J-K University aids Big Bang test

Jammu: As the Big Bang experiment makes headlines the world over, a significant contribution to the scientific project comes from India too.

Apart from the 13 Indian scientists - who are part of the experiment being conducted in Geneva - there's another important India connection.

Scientists from Jammu University have overcome all odds and infrastructural problems to create component crucial to the experiment.

The component called Photon Multiplicity Detector, being used in one of the four collision points in the Large Hadron Collider, was developed in a small room of Jammu University.

Project engineer, Professor Anek Gupta says, “Twenty five per cent of the component was made in Jammu. In fact, this lab was almost a junk room. We had to struggle to make a lab out of it, but we delivered the modules and each module takes over a month to develop.”

The lab was created within six months. The 25- member group, which is the largest participation from universities in India, has also developed the software for the Photon Multiplicity Detector.

The team had to work against over six hours of daily power cuts and low Internet speed. “Major problem is the power problem in Jammu and Kashmir. We have a generator and UPS backup but still that is our major handicap," says Jammu University professor, Anju Bhasin.

This handicap will also limit the extent to which the scientists from Jammu can contribute to the project.

Various grid centres will be established to store high-quantity data related to the experiment but the scientists in Jammu will not be a part of the exercise because of the poor power backup and Internet connectivity.

“We wanted to be a part of grid, second tier, but we have to give them 100 per cent power back up.which we can’t," says Bhasin.

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