Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering Yorita Laboratory exhibiting ATLAS Ditector of Lego blocks
Mon, Apr 15, 2013Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering and Yorita Laboratory used Lego blocks to create “ATLAS Ditector,” which gave considerable contribution to the search for the “Higgs boson.” It is said to have given mass to all things, called “the God particle” and almost perfectly considered to be discovered in the future. The Lego blocks are now displayed at the information gallery on the first floor, Bldg. No. 63, Nishi-Waseda Campus.
As one of the members of ATLAS Japan which consists of about 110 researchers from 16 domestic institutes such as the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , associate professor Kohei Yorita has been engaging in experiments of Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS detector and promoting experiments for the discovery of the Higgs boson and other new particles. ATLAS, being placed about 100 meters under the ground in the suburb of Geneva in Switzerland where the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is located, is a large particle detector which is 22 meters high, 44 meters long and weighs 7,000 tons. With approximately 2,800 physicists coming from 169 universities and research institutes of 37 countries participating, the largest-ever experiment is being conducted.
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The model is made up of about 9,500 pieces of Lego blocks and its scale is 1/50 as large as the real one (approximately 11 meters long, 0.5 meter high and 0.5 meter wide) . As it is similar to the scale of Lego figure, you can enjoy the impressiveness of real ATLAS. The set of this model’s kit which duplicates the ATLAS detector in detail is available only by research institutes participating in the ATLAS experiment. It is extremely rare as the model is one of the 16 models in all that exist in Japan. In 2012, 15 students of Yorita Laboratory, scheduling shifts, spent 10 days (about 30 hours) on the work. During the time, the leader of the laboratory Tomoya Iizawa (a first year student in the Doctoral Program) took the initiative. Associate Professor Kohei Yorita said as follows, “I hope that this would have many people interested in experiment of particles as well as ATLAS experiment and know Waseda University conducts research on ATLAS.”
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An international center for experiments of particles in the suburb of Geneva in Switzerland, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) which continues experiments to search for the Higgs boson announced in March 2013 that results of the latest data analysis indicated high possibility of the Higgs boson’s existence and that the Higgs boson was sure to be discovered.
