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The LHC Sound project aims to allow physicists at Cern in Geneva to ‘listen’ to the data in order to identify the crucial ‘Higgs boson’ particle.
Finding the Higgs boson – also known as the God particle – is the primary aim of the LHC experiment because it will provide an insight into the nature of all matter. It is hoped the subatomic particle will emerge from the 27km circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border where beams of proton particles are being smashed together.
LHC Sound, a collaboration of particle physicists, musicians and artists in London, has converted data expected from collisions into sounds in a process called sonification.
The data was provided by the LHC's Atlas experiment which includes a calorimeter measuring the energy from collisions. The note and pitch of the sound varies with the amount of energy recorded.
LHC Sound is planning live performances of the data during the summer but early simulations of the particles can be heard here.
Dr Lily Asquith, one of the team, explained in a recent blog entry:
“Sound seems the perfect tool with which to represent the complexity of the data; our ears are superb at locating the source and location of sounds relative to one another, we can hear a vast range of frequencies and distinguish timbres (different instruments) before they have even played a full cycle.
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