Particle Fever
| Particle Fever | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mark Levinson |
| Produced by | Mark Levinson David Kaplan |
| Starring | Savas Dimopoulos Nima Arkani-Hamed Fabiola Gianotti Monica Dunford Martin Aleksa Mike Lamont |
| Narrated by | David Kaplan |
| Cinematography | Claudia Raschke-Robinson |
| Edited by | Walter Murch |
| Music by | Robert Miller |
Production company | Anthos Media |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English[1] |
Particle Fever is a 2013 documentary film tracking the first round of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. The film follows the empirical physicists at CERN who run the experiments and the theoretical physicists who attempt to interpret their results. The film begins in 2008 with the first firing of the LHC and concludes in 2012 with the successful identification of the Higgs boson.[2]
Production
The film was shot over a period of seven years. It was directed by Mark Levinson, a former theoretical physicist with a doctorate from UC-Berkeley. Levinson produced the film along with David Kaplan, a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University. The two gathered nearly 500 hours of footage from both professional camera crews and amateur video self-recordings shot by the physicists themselves.[3] This footage was then edited by Walter Murch, who had previously won Academy Awards for his work on Apocalypse Now and The English Patient.[4]
The film premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest on July 14, 2013.[5]
Synopsis
The film is composed of two narrative threads. One follows the large team of experimental physicists at CERN as they try to get the LHC running properly. After a promising initial test run, the LHC suffers a liquid helium leak in 2008 that damages its electromagnets. Fabiola Gianotti, Martin Aleksa and Monica Dunford are all shown discussing how to handle the negative publicity surrounding the accident, and how to proceed. After repairs in 2009, the LHC begins to run experiments again at half power.
The other thread follows the competing theories of Nima Arkani-Hamed and his former thesis advisor Savas Dimopoulos. In the film, Arkani-Hamed advocates for the "multiverse" theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 140 giga-electronvolts. Dimopolous argues for the more-established supersymmetry theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 115 GeV.
The narrative threads combine at the end of the film, when CERN announces the confirmed existence of a Higgs-like particle, with a mass of approximately 125 GeV. The discovery of the particle is met with a standing ovation, and Peter Higgs is shown wiping away tears. However, neither of the competing theories of the universe is definitively supported by the finding.
Later, Kaplan is shown admitting that none of his theoretical models are supported by this finding, and that the long-term implications of the discovery are unclear.[4][6][7]
Release and reception
The film was shown at several festivals before opening in limited release in the United States on March 5, 2014.[1] Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive, with reviewers praising the film for making theoretical arguments seem comprehensible, for making scientific experiments seem thrilling, and for making particle physicists seem human. Several reviewers singled out Murch's editing for praise.[8]
On his blog, theoretical physicist and string theory critic Peter Woit called the movie "fantastically good," but cautioned that Arkani-Hamed's linking of the Higgs boson to multiverse theory was a tenuous proposition, as this theory did not currently make testable predictions.[6]
References
- ^ a b "Particle Fever — WITH ONE SWITCH, EVERYTHING CHANGES". Particle Fever promotional website. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ Perlman, David (March 9, 2014). "'Particle Fever' an intimate look at a weighty experiment". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ Kaplan, David (February 19, 2014). "Physicist-turned-filmmaker captures seven years of "Particle Fever"" (Interview). Interviewed by Rebecca Jacobson. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
{{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter|program=ignored (help) - ^ a b Murch, Walter. "Catching 'Particle Fever':Walter Murch on editing the Universe Down to Size" (Interview). Interviewed by Whitney Mallett. Motherboard (Vice Media).
- ^ "Sheffield Doc/Fest Sessions:A-Z". Sheffield Doc/Fest. July 14, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ a b Woit, Peter (October 1, 2013). "Particle Fever". Not Even Wrong. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ Scott, A. O. (March 4, 2014). "'Particle Fever' Tells of Search for the Higgs Boson". The New York Times. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ "Particle Fever". Metacritic.