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I think one reason sums everything up: To prove our theoretical knowledge. That reason is very controversial and very important, its what keeps physics going. Particle physics is a brilliant and highly successful part of physics that in some sense underlies everything. To prove our mathematical theories of the fundamentals of nature, such as gravitons, supersymmetry etcetera, we need these particle physics machines, the same applies for finding the fundamentals of cosmological mysteries such as dark matter as well as, of course, the specific particle physics of further understanding particle interactions and fundamental properties.
Thank you for the lectures, Professor Barish, they have highly interesting and have improved my understanding of colliders and how we work with them.
I quite adamantly disagree that these accelerators will be the end of particle physics. At the dawn of the 20th century, Lord Kelvin expressed his belief that physics was done, and we now understood the entire universe, he was surely wrong. Since the 20th century, we’ve had relativity, quantum mechanics, dark matter, string theory, the Higgs boson etcetera. I believe that this tide-turning and unexpected 20th century quantum revolution showed how physics can dramatically change when new mathematics/thoughts as well as technologies are introduced. This leads me to believe that as our technology advances and more great minds ponder the questions of the universe, we will make great strides in cosmology, computing, particle physics etcetera.
Dark matter is a highly mysterious thing, and has been ever since its original discovery. Similar to how Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity explained the strange gravitational “fluctuations” around Mercury originally though to be caused by a new planet, named Vulcan, dark matter showed that there was a new and different matter creating a halo around black holes and galaxies and acting gravitationally on these galactic objects. However, dark matter is elusive, originally we believed it may be carried by particles of the standard model, but only neutrinos would be a possibility as they hardly interact with light, however, they do have nuclear interactions and do have energetic reactions in their production. Hence, dark matter must be carried by some new and elusive particle outside of our known standard model of physics and particle physics will certainly play a role in our scientific advancement of knowledge on dark matter. Interestingly, experiments are already being conducted to find both the proposed dark matter particles that can interact with the electromagnetic spectrum, called “Axions” as well as their wave counterparts.
I believe that there are many gaps in our scientific understanding of the standard model that may be addressed by the ILC.
Understanding fundamentally smaller particles is a significant prospect, we may be able to further study and understand the structure of quarks, as these are our fundamental blocks of normal, baryonic matter, this is of high importance.
Also, the real world of matter-antimatter relationships, new light has recently been shed on these relations, such as positron-electron reactions and relationships, this may be further studied.
Lastly, I believe that dark matter is one of the big new frontiers in modern physics, and the ILC may be able to work toward further studying and understanding what dark matter fundamentally is. Particle colliders/accelerators are and will continue to experience significant challenges in achieving higher particle energies. Even besides a scientific point of view, there are important economics in the situation, as more technology is required, more money is required, this generally comes in the form of governments or company funds. Also, time is needed for technological advancement as well as the particle accelerator development once developed. After this, further scientific research is necessary to create controlled and understood experiments allowing us to innovate and study these fundamental particles and their high energy interactions, as well as any other further discovery.
Particle colliders/accelerators are and will continue to experience significant challenges in achieving higher particle energies. Even besides from a scientific point of view, there are important economics in the situation, as more technology is required, more money is required, this generally comes in the form of governments or company funds. Also, time is needed for technological advancement as well as the particle accelerator development once developed. After this, further scientific research is necessary to create controlled and understood experiments allowing us to innovate and study these fundamental particles and their high energy interactions, as well as any other further discovery.
This is only somewhat a philosophy; it is more a scientific theory that has philosophical repercussions. There was a time in which we believed atoms were fundamental and the core of all things, then came the electron and not long after, the nuclei. We now have replaced particles with strings vibrating at specific frequencies. However, we are now ripping apart and exploring nature which is leading to radical discoveries and new thoughts on the subject, we are now at a point where we cannot regard fundamentality as true, let alone important.
String Theory is composed of eleven dimensions, all of these carry many different properties and values such as warps, curves, spirals etc., these change our conception of space just as strings change our conceptions of fundamental particles. Space is shown to be host to the game of matter and energy, something that Einstein’s theory of general relativity showcases. Understanding that space is not fundamental is simple to understand, mathematics and abstract thought can branch into different areas of known and unknown physics at all levels. Mathematics is the universal language of science and through this we discover the different ideas of the cosmos. If spacetime is emergent and not fundamental, then that is what it is. From this, I think quantum cosmology is an answer to the unknowns and is why we need string theory.
Generally, yes, but also no. Theories and principals in classical physics as well as now quantum physics must be tweaked and have new interpretations and ideas added onto them. Through this comes some great debates over certain physics topics such as Newton & Leibniz over absolute space or Einstein & Bohr over quantum entanglement. I believe this sufficiently answers the question.