At a depth of over 100 meters near Geneva, on the border of Switzerland and France, there is a 26-kilometer Large Hadron Collider. This giant serves scientists who are trying to understand the nature of the most basic particles in our universe and find clues to its deepest secrets. And quite possibly one of those secrets is the following question (just don't laugh): If the ghosts are real, shouldn't the LHC find them?
At least that's what the British physicist and popularizer of science Brian Cox from the University of Manchester thinks. While on BBC Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage, he made a rather interesting statement on the matter, from which it follows that the LHC denied the existence of ghosts:
“Before we get to the questions, I want to make a statement: today we are not arguing about the existence of ghosts. They don't exist."
Cox continued:
“If we want to preserve a certain model that contains and carries information about our living cells, we must clearly indicate in which environment this model is located and how it is capable of interacting with the particles of matter that make up our bodies. In other words, we must assume that there is an exception to the standard model of particle physics that has escaped detection inside the Large Hadron Collider. This is inconceivable, given the energy scales that are characteristic of the levels of particle interaction in our body."
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, also on the show, interrupted Cox and asked a clarifying question:
"If I understand correctly, from what you just said, it follows that CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, has denied the existence of ghosts?"
“Yes,” Cox replied.
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“I wanted to say that if there was a certain substance that could control our bodies, make our arms and legs move, then this substance would have to have the ability to interact with the particles that make up our bodies. Considering the level of accuracy with which studies of the ways of particle interaction are carried out, my statement is connected with the fact that there is no such source of energy (substance, if you will) in the world that could control our bodies."
Even more simply, he says, this means that if ghosts existed, then they would have to be able to interact with the real world through the prism of existing particles from the standard model and at the energy levels at which life exists.
The topic, admittedly, is very muddy. And from the point of view of some - in general, it seems like the delirium of a madman. Or at least something that is not far from alchemy. However, it should be understood that in the walls of the Large Hadron Collider, many theoretically predicted particles have not yet been discovered. Starting from the so-called supersymmetric particles and ending with tiny particles and candidates for the role of dark matter - axions. So maybe we just haven't found the particles through which ghosts can interact with particles in our real world?
“Research into the existence of dark matter continues. We still don't know if axions exist or not. So how do we know if ghosts are made of axions? - comments Bob Jacobsen, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, working with the LUX installation, with which scientists search for dark matter.
True, here Jacobson adds that he was not so deeply involved in the issue of detecting ghosts through their probable interaction with physical particles, so he may be wrong.
The current description of axions, at least according to the official CERN website, is as follows:
“Axions are hypothetical neutral and very light (but not massless) particles that do not interact (or practically do not interact) with ordinary matter. To some extent, they can be viewed as "strange photons." According to the proposed hypotheses, if axions really exist, then in the presence of electromagnetic fields they can pass into the state of photons and back."
To be honest, it sounds like a description of the physical embodiment of a ghost, Mr. Cox!
American experiments LUX, Italian XENON, CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) and others continue to actively search for dark matter particles, but have not found anything so far. But what if the ghosts just don't want to be around the Large Hadron Collider and instead are doing exactly what is required of them - scaring people who believe in them?
In general, what does this topic of discussion prove and does it prove at all? In fact, it really proves something: despite the fact that the LHC is able to explain many aspects of particle physics to scientists, in fact, it has not yet ruled out the possibility of the existence of ghosts.
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK