PERSPECTIVE ON RESEARCH : Super Collider Is More Than Science : California stands to benefit if this investment in knowledge and the understanding of nature goes forward.
Next week, the Senate will decide the fate of the superconducting super collider (SSC), which the House of Representatives has voted to terminate, after more than $1.5 billion and a decade of work had been invested in it.
We who are working in this area of physics feel frustrated because the scientific goals and aspirations of this enterprise have been given short shrift, often badly misstated or not mentioned at all. It is impossible to put a dollar value on basic scientific research; historically, it has enabled people to enjoy a richer life in an intellectual and spiritual sense and generally has improved their overall well-being. This is the promise that the SSC offers: to understand nature at a deeper level and, ultimately, to build on that understanding for the enrichment of human endeavors.
The deepest question that the SSC will address is that of the origin of mass. Matter at its most fundamental level appears to have two types of constituents: quarks and leptons. We know all about the interactions of quarks and leptons, and have found that they possess a wonderful symmetry. However, we do not fully understand how particles get mass, which breaks this symmetry.
Our present view of how mass is generated can be described with a magnetic analogy:
Imagine that the Earth had no magnetism and that you had a collection of compass needles all pointing in different directions, so that it was equally likely to find one pointing in one direction as another. The collection would then possess a rotational symmetry, with no direction preferred. Now imagine placing a bar magnet nearby. The compass needles would then all line up to point in the direction of the north pole of the bar magnet, breaking the symmetry.
Mass generation fundamentally is related to an analogous breaking of the symmetry of quark and lepton interactions. However, we do not really know what causes the symmetry to break (that is, what plays the role of the magnet), and what exactly are the entities that align (the compass needles). What we do know is that there is a threshold of energy that must be crossed before we can directly observe these new phenomena. The SSC is designed to cross this energy threshold and, therefore, shed light on these important questions.
Besides helping us understand the issue of mass, the SSC is likely to open up new vistas. Example: It is quite possible that entirely new kinds of fundamental excitations exist in nature that precisely mirror the quarks and leptons. These mirror states (supersymmetric partners) are thought to be massive. Hence they can probably be produced only by energies as large as those that would become available at the SSC. The discovery of the lightest supersymmetric partner (LSP) would be spectacular because it may solve an important open question for cosmology and astronomy--the dark (invisible) matter problem.
Astronomical observations indicate the presence of huge amounts of dark matter in our universe--it may be as much as 90% of the mass of the universe. If the LSP is both neutral and stable, as is expected, it could well be the particle that makes up this dark matter. It is fun to think that when the super collider is turned on, millions of LSPs will be produced in the plains of Texas to join the billions of their cousins that were produced after the “big bang.â€
The SSC itself is an oval 54 miles around in which protons accelerated to very high energies circulate in opposite directions and are brought into collision in two intersection regions. When the protons collide, hundreds of subatomic particles emerge from the very small volume of space where they were created in a region of extremely high energy density. It is from examining the outcome of these collisions that our discoveries will come.
To track and record data on all the subatomic debris produced in these collisions, detectors are needed at each intersection. The sensitivity, accuracy and complexity of the detector designs, which will push technology beyond its present frontiers, are a tribute to the genius of our colleagues in experimental physics.
The two large detectors are being built by groups headed by Barry Barish of Caltech and George Trilling of UC Berkeley. Many Californians are among the hundreds of scientists and engineers engaged in this and other SSC work, and substantial amounts of federal funds are coming into the state to support this effort. California stands to benefit, not just financially, but also in scientific standing and academic opportunity, if the project goes forward.
Scientists all across the country are seeking support for a Senate vote that will allow completion of the SSC. We are aware that the cost is an issue. Some people think that the country cannot afford such an expenditure at this time. But we are a rich country, even if we are deeply in debt. We have budgeted more than $200 billion this year alone for military procurement and expenditures. If the SSC is funded, it would cost less than $1 billion per year for the next 10 years--less than half a penny on today’s defense dollar.
The SSC represents an investment that will bear a legacy long beyond our lifetimes, and far beyond the boundaries of what people now think of as science. Like the great cathedrals of Europe, this laboratory is an endeavor of art and creativity.
Robert Wilson, a former director of Fermilab and a sculptor, has argued that for a nation to invest its national treasure in this sort of research is not altogether for material reward; it is also for the dignity of men and women, “our love of culture . . . It has to do with all the things we venerate and honor in our country and are patriotic about.â€
