sgrenard
01-09-2002, 03:30 PM
The following Press Release appeared in the anti-paranormal, very conservative mainstream science journal NATURE:
Observatory could detect hidden dimensions
Cosmic rays could find holes in Standard Model of particle physics.
8 January 2002
PHILIP BALL
Hole story: part of the Pierre Auger Observatory
© Pierre Auger Project
The Pierre Auger Observatory, currently being constructed in Argentina to
study cosmic rays, could examine the structure of spacetime itself, say
physicists in the United States.
If, as some suspect, the Universe contains invisible, extra dimensions, then
cosmic rays that hit the atmosphere will produce tiny black holes. These
black holes should be numerous enough for the observatory to detect, say
Jonathan Feng and Alfred Shapere of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts1.
The observatory will consist of two 3,000-square-kilometre arrays - one in
Argentina, one somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere - each containing 1,600
particle detectors. Scheduled for completion by 2004, scientists hope that
the equipment will help to solve the mystery of cosmic rays. These rays
consist of extremely high-energy particles that stream into the Earth's
atmosphere from space - from where, exactly, no one knows.
Many cosmic rays collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere, producing
showers of other particles that the Pierre Auger Observatory is designed to
detect. These showers can be several kilometres across by the time they
reach the ground, hence the observatory's huge area.
Some of the highest-energy cosmic rays could create collisions that are
energetic enough to generate miniature black holes, much smaller than a
single atom, Feng and Shapere calculate. These black holes will evaporate
very quickly, betraying their ephemeral existence with distinctive showers
of secondary particles.
The Standard Model of particle physics summarizes almost everything that
physicists have discovered in this field over the past several decades. It
predicts that only collisions with utterly enormous energies will produce
miniature black holes. Virtually no cosmic rays are likely to be this
energetic.
But the Standard Model does not account for the possibility that the
universe contains one or more hidden dimensions over and above the three of
space and one of time that we know so well.
Just as a garden hose looks one-dimensional - like a line - when seen from
far off, so spacetime could, from afar, seem to have fewer dimensions than
it really does. Many physicists now argue we cannot experience these extra
dimensions directly because they became rolled up more tightly than the
width of a single atom during the Big Bang.
Although extra dimensions are not detectable, their consequences could well
be. In theory, they would allow black holes to form at considerably lower
energies than first calculated. If this is the case, Feng and Shapere
estimate, then the Pierre Auger Observatory might detect hundreds of holes
by observing their secondary particles.
High-energy particle collisions in the Large Hadron Collider, a particle
accelerator that is under construction at CERN, the European
particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, might also generate copious
quantities of tiny black holes. But the Pierre Auger Observatory should be
operating sooner than its European counterpart.
References
Feng, J. L. & Shapere, A. D. Black hole production by cosmic rays. Physical
Review Letters, 88, 021303, (2002).
Observatory could detect hidden dimensions
Cosmic rays could find holes in Standard Model of particle physics.
8 January 2002
PHILIP BALL
Hole story: part of the Pierre Auger Observatory
© Pierre Auger Project
The Pierre Auger Observatory, currently being constructed in Argentina to
study cosmic rays, could examine the structure of spacetime itself, say
physicists in the United States.
If, as some suspect, the Universe contains invisible, extra dimensions, then
cosmic rays that hit the atmosphere will produce tiny black holes. These
black holes should be numerous enough for the observatory to detect, say
Jonathan Feng and Alfred Shapere of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts1.
The observatory will consist of two 3,000-square-kilometre arrays - one in
Argentina, one somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere - each containing 1,600
particle detectors. Scheduled for completion by 2004, scientists hope that
the equipment will help to solve the mystery of cosmic rays. These rays
consist of extremely high-energy particles that stream into the Earth's
atmosphere from space - from where, exactly, no one knows.
Many cosmic rays collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere, producing
showers of other particles that the Pierre Auger Observatory is designed to
detect. These showers can be several kilometres across by the time they
reach the ground, hence the observatory's huge area.
Some of the highest-energy cosmic rays could create collisions that are
energetic enough to generate miniature black holes, much smaller than a
single atom, Feng and Shapere calculate. These black holes will evaporate
very quickly, betraying their ephemeral existence with distinctive showers
of secondary particles.
The Standard Model of particle physics summarizes almost everything that
physicists have discovered in this field over the past several decades. It
predicts that only collisions with utterly enormous energies will produce
miniature black holes. Virtually no cosmic rays are likely to be this
energetic.
But the Standard Model does not account for the possibility that the
universe contains one or more hidden dimensions over and above the three of
space and one of time that we know so well.
Just as a garden hose looks one-dimensional - like a line - when seen from
far off, so spacetime could, from afar, seem to have fewer dimensions than
it really does. Many physicists now argue we cannot experience these extra
dimensions directly because they became rolled up more tightly than the
width of a single atom during the Big Bang.
Although extra dimensions are not detectable, their consequences could well
be. In theory, they would allow black holes to form at considerably lower
energies than first calculated. If this is the case, Feng and Shapere
estimate, then the Pierre Auger Observatory might detect hundreds of holes
by observing their secondary particles.
High-energy particle collisions in the Large Hadron Collider, a particle
accelerator that is under construction at CERN, the European
particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, might also generate copious
quantities of tiny black holes. But the Pierre Auger Observatory should be
operating sooner than its European counterpart.
References
Feng, J. L. & Shapere, A. D. Black hole production by cosmic rays. Physical
Review Letters, 88, 021303, (2002).