Building a Big Bang Machine on the Moon - with James Beacham

The speaker reflects on the childhood experience of stargazing in southern Utah, which sparked a lifelong curiosity about the universe's vastness. They recount a humorous anecdote about trying to convince a friend that stars are much farther than a mile away, illustrating the human desire to understand and test the nature of reality. The speaker transitions to discussing the Standard Model's success and frustrations, highlighting its incompleteness despite its predictive power. The talk is set against the backdrop of the speaker's work on the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where they explore fundamental particles and forces of nature.

The speaker provides a vivid description of the Large Hadron Collider, explaining its function as a tool to accelerate protons and study the debris from their collisions. They offer insights into the scale of the universe, comparing the size of cosmic structures to the LHC's 27-kilometer circular tunnel. The speaker emphasizes the importance of high-energy collisions in exploring the fundamental nature of particles, likening the LHC's role to recreating the high-energy conditions of the early universe to discover new particles and forces.

The speaker delves into the limitations of the Standard Model, acknowledging its inability to account for gravity and dark matter. They discuss the pursuit of new particles through high-energy experiments, emphasizing the need for larger colliders to access higher energy levels and potentially discover particles that could address the model's gaps. The speaker also touches on the concept of energy and mass equivalence, explaining how increasing the energy of particle collisions can lead to the discovery of particles with greater mass.

The speaker explains the necessity of higher energy levels in particle physics experiments to probe the early universe's conditions, which were characterized by high energy. They describe the current state of the universe as 'boring' and 'cold' due to its low average temperature and energy levels. The LHC is highlighted as a means to recreate the high-energy environment of the early universe, potentially allowing for the discovery of particles that could explain fundamental questions about the universe's nature.

The speaker discusses the ongoing search for dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that does not interact with light but has a significant gravitational effect on the universe's structure. They also address the discovery of the Higgs boson, a particle that is central to the Standard Model and contributes to other particles' mass. The speaker ponders the implications of the Higgs boson's mass and the lack of evidence for supersymmetry, suggesting that our universe might be just one of many with different physical constants.

The speaker celebrates the LHC's milestone of achieving the highest collision energy in particle physics, reaching 13 tera-electron volts (TeV). They describe the excitement and anticipation of the first collisions at this energy and the subsequent data analysis. Despite not finding new particles after three years, the speaker reflects on the importance of such null results in guiding scientific inquiry and the need for continued exploration.

The speaker contemplates the open questions in particle physics, such as the nature of dark matter and the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. They express concern over the diminishing 'suggestive hints' that have historically guided experimental searches for new particles. The speaker calls for innovative thinking and exploration beyond current paradigms, hinting at the possibility of a particle collider on the moon as a bold step in this direction.

The speaker presents the audacious concept of constructing a particle collider around the moon's circumference, which would allow for experiments at unprecedented energy scales. They acknowledge the immense challenges and costs associated with such a project but argue that it could definitively answer fundamental questions about the universe. The speaker also outlines the technological innovations that would be necessary to make this vision a reality.

The speaker discusses the potential technological spin-offs and innovations that could arise from the construction of a moon collider. They highlight the need for stronger magnets, reliable space transportation, advanced robotics, automated data analysis, and robust power systems. The speaker encourages the audience to consider the moon collider not as a concrete proposal but as a catalyst for new ideas and technological advancements.

The speaker reflects on the societal value of scientific exploration, such as building a particle collider around the moon, in the context of global social issues. They argue that resources exist to address social problems while also funding ambitious scientific projects. The speaker challenges the notion that such projects are a drain on society, comparing the costs to military budgets and private sector valuations, and emphasizes the importance of scientific curiosity in driving humanity forward.

In the concluding remarks, the speaker emphasizes the importance of remaining open to new ideas and paradigms in particle physics. They acknowledge that the concept of a moon collider is currently 'impossible,' but suggest that humanity's innate curiosity and inventiveness could make it a reality. The speaker inspires the audience to continue searching for answers to the universe's mysteries, regardless of the challenges involved.