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Physicists say they've found evidence of 'God particle'
To cheers and standing ovations from scientists, the world's biggest atom smasher claimed the discovery of a new subatomic particle Wednesday, calling it "consistent" with the long-sought Higgs boson -- popularly known as the "God particle" -- that helps explain what gives all matter in the universe size and shape.
"We have now found the missing cornerstone of particle physics," Rolf Heuer, director of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), told scientists.
While they say it is "the heaviest boson ever found," the article does not give its mass. Nor does the article list their level of certainty (sigma value).
I'm still sorting through the reports. What I'm seeing is that what has been detected is a new never before seen boson. It was located where the Higgs boson was expected to be. Understandably so, they're also stopping short of saying it is in fact the long elusive Higgs boson. It will take more detailed examination for another 3 or 4 years with the LHC running at full power.
According to CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "We have to find out which kind of Higgs boson this is." "... We have discovered a boson, and now we have to determine what kind of boson it is." He also said, "We can call it a Higgs boson, but we cannot call it the Higgs boson." That alludes to the idea that there may be 4 or 5 Higgs fields, which in turn suggests there could also be more than one Higgs boson.
"If the new particle is determined to be the Higgs, attention will turn to a new set of important questions," University of California Irvine physicist Andy Lankford, the deputy spokesperson for the ATLAS experiment, said in a statement. "Is this a Standard Model Higgs, or is it a variant that indicates new physics and other new particles?"
In that scenario, studying the Higgs could open the way for explorations of the weirder corners of physics, such as the idea that our universe has six or seven extra dimensions, or the claim that there should be an unseen supersymmetric partner for every one of the subatomic particles that have been detected, or the nature of the stuff that mysterious dark matter is made of.
Six or seven extra dimensions would give more weight to validate String theory (10 dimension) and Branes (11 dimensions). It could also add more support to the idea of multiple uiverses. That's putting the cart before the horse though. If the particle is the Higgs boson, and many feel confident that it probably is, then there's still a lot more to understand about it before leaping to multiple dimensions and other universes. Regardless, it still shows that it could pave the way to develop all sorts of spinoffs. Whether the particle is the Higgs or not, the discovery itself is remarkable, one that deserves a lot of applause. It's going to be greatly interesting to see what develops over the next few years.
I'm still sorting through the reports. What I'm seeing is that what has been detected is a new never before seen boson. It was located where the Higgs boson was expected to be. Understandably so, they're also stopping short of saying it is in fact the long elusive Higgs boson. It will take more detailed examination for another 3 or 4 years with the LHC running at full power.
According to CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "We have to find out which kind of Higgs boson this is." "... We have discovered a boson, and now we have to determine what kind of boson it is." He also said, "We can call it a Higgs boson, but we cannot call it the Higgs boson." That alludes to the idea that there may be 4 or 5 Higgs fields, which in turn suggests there could also be more than one Higgs boson.
"If the new particle is determined to be the Higgs, attention will turn to a new set of important questions," University of California Irvine physicist Andy Lankford, the deputy spokesperson for the ATLAS experiment, said in a statement. "Is this a Standard Model Higgs, or is it a variant that indicates new physics and other new particles?"
In that scenario, studying the Higgs could open the way for explorations of the weirder corners of physics, such as the idea that our universe has six or seven extra dimensions, or the claim that there should be an unseen supersymmetric partner for every one of the subatomic particles that have been detected, or the nature of the stuff that mysterious dark matter is made of.
Six or seven extra dimensions would give more weight to validate String theory (10 dimension) and Branes (11 dimensions). It could also add more support to the idea of multiple uiverses. That's putting the cart before the horse though. If the particle is the Higgs boson, and many feel confident that it probably is, then there's still a lot more to understand about it before leaping to multiple dimensions and other universes. Regardless, it still shows that it could pave the way to develop all sorts of spinoffs. Whether the particle is the Higgs or not, the discovery itself is remarkable, one that deserves a lot of applause. It's going to be greatly interesting to see what develops over the next few years.
For me the importance of extra dimensions is secondary to being able to determine the composition of the rest of the universe. With what we know now we can account for all the matter that we can see in the universe, but that only amounts to about 4%. With the discovery of this new boson particle(s) we may be on the verge of discovering what the other 96% of the universe is made of, including dark matter and dark energy. That is HUGE!
FYI: They put its mass at between 125 and 126 GeV. Which is precisely where they expected to find the Higgs boson particle.
For me the importance of extra dimensions is secondary to being able to determine the composition of the rest of the universe. With what we know now we can account for all the matter that we can see in the universe, but that only amounts to about 4%. With the discovery of this new boson particle(s) we may be on the verge of discovering what the other 96% of the universe is made of, including dark matter and dark energy. That is HUGE!
FYI: They put its mass at between 125 and 126 GeV. Which is precisely where they expected to find the Higgs boson particle.
I forgot to put the 'extra dimensions' comment in quotes. It was raised in the article. I agree it's secondary to confirming the Higgs. First things first. But on the other hand, confirming the Higgs is going to raise a lot of possibilities as well as toss out others. If the Higgs boson and the Higgs field are distributed as is thought, it would be distributed everywhere throughout the universe. It gets down to much greater fundamental levels than we've ever detected before. I wouldn't be surprised there are other exotic particles and so on which as yet remain undiscovered.
While the Higgs boson has been a primary of the LHC, extra dimensions are also objectives that physicists woulld like to explore. Understanding Dark Matter and Dark Energy ae indeed significant objectives. The Higgs discovery is just a beginning.
I forgot to put the 'extra dimensions' comment in quotes. It was raised in the article. I agree it's secondary to confirming the Higgs. First things first. But on the other hand, confirming the Higgs is going to raise a lot of possibilities as well as toss out others. If the Higgs boson and the Higgs field are distributed as is thought, it would be distributed everywhere throughout the universe. It gets down to much greater fundamental levels than we've ever detected before. I wouldn't be surprised there are other exotic particles and so on which as yet remain undiscovered.
While the Higgs boson has been a primary of the LHC, extra dimensions are also objectives that physicists woulld like to explore. Understanding Dark Matter and Dark Energy ae indeed significant objectives. The Higgs discovery is just a beginning.
I can understand how the Higgs boson could be distributed everywhere throughout the universe as a result of inflation, but from what I understand the Higgs boson decays almost immediately into two hadrons and two electrons. During the Hardon Epoch there should be no bosons left, just a soup of quarks, anti-quarks, baryons, and mesons. So I am a bit confused how something like the Higgs field could exist in the first place.
I can understand how the Higgs boson could be distributed everywhere throughout the universe as a result of inflation, but from what I understand the Higgs boson decays almost immediately into two hadrons and two electrons. During the Hardon Epoch there should be no bosons left, just a soup of quarks, anti-quarks, baryons, and mesons. So I am a bit confused how something like the Higgs field could exist in the first place.
The results from the LHC strongly point to a Higgs boson. Still, there's a lot yet to do to confirm that it is in fact a Higgs, that there's no mistake, regardless of the confidence level. It's always possible that what was detected could be some other unknown exotic particle that gives a signature like the Higgs. Confidence level is fine, but that isn't conclusive proof. I could be wrong, but while the particle is significant, what's more significant is the Higgs field. If the field can be disturbed enough, it can cause an effect to produce a particle, in this case a Higgs particle. Since we can't actually see the particle, what's we're seeing is the effect of that particle.
The Higgs particle seems to require a Higgs field. It's thought that as other particles pass through that field, Higgs particles interact with them giving them varying mass depending on the particles. The Higgs particles don't necessarily attach to other particles, but act more like a medium the other particles have to pass through.
I kind of like the analogy of water. Water is made of molecules. A streamlined fish can zip through the water quite well. A bulky human though trudges through it more slowly. Even though the Higgs boson decays quickly, the Higgs field could replace them just as quicky. The idea is that without the Higgs field, there's be no Higgs particles. And without Higgs bosons, particles could just as quickly lose all their mass. Everything would be zooming around at the speed of light. And that's what the question was about. What gives particles mass? Why are some particle very massive, others not so massive, and other no mass at all? It depends on the given particle as it plows through the Higgs field.
I would assume that Higgs bosons exist very discretely, and the effects only detectable under very narrow conditions that disturb the Higgs field. When the field is disturbed enough, the effects of an occasional Higgs boson can be detected. The bosons go about their business as usual without obvious detection, much like swimming through water without detecting all the molecules that are completely around you. As quickly as the bosons disappear, they are just as quickly replaced. It suggests that the Higgs field is very dynamic.
As for why the Higgs field could exist in the first place, I don't know. It might be to have a clear answer, we might have to know the conditions that gave rise to the Big Bang. The Higgs boson is only the first step toward understanding the Higgs field which is far more difficult. There may be any number of "soups" that exist but are currently beyond our threshold of understanding.
Here's an interesting page I came across that might be helpful. It's very simplified so the general public can better understand.
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Pretty big news!
