Monday,+September+10th+2012

__**Ask the Big Questions**__

What happened to the antimatter ? Antimatter was simply outnumbered by matter. Matter and antimatter existed correspondingly with each other, but when matter outnumbered antimatter the particles started canceling each other out, until only matter was left. The LHC in Cern may be able to answer the question of what happened to the antimatter. Sources suggest that the higgs boson may hold the key to finding what really happened to the antimatter. Nutrinos also hold a major portion of answering what happened to antimatter. "Reactor-based neutrino oscillation experiments will measure the parameters of neutrino oscillation".

Are there any extra dimensions of space? String theory is the strongest theory that could point to the existence of extra dimensions outside of our own. "String Theory unifies physics by producing all known forces and particles as different vibrations of a single substance called superstrings." The existence of extra dimensions could explain why particle physics is so complex and hard to understand. Extra dimensions may be microscopic, and the only way to find them would be to use particle accelerators and cosmic ray experiments. Particle physics tries to understand how, if in any way, extra dimensions could affect dark matter, dark energy, and cosmic inflation.

What is dark matter? How can we make it in a laboratory? The universe consists mostly of dark matter. Without it the universe would most likely not look the way it does today. Dark matter is an extremely weak force that interacts with ordinary matter. The only way to find if it exists is to do extensive research and experiments in a deep underground laboratory. Dark matter is being searched for through the means of "Studying the large scale distribution of galaxies, by constraining the dark matter mass power spectrum through weak lensing studies, and by cataloging massive clusters of galaxies as a function of redshift, using the Sunyaev-Zeldovitch effect."'

Physics questions shape the CMS experiment because it gives scientists and researchers opportunities to discover new potentially world changing things such as dark matter, extra dimensions, and antimatter. If any of these things were found the scientific community would be rocked and the rewriting of physics books would begin, just like when Einstein spoke of his theory of relativity.

__**Know Your Detector**__

The size of the CMS detector is important because it allows for the accurate measurement of particles being tested. It has a diameter of 52 feet and a length of 70 feet. It weighs 13,800 tons, most of which is equipment and experimental devices. A 240 ton superconducting magnet is used to accurately measure the particles and how they move through the particle accelerator. Muon chambers are one of the largest portions of the accelerator because the muon particle is the only one that can travel through the steel detectors. The innermost portion of the CMS is the tracker and it can capture particles the width of a human hair. This is made of 11 million silicon strings and 66 million silicon pixels. The second innermost layer is the electromagnetic calorimeter. This identifies and measures the energy and direction of electrons and protons. The third innermost layer is the hadronic calorimeter measures the force used to hold the nucleus of the protons, neutrons, pions, and kaons together.


 * __Review Particle Types__**

A proton is magnetically bent bent around the IHC to near the speed of light. When the protons collide they release energy and that energy turns to other particles or streams of energy. In the beam pipe the proton reacts with the magnet and other protons. When it collides it releases valuable information for the computer to generate. When different particle combinations are shot at each other, they learn what is made and what cannot be made from the combinations. This is how they indirectly gain information on how to create the particles that they want.