CERN catches a glimpse of Higgs-like boson
CERN boffins have finally hit paydirt with the Large Hadron Collider, finding a particle that is pretty much almost certainly the long sought-after Higgs boson. CMS event showing characteristics expected from the decay of the Higgs boson LOOK - THERE IT IS! IN THERE SOMEWHERE! Where before numerous findings of "strong …
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Re: Be careful what you wish for
One of the main aims of the LHC was to look for physics beyond the standard model - move into genuinely unknown territory. No other particle accelerator can do that. The Higgs is part of the standard model, and only a part of the central aim of the LHC. The fact that the Tevatron has been able to get hints of the Higgs when going back through its own data should be evidence enough that there is plenty more for the LHC to do. Finding supersymmetric particles, or else finding a dearth of particles hinting that supersymmetry is actually the wrong direction, would be at least as exciting to most physicists as finding the Higgs -- indeed, more so, since beyond the standard model is totally unknown, whereas the Higgs has been accepted as existing but undetected for a very long time now.
If the media fail to put that across to the public that's not entirely the fault of the scientists.
Re: Be careful what you wish for
>What's next?
Now they need to enhance the LHC so that they can collide two Higgs Bosons to see what they're made of....
Re: Be careful what you wish for
What's next?
Well they could try and find the moral compass of Bob Diamond. I don't think it's very big.
Re: Be careful what you wish for
Now that the Higgs has been "found" the next thing to do is to confirm that it is indeed what it is - a scalar boson doing the expected decay dances. One hopes that interesting deviations would appear. Apparently a special collider for that would be appropriate, which AFAIK, is a "muon factory".
HIGGS HAS BEEN FOUND is actually a VERY bad phrasing - it should be "STANDARD MODEL FRACKING CONFIRMED, SUCKERS!!". What has been done is to confirm a prediction of the standard model that there is a so-called "Higgs field" that, when twanged hard enough, manifests itself in exceedingly heavy quanta that immediately decay, where the decay products can be observed classically in very heavy microscopes. And this of course, means that the standard model, i.e. the mathematical model consisting of all this group theory allied to complex Hilbert spaces and action integrals and Grassmannians and whatnot, is indeed amazingly consistent and somehow, though no-one really knows why, describes reality as it is. Indeed, describes the underlying platonic world that, when scaled up enough, somehow coalesces into everyday life. This is worth tons more than any old shit that humanity has ever done before. UNESCO-protected stuff? PAH!
Re: Be careful what you wish for
Pete, dude, the yanks actually sponsor CERN and actively participates in the program.
Re: Be careful what you wish for
Science advances in two ways. One is a prediction from a theory, later confirmed by experiment. the Higgs boson is in this class. The other is an observation of something not predicted by any theory, or which contradicts the generally accepted theory.
So assuming there are no more predictions that everyone wants to confirm, CERN should start looking for the unexpected and currently inexplicable. (I think there are also many more tentative theories making predictions that CERN will in due course test).
Eventually, if physics needs particles at higher energies than CERN can provide, a lot of new technologies will have to be developed. A usefully larger circular accelerator would be impossibly large and impossibly expensive. It'll have to be a linear accelerator with operational parameters way beyond anything we know how to build today.
Re: Be careful what you wish for
You dont't get it. The Higgs boson can show up in many forms these can be detected. Additonally, there are many many more expriments that can be made.
This is money well spend, and the rio is 3 times over.
Re: Be careful what you wish for
Finding the unexpected could be quite a surprise - but if you don't wxpect it, how do you know when you've found it?
Oh FFS
...dont call it the "God Particle", please.
Its offensive to science.
Re: Oh FFS
Just as the absence of apostrophes from your comment is offensive to grammar.
Which is to say, wrong, and embarrassing to the perpetrator, but essentially meaningless and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Re: Oh FFS
...dont call it the "God Particle", please.
Its offensive to science.
The term is used by scientists, you moron. Maybe restrict your proclamations about what "is offensive" to fields you actually know something about?
Re: Oh FFS
No offense but while I'm not a particle physicist I am a professional physicist, and I've never heard anyone calling the Higgs the "God particle".
Re: Oh FFS
Yup, (ex)astrophysicist here and I never heard a physicist ever call it the god particle.
It doesn't even make sense as a name. Might as well call photons the Lucifer particle, it makes more sense.
Re: Oh FFS
@JDX: used by scientists? If at all (such as in not used by scientists) it was called "goddamn particle".
Re: Oh FFS
I guess Physics Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman doesn't count as a scientist then.
Re: Oh FFS
Yes, it's his fault.
And all the other particle physicists looked at him, rolled their eyes, and said 'FFS' really loudly.
I don't think you'll find many references to 'The God Particle' in Phys Rev D, or any of the other places the professionals hang out.
Re: Oh FFS
I can't see the problem with the phrase. You don't see people complaining about sea horses, jelly fish, silver fish, ear wigs, star fish, etc. Well ok, star fish seems to have gone through some sort of revisionist BBC type thing recently, so they are annoyingly called sea stars, even though they arn't stars. If the 'people' want to call it a God Particle, so be it, the professionals will always know what they are on about over the dinner table.
I thought
It was called that because everyone said "God! Where the hell IS it?"
Re: I thought
I think you're correct - my belief is that it's actually an abbreviated form of "goddamned particle".
"God" particle nomenclature
It's definitely too late to get that nomenclature out of the minds of regular folk, and even techie sites like this still succumb to using it despite knowing how wrong it is. I think I may have a solution: wherever you'd write "God", simply write "God*" instead. You could put a footnote at the bottom of the article if you wanted (eg, "Not your God", "No relation" or "Yes, we know") but I think it would be even better without the footnote. The asterisk has a fine tradition as a way to let people say "fuck" to prudish audiences, so why can't God* stand in for "Goddamn"? Occasional hilarity from readers confusing God* with a completely irrelevant footnote could be seen as a bonus.
Good news for the masses
It turns out that the Higgs Boson was in our hearts all along!
I think those purporting to be underwhelmed by this news don't understand the gravity of the situation.
Re: Good news for the masses
Good lord that was dreadful, breakfast. You should be appalled.
but, but .....
If these particles that make up all this missing dark matter are so heavy, won't they all have sunk to the bottom of the universe. Have they tried looking there !
Re: but, but .....
Unfortunately all these particles are also quite large and the larger something is the less dense it gets so the more likely it will be floating around rather than clumping at the bottom.
Huh?
Surely a 'God Particle' must be balanced by an equal and opposite "Devil Particle'? Now, there's something to worry about!
Re: Huh?
That's the neutrino. A right tricky little devil too...
Re: Huh?
We already discovered those, they are the single cells a politician has instead of a brain.
Re: Huh?
Thankfully, the Higgs boson is its own antiparticle, so no need to worry about that. Unless of course this means that God is also Satan...
Re: forty
Seventy Seven now if you account for the inflation of the universe.
Now the big question is...
Will Brian Cox play at the celebratory party?
Gazillions
Didn't the LHC cost around 8 billion euros, that's an avarage week's QE isn't it, get Mervyn to bung them anothe 8 bn we'll hardly notice it. And build the next one under the M25
Re: Gazillions
Doesn't the M25 already have an accelerator for Evil particles built into it?
Re: Gazillions
"In fact, very few people on the face of the planet know that the very shape of the M25 forms the sigil *odegra* in the language of the Black Priesthood of Ancient Mu, and means 'Hail the Great Beast, Devourer of Worlds'."
-- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens
Why
Why can't they just call it 'Brian'.
Nothing wrong with Brian, it's a good solid name.
Am I the only layman that thinks that the LHC sounds like nothing more than a powerful brownian motion generator?
Expect someone to find hundreds of Higgs Bosons by plugging Atlas into a really hot cup of tea and subsequently being murdered for being a smart arse.
Mines the one with the book in the pocket that has the words Don't Panic written on it in large friendly letters.
LHC a powerful brownian motion generator? Seems awfully expensive just to do that, I had a powerful brownian motion earlier and all that took was several pints of the black stuff last night, took ages to flush!, might pop off and have a quick yellowian motion in a minute.
Higgs found
Alpinekat, please record the sequel to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM
mmm....
Noting at all to do with the Tevatron announcement yesterday then?
Re: mmm....
other way round comrade - yesterdays tevatron announcement was a spoiler dredged up to ruin todays well publicized LHC announcement. Bad show all round, what?
As to the power of the CERN collisions, at what TeV limit does an ascended being lean into the frame and ask that we turn the noise down please, we're really ruining the yogic calm?
"the longest and most expensive scientific search is nearing its end"
more like "has just opened a whole new chapter
It tastes of crocodile, which itself tastes of chicken, so that's a yes.
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