I have some questions regarding the fact that the LHC creates "Sparks":
So, the LHC is an instrument that creates sparks just like cosmic rays, couldn't one of those sparks create a Runaway Breakdown, causing a Avalanche Breakdown?From the "Review of the Safety of LHC Collisions" by the LHC Safety Assessment Group:
The LHC reproduces in the laboratory, under controlled conditions, collisions at centre-of-mass energies less than those reached in the atmosphere by some of the cosmic rays that have been bombarding the Earth for billions of years. We recall the rates for the collisions of cosmic rays with the Earth, Sun, neutron stars, white dwarfs and other astronomical bodies at energies higher than the LHC. The stability of astronomical bodies indicates that such collisions cannot be dangerous. http://cern.ch/lsag/LSAG-Report.pdf
Runaway breakdown: In the upper atmosphere, cosmic rays striking air molecules within thunderstorms can supply the relativistic electrons which trigger a breakdown in "runaway" mode. The breakdown region is a conductive plasma many tens of meters long, and it can supply the "seed" which triggers a lightning flash.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_breakdown
Avalanche Breakdown: A phenomenon that can occur in both insulating and semiconducting materials. It is a form of electric current multiplication that can allow very large currents to flow within materials which are otherwise good insulators.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_breakdown
As a second point; we as a planet are trying to find out what the Higgs Boson is by smashing particles against each other, how can we ever say that something is save when we don't know what it is. This sounds stupid but who can assure us that splitting a Higgs Boson couldn't cause a chain-reaction, igniting the Higgs field?
kind regards,
chelle