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Interview with Prof. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General of CERN in Quantum Mechanics Physics Videos | Science Flicks
 
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Interview with Prof. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General of CERN

"But I'm absolutely convinced that we will find new physics at the LHC. It's the energy range at which something new will happen, I would bet on that."
DW-TV: The 19th of September in the last year was a black day at CERN. How dramatic is actually the break.


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: The break is dramatic in terms of time because it took a bit more than one year to do everything. But it's not dramatic in the sense of spirit. The spirit is very high. But what we had to do was, first of all we had to repair the damage, secondly we had to measure all the other connections in order to be sure that something like this could be avoided again, and thirdly we had to install a lot of new electronics, cabling, et cetera. And all this together takes more than one year, but then we are pretty sure to start up safely.


DW-TV: Which is a long time: one year. Since also physicists in America, in Chicago, are also searching for the Higgs boson. Are you afraid they might outpace you?


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: No, I'm not afraid of this, because if I look only on science, I don't care where things are found first, and secondly, even if they find something, they only can find indications, and only LHD can tell you if there's really something, and thirdly, when we switch on in November, after one year we will have the same discovery potential or even better than our friendly competitors in the US.


DW-TV: But you're not only a scientist, you're also the director-general of CERN. So how important is it to find the Higgs boson if there is a Higgs boson actually here at CERN?


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: I think it would be very important, it would be a huge stimulus for CERN, that's clear. But it would be even more important of the progress of particle physics and the progress of research, fundamental research in general. So it would be very important.


DW-TV: But wouldn't it be also maybe kind of boring? Because if you find a Higgs boson, all you do is confirm the standard model of elementary particles, and so to say, you'd have no surprise.


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: I'm pretty sure that the surprise is outside the standard model, you are right. We would confirm the standard model, but the standard model can only be a model which is only valid for our energy region. If you go beyond our energy, much beyond our energy range, then there must be another model which incorporates the standard model but which goes further, like, for example, supersymmetry.


DW-TV: So physics as we think today is still correct whether we find the Higgs or whether we don't find it?


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: Yes, of course, because we have measured it, and so it's correct. And compare it to Newton's mechanics, do you feel anything from the relativistic mechanics?


DW-TV: No, not very much.


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: Because you are not in that velocity range. You can compare the standard model to a range within a certain energy limit, and then the new model beyond that, like the different between Newton and Einstein's.


DW-TV: CERN and the new collider is not only a big hit with physicists, but also with authors and film directors ... even scientist argued that the LHC might trigger a dangerous black hole, a gravitational field, so strong nothing can escape.


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: I would not be happy if we would find it in only one of the detectors, because I always need confirmation -- I need it in both detectors. I need confirmation. But these black holes have nothing to do with the black holes which you have in astronomy, in the universe. These black holes would be micro black holes, which would be produced at the LHC and then immediately decay again. This is according to all the existing theories, including the theories from Stephen Hawking.


DW-TV: Now you're talking about mini black holes. But actually, the characteristic of black holes is to grow. They are feeding on every matter they can actually catch. So don't we have to be afraid of that?


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: But they grow once they already have a certain amount of mass, and if they have enough time to grow. Now these micro black holes, they wouldn't first of all have enough mass, and secondly, they wouldn't have enough time to grow. They would decay immediately. And the fact that the universe since its existence produces billions of LHC experiments, even at much much higher energy, and nothing dramatic has happened. We are still sitting here, talking to each other, and this is for me as an experimentalist much better proof that nothing bad will happen, compared to the theories.


DW-TV: If you do not find any black holes here, if you do not find Higgs bosons, if you also will not find super-symmetric particles, would that maybe mean the end of the era of big particle accelerators?


Rolf-Dieter Heuer: I guess so, because then we have a missing justification why we need another, more powerful accelerator. But I'm absolutely convinced that we will find new physics at the LHC. It's the energy range at which something new will happen, I would bet on that.


(Interview Ingolf Baur)

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Indexed: 21/09/2009 02:30
Views: 1179
Source: Tomorrow Today

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