A pair of Russian mathematicians believe that the Large Hadron Collider, the massive particle accelerator being built by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, could end up being the first time machine, according to an article in New Scientist.

“It is a highly speculative claim, that’s for sure,” the magazine says.

Nonetheless, Irina Aref’eva and Igor Volovich, mathematical physicists at Moscow’s Steklov Mathematical Institute, argue that the long-delayed particle collider could create wormholes — tunnels through spacetime — that could allow a form of time travel.

New Scientist says that if time travel ultimately proves possible, it could occur only as far back as the creation of the first time machine, making 2008 “Year Zero” (meaning there’s no need to contact your time-travel agent until at least 2009).

Brian Cox, a physicist at the University of Manchester, told the British newspaper The Telegraph that cosmic rays have been pounding the earth’s atmosphere for five billion years, far exceeding the energies that will be created at the forthcoming collider. “By this logic time travelers should be here already,” said Mr. Cox. “If these wormholes appear I will personally eat the hat I was given for my first birthday before I received it.” —Don Troop