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Published online 29 July 2009 | Nature 460, 558 (2009) | doi:10.1038/460558a
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LHC students face data drought
Computer simulations are the only option when the world's largest particle accelerator isn't working.
Last November, Sara Bolognesi stood before a committee at the University of Turin in Italy and defended her PhD thesis in experimental high-energy physics. The 180-page document is a treatise on finding the Higgs boson, part of the mechanism believed to endow all other matter with mass.
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Computer simulations are not necessary the best or most desirable way to emulate an actual situation or a phenomenon. Sometimes, the predicted outcome from untested models can unwittingly lead to just the opposite scenario. LHC was set to be the dream machine of many physicists. Hopefully, come this November, it will really start functioning and keep moving on. The unexpected long delay has resulted in the loss of money and invaluable time, let alone the great frustration and inconvenience among researchers and PhD students. Let this not happen again. (Tan Boon Tee)
I am running a BOINC project called LHC@home on my personal computer, which does simulations of particle trajectories in the LHC. Unfortunately, it is also out of work. Maybe this project could solve Ms.Bolognesi's problem if feed with some work.
Simulation experiments are very useful as a prelude to the real ones. Especially in biological experiments, many a times we can save the cost, time and energy, if we have some idea about the course of an experiment. I did MD simulation studies along with the real experiments to know the structure- finction relatioship of a protein and I found it very effective. We can streamline the experiments more effectively if have the back up data from the simulation studies. But for a PhD thesis, I feel real data is also essential along with the simulation data.Otherwise there will be only assumptions, not any conclusions.
Why should the Higgs exist? The Standard Model arrives massless. Twelve fundamental observed masses are inserted by hand, http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/constants.html Newton's G cannot be calculated. The Equivalence Principle is inert to all observables to at least one part in 20 trillion, beryllium marbles to pulsars. Mass as such may be an artifact of geometry. There is nothing for a Higgs boson to do.
The LHC should be repaired quickly and made to work as it is a very important project to judge whether the Higg BOSON exists or not.You should repair in a short period of time.
I think theory and practice are both important. Real data are always not definite and complex.But they bring light on truth. Theory is based on real data.So it’s regular but limited. All in all，they are undivided.