The scientists described the work as "historic" for humanity. With the particle accelerator is to be observed, inter alia, the particles that make up dark matter.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC, for its acronym in English), the largest particle accelerator in the world, yesterday began operating successfully in the Franco-Swiss border with the mission to respond to questions about the origin of the universe.
Two beams of particles out first, one in the opposite direction to the other, a return to full LHC, a ring of 27 km, buried 100 metres below ground near Geneva. "Technically, everything works as planned," said satisfied the scientific director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Jos Engelen.
It is a "historic day" for humanity, which "wants to know where it comes from and where it goes, and if the universe has a purpose," exclaimed the director general of the organization, Robert Aymar.
The operation of the accelerator se basa en pop protons moving in the opposite direction, causing the emergence of elementary particles ever observed so far, which corroborates the theoretical pillars upon which rests the field of physics.
This colossal instrument is called upon to recreate the conditions that prevailed in the universe just after the Big Bang, before the elementary particles will join to form atomic nuclei.
It is also expected to allow observe supersymmetric particles that consist dark matter, which does not have any knowledge, except that represents 23% of the universe, tiny compared to 4% for ordinary matter. The dark energy, responsible for the expansion of the universe, integrates the rest.
The LHC is also responsible to detect antimatter, generated in equal parts to the matter at the time of the Big Bang, 13,700 million years ago, but virtually disappeared since then.
These experiments will be carried out by four main detectors installed around the ring: Atlas, Alice, CMS and LHCb.
Another challenge will be to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, a mysterious particle that give more to all others. To try to see it for the first time, cause collisions of protons and releasing heat energy 100,000 times greater than in the centre of the Sun.
If all goes well, late October to reach an output of 5 teraelectronvoltios (VTE), which is five times higher than the U.S. Fermilab's Tevatron, so far the most powerful in the world.
The small collisions could create black holes that scientists are not a guarantee LHC danger. Geneva, AFP
Four riddles to solve
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which opened near Geneva by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), is called to answer four crucial questions that bring head for decades the world of particle physics .
The first is finding the Higgs boson, a particle unstable described as "divine" because many researchers have studied without having proved its existence. This would explain the origin of mass and why some particles are devoid of it.
The second is to explore supersymmetry. One possible explanation is that dark matter consists of particles called supersymmetric neutralino.
The third is to explore the mystery of matter and antimatter. And the fourth, recreating the conditions that prevailed in the universe in thousandths of a second that immediately followed the Big Bang.
