LHC - Act 1.5

[Rick Law]

I searched and found our last discussion on the LHC on this forum was back in 2012.  I recall a few days back, there was a discussion about attracting college students in technology to stay in the USA...

LHC - Act II (act 1.5? 1.75?)

Not long ago, I saw a documentary about the LHC.  The guy talking was David Kaplan (Johns Hopkins Univ.).  He mentioned another name, (quoting David) :"a person our generation of Physicist look up to...he got his PhD a few years before me...Nima Arkani-Hammed at Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ..."  (Same place where Einstein was after he moved to the USA.)

I opened the current (July 2014) issue of Physics Today, in the article "Particle physicist brainstorm long-term collider options", I saw that name again:

Article:"... in February, IHEP (Institute of High Energy Physics) launched the Center for Future High Energy Physics to attract student into the field...Nima Arkani-Hammed is the director of the new center."

Quoting Nima in the article: "I became convinced that they are serious, this project is something you can be guaranteed to be world leader in if you build it... It is good for China, and it's good for physics..."

Also from the article but not direct quotes: They are looking for a successor to the Beijing Electron Positron Collider.  For now, they are focusing on a 50-km ring as lower limit for a higgs factory.  Looks like they are talking 240GeV then convert to proton-proton  facility with center-of-mass collisions up to 100TeV.

Japan is considering hosting the next ILC (Internation Linear Collider).  Europe's next particle physics aim is circular design hope/plan to start in 2018.  Both team [which I take to be Europe and China] generally concur that at most one 100-km scale collider would go ahead.

You can see the IHEP description here, it uses the same photo as in the Physics Today article.
http://cfhep.ihep.ac.cn/

--- end quotes --

While many in this forum thinks Chinese made mostly junk, they are certainly marching full speed forward.

Interesting world we are moving into.  Since we need a ride from Putan to get to the International Space Station, I wonder if we are following his advice and NASA is busy shopping for a trampoline.  I think USA needs to get off our buds and get back into the basic research game.  We made a big mistake in 1993 not moving forward with our collider in Texas.  Fermilab folks is/was hoping the ILC will be at least partially at the old Fermilab site(s).  Since Fermilab shut down (2011), we are no longer a player in the collider business.

While project budget's "unit of measurement" is tens of billion(s).  I think it would benefit mankind if internationally we have multiple.  International competition is good.  More access to more physicist will also expand the population and drive science forward.

Rick

[Tinkerer]

I think there are other areas of research the US would benefit far more from than another collider now that the LHC exists. Something like research into plasma is an area well worth the look, just as beneficial, yet probably more immediatly directly applicable. Plasma has applications in everything from medicine(if you have ever heard of the plasma pen) to energy to yes, you guessed it, weaponry. Not to mention this would compliment and be complimented by research into stars and space seeing as plasma makes up a large amount of matter. Not to mention the fact of plasma in and around earth's atmosphere so you can tic off weather and atmospherics as another complimentary area. This is of course if the US government hasnt already made great strides in secret which I certainly wouldnt put it past them.
There was research done into atmospheric plasma creation(in the 80s) and varying the frequancy of the energy used to create sound; this would have taken the form of a giant "flaming" ball that could talk basically(exactly like a plasma speaker through atmospheric excitation). Obviously the idea is one of the more fantastical things and whether the research was indeed right or wrong I dont know, but its interesting none-the-less to read about.

Oh, and you may wanna check this link: http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

[abaxas]

Maybe, it's because the USA is skint due to huge personal/government debt?

You can only spend money you don't have for so long, then you need to start paying it back (or not eat).

[Rick Law]

...(if you have ever heard of the plasma pen)...

Actually, no.  I should look into that and see what it is.

...I think there are other areas of research the US would benefit far more from than another collider now that the LHC exists...

Perhaps.  One tend to focus on what one is interested in...  I think we both agree that there is some benefit.  "How much, and is it more or less than another project" would be difficult to quantify without a time machine to compare different possible futures.

[Rick Law]

Maybe, it's because the USA is skint due to huge personal/government debt?

You can only spend money you don't have for so long, then you need to start paying it back (or not eat).

I can't disagree with what you said, but government doesn't seem to act sensibly anyway.  Huge debt hadn't stop us from spending any less.  In fact, we have spend more than ever!

I personally am a small-government guy.  I would be happier if the entire federal staff fit into one single building the size of the Independence Hall in Philadelphia PA... So, it is just blue-skying: If we are going to waste money as we do today, I prefer to see us do more in basic research.  There is no such thing as too much knowledge...