Indians in the matter !!!

GENEVA: The bronze Nataraja in its famous tandava pose gleams golden as it catches the first rays of the sun, bouncing off the glass façade of the international hostel nearby. Scientists, walking briskly to their labs through the chilly mist, cast quick glances at the ‘God of Destruction’, sitting above the tunnel where two proton beams are colliding at the rate of 40 million hits per second. This is where an explosion in a pipe on November 10 last year brought the world’s biggest scientific experiment ever to a halt. This is where rumours of doomsday began. The symbolism of the Dancing Shiva is hard to miss.

But, the Nataraja, gifted to CERN or the European Centre for Nuclear Research five years ago by India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), is not the only Indian presence here. More than 100 Indian scientists have been working since the day the large hadron collider broke down last year. This happened just as 6,000 scientists were starting an experiment that hoped to find Higgs Boson -- the so-called god particle -- by creating conditions similar to that of the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago. The Higgs Boson, incidentally, is a massive elementary particle and its detection would help explain the origin of mass in the universe.

In the 27-km-long tunnel, 150 m below the ground on the Swiss-French border, scientists have been working to fix the problems quietly even as conspiracy theories run riot over “micro black holes” and “anti-matter bombs”.

Tapan Nayak, an Indian scientist, smiles when you ask him about the black holes. “There is no such threat. Here, we are trying to unlock the mystery of the Universe,” he says, fixing his helmet as he whisks down to the tunnel in an elevator. Nayak is joined by a dozen other Indian scientists, engineers and technicians. Indian scientists have been involved in two of the four experiments at CERN.

At the experiment called ALICE, located on the Swiss side of the border, Indians have been putting in place the photon multiplicity detector (PMD). Nayak says it “is truly an Indian detector from conception to commissioning”. Scientists are trying to record the temperature and density of the “Little Bang” – conditions within microseconds of the Big Bang -- with detectors and chips made in India. “Our contribution to this experiment is fundamental,” says Nayak, walking through a mind-boggling maze of wires, chips and huge magnets.

Indians remain key to yet another CERN experiment - the CMS, in Cessy, France. A shiny black road cuts through green fields and yellow forests as one heads to the laboratory. “Here, we are trying to find the god particle to know why the world is the way it is. If we make progress, we’ll be able to explain all physical phenomena,” says Archana Sharma, who has worked at CERN since 1987 and is the first non-European to be given a permanent position at this prestigious laboratory.

Born in Jhansi and educated in Varanasi and Delhi, Archana is the face of India here. She has started a new programme at CERN, inviting Indian students to the laboratory every summer.

The first CERN-India cooperation agreement was signed in 1991 but Indian scientists took five years to get involved with its experiments. Funded by the DAE and Department of Science and Technology, India has contributed close to $60 million to the Big Bang experiment and become an ‘observer’ at this European venture.

“India’s biggest contribution has been its scientists,” says Nick Chohan, a British scientist who worked with Indians to fix magnets that direct the proton beams in the tunnel. “Without their work, this experiment would not take off again. They came here in groups and worked round the clock in shifts and we fixed the problem.” But it wasn’t all work and no play. “We also had fun as we played cricket, organized picnics and had Diwali parties,” says Chohan.

He’s not the only one impressed with India’s scientists. John Ellis, one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, says, “India has contributed, both in cash and kind. Your scientists have been working here for years and have made some important equipment too. Their work is fundamental for the success of this programme. This makes India a strong contender for associate membership of the institute.” He calls the CERN exercise an effort to prepare the “instructional manual of the universe”.

It is also about going where no man has before – into the heart of matter

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