by Dean L. Sinclair

Created on: April 14, 2010

The Large Hadron Collider: Greatest Physics Experiment in the World

Introductory summary:  This writer takes the view that, although the Hadron Collider is, undoubtedly,  the "Greatest Physics Experiment in the World,"  it may also go down in history as the most expensive, colossal failure of an experiment ever attempted.  The writer is of the opinion that, because the scientific premises of the experiments that it is designed to carry out are flawed, the Collider will not operate as expected.

The lead article of this title, does a magnificent job of describing the Collider and the expectations of what it was designed to do. However, the scientific premises for the experiments to be carried out are based on very shaky grounds. The theoretical basis of the experiments to be carried out are based on the "Standard Model of Particle Physics," which received a Nobel Prize in Physics in the 1970's and has been cited as "The Crowning Achievement of Particle Physics."  Despite these impressive credentials, the Model is based on very shaky premises and is coming under strong questioning.

The Standard Model considers that there are Four Forces of Nature, Gravitation, Electromagnetism, the Strong Nuclear Force, and the Weak Nuclear Force.  It then decides that Gravitation has negligible effect at the atomic level and can be ignored. Additionally, it is assumed that the units created in atom-smashing experiments are fundamental units, somehow released. A further assumption is that units called Quarks are even more fundamental particles. 

A long paper could be written on the above points.   This will try to be a brief summary of some of the problems with these ideas.  None of the "Four Forces of Nature" meets the definition of a "Force."  That is, none has an "equal and opposite, reactive  Force."  Electromagnetism and Gravitation describe sets of observations which can be described mathematically; but, they are not "Forces."  The two "Nuclear Forces" appear to be totally imaginary constructions which are necessitated by the Proton-Neutron Model of Atomic Nuclei.  This model, itself, although it has been accepted since the 1930's, has  logical inconsistencies and is, itself, being questioned.

As to the question of "Quarks-"  When the writer, as a young graduate student, some years ago, read the first paper that proposed the Quark, the strong impression came through, that-although the paper was

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>