Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what

happened at the very beginning of our universe.
There are many misconceptions

surrounding the Big Bang theory. For

example, we tend to imagine a giant

explosion.
Experts however say that there was no

explosion; there was (and continues to be)

an expansion. Rather than imagining a

balloon popping and releasing its contents,

imagine a balloon expanding: an

infinitesimally small balloon expanding to

the size of our current universe.

According to the standard theory, our universe
sprang into existence as "singularity" around
13.7 billion years ago. What is a "singularity" and
where does it come from?
Singularities are zones which defy our current

understanding of physics. They are thought to exist at

the core of "black holes." Black holes are areas of intense

gravitational pressure. The pressure is thought to be so

intense that finite matter is actually squished into infinite

density (a mathematical concept which truly boggles the

mind). These zones of infinite density are called

"singularities."
Our universe is thought to have begun as an

infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely

dense, something - a singularity. Where did it

come from? We don't know. Why did it

appear? We don't know.

After its initial appearance, it apparently

inflated (the "Big Bang"), expanded and

cooled, going from very, very small and very,

very hot, to the size and temperature of our

current universe.
It continues to expand and cool to this day and we are
inside of it: incredible creatures living on a unique
planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with
several hundred billion other stars in a galaxy soaring
through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an
expanding universe that began as an infinitesimal
singularity which appeared out of nowhere for reasons
unknown. This is the Big Bang theory.
 Evidence for the Theory

First of all, we are reasonably

certain that the universe had a

beginning.
Second, galaxies appear to be moving away

from us at speeds proportional to their

distance. This is called "Hubble's Law," named

after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) who

discovered this phenomenon in 1929. This

observation supports the expansion of the

universe and suggests that the universe was

once compacted.
Third, if the universe was initially very, very hot

as the Big Bang suggests, we should be able to

find some remnant of this heat. In 1965,

Radioastronomers Arno Penzias and Robert

Wilson discovered a 2.725 degree Kelvin

(-454.765 degree Fahrenheit, -270.425 degree

Celsius) Cosmic Microwave Background radiation

(CMB) which pervades the observable universe.

This is thought to be the remnant which

scientists were looking for. Penzias and

Wilson shared in the 1978 Nobel Prize for

Physics for their discovery.

Finally, the abundance of the "light
elements" Hydrogen and Helium found in
the observable universe are thought to
support the Big Bang model of origins.
 Big Bang Theory - What About God?

Any discussion of the Big Bang theory would be

incomplete without asking the question, what about
God? This is because cosmogony (the study of the origin
of the universe) is an area where science and theology
meet. Creation was a supernatural event. That is, it took
place outside of the natural realm. This fact begs the
question: is there anything else which exists outside of
the natural realm? Specifically, is there a master
Architect out there? We know that this universe had a
beginning. Was God the "First Cause"?
Inside the Large Hadron Collider
At 8.30 am on September 10 2008 the Large

Hadron Collider (LHC) was switched on in

Geneva. The LHC - the largest machine in the

world was designed for collision of protons

together at the highest energies ever achieved,

recreating the conditions that existed a fraction

of a second after the 'Big Bang' at the start of

the universe.
The LHC is attempting to discover how particles get

their mass, a major objective for scientists exploring

particle physics. It might be able to identify a possible

particle known as the 'Higgs Boson' which was first

theorized in 1964 by Peter Higgs, currently Professor

Emeritus in Theoretical Physics at the University of

Edinburgh.
 What is the LHC?

The protons will be accelerated in opposite directions in

the Large Hadron Collider, an underground accelerator ring

27 kilometers in circumference at the CERN Laboratory in

Geneva, Switzerland. Crashing together in the center of

ATLAS, the particles will produce tiny fireballs of

primordial energy. LHC will recreate the conditions at the

birth of the universe -- 30 million times a second. Relics of

the early universe not seen since the universe cooled after

the Big Bang 14 billion years ago will spring fleetingly to

life again. The LHC is in effect a Big Bang Machine.

The LHC project includes scientists,

engineers and support staff from 111 nations

combining state-of-the-art science and

engineering in one of the largest scientific

experiments ever conducted.

Particle physicists at Glasgow and

Edinburgh Universities are major

partners in some of the LHC

experiments at the European

Organization for Nuclear Research

(CERN) in Switzerland.
A mission to answer some of the most perplexing questions

of the physical universe

Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest atom

smasher

Built in a tunnel 100 metres (325 feet) below ground in a

complex straddling the French-Swiss border, the LHC is

designed to accelerate sub-atomic particles to nearly the

speed of light and then smash them together replicating

conditions which prevailed in split-seconds after the "Big

Bang" that created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago.

The scientists want to send beams in both

directions to create tiny collisions at nearly

the speed of light, an attempt to recreate on a

miniature scale the heat and energy after the

Big Bang, a concept of the origin of the

universe that dominates scientific thinking.

An underground representation of the Large Hadron
Collider, which stretches for 27 kilometers
The four main points of interest that will be utilized

during the LHC experiment

ATLAS during its beam pipe installation
ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at

the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Starting in Spring 2009, the ATLAS

detector will search for new discoveries in

the head-on collisions of protons of

extraordinarily high energy.

ATLAS will learn about the basic forces that have

shaped our universe since the beginning of time

and that will determine its fate. The possible

unknowns are

• The origin of mass

• Extra dimensions of space

• Microscopic black holes

• Evidence for dark matter candidates in the

universe.
 How big is ATLAS?

ATLAS is about 45 meters long, more than 25

meters high, and weighs about 7,000 tons. It is
about half as big as the Notre Dame Cathedral in
Paris
It weighs the same as the Eiffel Tower
or a hundred 747 empty jets.
ATLAS during its calorimeter installation
ATLAS during the installation of its detector
 ATLAS Schedule 2008 and forward

10 September 2008. -- First splashes of

particles in the ATLAS detector as LHC

circulates first beams (in both directions). No

collision events were planned, but the particles

in the detector were used to debug and setup

the detector.
October 2008 - early Spring 2009 --LHC is

shutdown due to incident in the tunnel (described

elsewhere) and then the planned winter

shutdown. During parts of this period, ATLAS will

use cosmic ray events to commission and tune

the detector. The winter shutdown was planned

for cost savings and improvements to LHC and

ATLAS.
Early Spring 2009 -- Startup of LHC and later first

event collisions (colliding a beam with a given

energy with the counter-rotating beam of the

same energy). Previous world record is 2 TeV. This

will lead to several months of intensive data

taking before next winter shutdown. First papers

with early results may come in late summer 2009.

Next 15-20 years -- Continued data

taking with publication of results on an

ongoing basis.