| MadSci Network: Physics |
The questions you have brought up were originally expressed relative to the new Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, USA.
I am not a theorist, and certainly not a top expert in this particular area, but my understanding is that most of those concerns have since been laid to rest.
The strongest layman-level argument I have heard in favor of this being a non-issue is the fact that we can observe astronomical systems that produce particles with just as much energy as we will get in RHIC. We even get particles with incredibly high energies colliding into the earth on a regular basis - we refer to these as cosmic rays. These processes have been going on at astronomical levels for billions of years, and so far none of them have resulted in the kind of catastrophes that were discussed with RHIC. This does not constitute a "proof" that it can't ever happen, but this combined with recent reports of theorists that they also don't think it can happen gives me a pretty strong confidence level.
Hope this helps.
Jay
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