow the usual laws of physics that we can observe and major for larger complexes of atoms and objects in the macrosphere. It seems that as many as ten, and possibly eleven, and maybe even more dimensions are necessary to calculate the behaviors of these subatomic particles.
The current collider research is focused on finding the Higgs Boson, a subatomic particle that theoretically exists between the asymmetries of matter and anti-matter http://www.uslhc.us/LHC_Science/Questions_for_the_Universe/Antimatter. It is possible that this process will result in mini black holes. All matter and even gravity in the surrounding region are pulled into the vortex of a black hole. Many large black holes have been observed in adjacent galaxies. The black holes that might develop in the collision that would produce a Higgs boson are extremely small. Some groups of people are seeking to stop this research, fearing that the emergence of these mini black holes would result in the universe being sucked into one of their vortexes. What these people do not realize is that the controlled collisions of these particle accelerators are tiny, tiny instances of such collisions that are occurring all of the time. Our planet is constantly bombarded by neutrinos and other tiny quantum particles, and has been for billions of years. We are still here, without the universe being sucked into the vortex of any mini black hole that might have occurred. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole.
Actually finding a Higgs boson may not be the end of the universe, but will be a confirmation of the calculations that explain the odd behaviors of particles at the quantum level. The prediction is made from these calculations, thus the probability is high that it will be found. There is also the possiblity that it will not, which would shed a critical light on the current directions of some quantum theories and predictions. Stay tuned. The large Hadron collider in Cern, Swtizerland, isn’t even running at capacity yet.
