The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, a vast underground particle accelerator that costs 200,000 Swiss francs an hour to run, is designed to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang to allow particles such as the Higgs boson to be found and studied.
While the boson’s discovery would cement current knowledge about particles such as electrons and photons, proof that it does not exist would undermine the foundations of accepted theories of the make-up of the universe.
The particle is so short-lived that it can only be detected from the particles that it decays into. In the course of millions of collisions, the scientists are hunting for a significant excess of a particular combination of decay particles.
Although they are now converging on a particular profile for the Higgs, they will need another year’s worth of such collisions to rule out a statistical fluke.
“The window for the Higgs mass gets smaller and smaller,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “But please be prudent. Remember, we have not found it yet, nor have we excluded it yet. There is still Higgs hunting to be done.”
Oliver Buchmueller, senior physicist on the CMS experiment, said: “It can still happen that it is a fluctuation, but all we see from both experiments is compatible with what we would expect for a Higgs signal to build up...
“But we really need the data from next year to be sure of what we’re seeing.”
Claire Shepherd-Themistocleus, head of the CMS Group at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said: “We are homing in on the Higgs ...
“We have had hints today of what its mass might be and the excitement of scientists is palpable. Whether this is ultimately confirmed or we finally rule out a low-mass Higgs boson, we are on the verge of a major change in our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2011.
COMMENTS (11)
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Im not even sure that what I wrote is right.
boson confuses me I have read more
@Talha: good, do you know about boson?
From what I understand and thats very little.
Time is only relative to humans and how we look at it.
From what I have understood that a Higgs field of energy surrounds everything zero-point energy
and a particle that travels from or decays into another forming matter.
One particle that I find fascinating is the graviton ,if this particle can transverse threw dimensions
giving displacement of an object,that would also ,could mean an understanding of the weak force.
Hopefully in a year LHC will tell us.
I read some where that the Time is a moving energy and when part of this energy is concentrated at some point and start to move around it is self by speed that is different than the speed of the field it will appear for us and that what we call (mass or matter)
Finding the particle that gives mass to matter from energy.
Using the eq E=mc2 it will mean maybe turning energy to matter in about 100 years or less.
making matter from energy would be as big as fire.
Its been ignored before but for emphasis let me try say THE BIG BANG IS GOING TO CAUSE ' A BIG BANG'!
this will for sure reveal information that will help us understand how the universe was crafted
Interesting article and subject. The best and most clear introduction into the Higgs boson I've read so far is the book by Ian Sample "Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science" (http://popsciencebooks.com/physics-2/massive-the-missing-particle-that-sparked-the-greatest-hunt-in-science) - a captivating read.
@zezu: We are in the era where politics is the entertainment
Not a single comment on the Science and Technology topic!!! See where are we heading ...