Science
Related: About this forumHiggs boson buzz hits new heights
By Alan Boyle
Has the Higgs boson finally been detected? It's almost gotten to the point that if a discovery of some sort doesn't come out of next week's update on the multibillion-dollar subatomic search, it'll be a big surprise. But how far will the announcement go, and what will it mean for the future of physics?
To refresh your memory, the Higgs boson is the only fundamental subatomic particle predicted by theory but not yet detected. It's thought to play a role in endowing some particles, such as the W and Z boson, with mass ... while leaving other particles, such as the photon, massless. The Higgs mechanism, proposed by British physicist Peter Higgs and others in the 1960s, could have played a role in electroweak symmetry breaking, which was a key event in the rise of the universe as we know it.
The Higgs boson is so key to the current understanding of fundamental physics that Nobel-winning scientist Leon Lederman nicknamed it the "God Particle" a term that has been making other physicists wince ever since. Another religion-tinged cliche would be to call it the "holy grail of particle physics," as CERN physicist John Ellis has. He says finding the Higgs is a key goal for the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider.
"That's one thing that we're really looking forward to with the LHC," Ellis told me five years ago. "In fact, back when we persuaded the politicians to stump up the money to build the thing, that's probably what we told them."
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http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12488155-higgs-boson-buzz-hits-new-heights
longship
(40,416 posts)However, CERN will make an announcement that the Higgs likely exists due to the fact that their experiments have further limited its mass to a regime consistent with the standard model.
This would be a very important finding in that it does not rule out the Higgs, nor will it provide counter evidence for the standard model of particle physics.
Nota bene, the LHC will eventually work at energies that will likely finally break the standard model, something science has been trying to do for nearly four decades. More power to them.
I love this shit.
R&K
jimlup
(7,968 posts)I mean I'm already convinced. Yeah last January or whatever's update lead me posit that they were seeing the signal. I suspect that they felt that way too. What was it last January? 2.5 sigma or better? I mean sure it could have been a 1 in 30 experiment but probably not. I wish the Presidential election was as much of a sure thing.
Yeah - I too would really like to see a crack in the SM.