Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Recreating the Big Bang: For an Evidence of God Particle



                Its some time since words like "Higgs Boson", "God Particle", "Large Hadron Collider" are falling on our ears. It automatically generates curiosity in anybody's mind. Now, the recent news is that the search for this "God Particle" is almost over and the scientists working on it for last so many years will come out of those deep tunnels to reveal its existence or absence.
The story associated with these experiments goes as follows:
               Long back some time around 1964, a bunch of scientists including Peter Higgs were banging their heads to understand from where the hell all the sub-atomic particles like protons, electrons, neutrons get their masses.

               It was suggested that, after the Big Bang, the space was contained by an invisible field called "Higgs field". Every particle in our universe "swims" through this Higgs field. Any individual particle will experience a drag because of this field which can be referred to as a mass of the particle. The strength of this drag vary from particle to particle. As a result, some particles are heavier in nature than others. There are exceptions where the particles like "photon" do not interact with the Higgs field. Such particles experience a state of no mass. Hence, they are travel at such high speed. In absence of Higgs field, all particles will experience state of no mass and should travel with the speed of light.
              It is not possible to verify the presence of the Higgs field. So, for a better understanding of how the field interacts with the particles and impart them with their masses, it has been considered that there must be a particle present in this field which acts as a "mediator" responsible for transferring the force from the field on to all the particles. These force transferring particles which act as a "mediator" were termed “Higgs Boson” or more recently known by term "God particle". These particles gain their mass from the Higgs field and on interation with other particles imparts them their respective masses. The Higgs Bosons are like the dense spots in the field with heavy masses which are very unstable and readily decay into particles with relatively lower mass like protons.
             Apparently the "Higgs Boson" has heavy mass around 100 to 200 times the mass of proton and so unstable in nature and immediately gets converted into other sub atomic particles like protons, electrons or neutrons. Till date we have experimental evidence for all other known sub-atomic particles but the " Higgs Boson" still exist in theory.
            Scientists have been working to come up with an experimental evidence of "Higgs Boson". Its discovery could help to reveal many secrets associated with the origin of the universe in the context that associates with the mass and so matter.
           The experiment to prove existence of "God Particle" involves a set up called "Large Hadron Collider". It consists of a circular tunnel buried inside the earth with a circumference of 17 miles extended under the Swiss-French border. Two beams of protons are triggered in opposite directions through the tubes of this tunnel. At a calculated meeting point in the tunnel, these beams will smash into each other at a speed as close as possible to the speed of the light. 

 
           Scientists are predicting that this collision between proton beams will ultimately produce "Higgs Boson". These "Higgs Boson" will be very unstable and will immediately decay into stable, lower mass particles. Scientists study these decay process and the products to infer the existence of the "Higgs Boson". A spike in the graph may also be recorded to prove its existence which requires the detectors capable of detecting particles with a lifetime of a millionth of a billionth of a second.
          The two groups working separately on different such detectors ATLAS and CMS apparently have recorded such bumps in their recordings. But there is a lot still to be done to declare it as a discovery and avoid a situation where the recorded peaks may be a matter of chance and not a real effect. In spite, the search of "God particle" has reached a point where people will start openly discussing its artifact and not just its existence.
  The LHC representation and the information shared were taken from following links: 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/large-hadron-collider/8947263/Science-world-awaits-Cern-announcement-on-Higgs-boson.html 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/large-hadron-collider/8952584/Q-and-A-Higgs-boson.html

Friday, December 2, 2011

About the righteousness of the Hazare movement

I came across a discussion on Lokpal and how good and right is agitation by Anna Hazare.
Some claimed that people are following him blindly without being aware of the issues in it. It was also claimed that Anna's movement is hocus and more on the lines of blackmailing the government. I participated in the discussion putting down these points:

Why people want to discuss pros and cons of "Lokpal Bill"?
Because everybody know this word "Lokpal bill".
Can anybody tell five other bills which have been passed in Indian Parliament in last one year and what are pros and cons of those? I doubt anybody can! Atleast I do not know.
        This is the contribution of Anna Hazare. Because of him and his agitation, almost every Indian is today aware of this bill. They might be not knowing the pros and cons completely but simply the knowledge enough of its existence is itself a big difference in India. Its different when a common man who otherwise don't really care, is actively trying to understand a bill.
        This also has brought awareness about corruption. Two years back, the discussion about corruption used to revolve around the negative thought " India is very corrupt,Nothing can happen". So Anna Hazare brought this change, we are now trying to move away from this negative thought.

       Questioning the credibility of Anna Hazare is something I would avoid. This guy has lots of good deeds in his pocket. He was partly resoponsible for the RTI act which played crucial role in bringing out all the present famous scams we here everyday.Not to mention he first uses all the legally allowed methods to make his point.

       I don't think hunger strike is a way of black mail. It is a way of quiet protest. It will appear strong for two reasons: your reason has to be worthy enough for people to consider it and you should be strong enough to pull it on.
otherwise: nobody would care even if you die.
      There is a lady in Manipur on hunger strike for last 10 yrs. How many people in "India" were aware of  her name and the reason behind it and why nobody feels blackmailed because of her strike. (because she is not a significant figure and nobody really cares for the eastern states of India and their problems.)

      For an instant, even if we consider it as a kind of blackmail, I would say it is a better way. because it gives you time to think and take actions and most of the time it ends with some futuristic propositions of considering the demands.Realizing that the bill is under discussion since some time around 1963, are 50 yrs not a long time even by Indian standards to make a decision and worth blackmailing?

      Looking at the incidence that happened few days back with Sharad Pawar, Are we waiting for a kind of Blackmail where somebody holds all the MPs on gunpoint saying "OK, you do it now or you are dead"

      I prefer to go with Anna Hazare, and I don't see a real need to dig in deep for all the pros and cons of the bill because what all I know about lokpal is a lot more information than I know about any other bill passed till date.