God Particle - The Higgs Bosun

[Radar]

Anyone here follow particle physics?

Interesting read here -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3546973.stm

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39873000/jpg/_39873578_decay_cern_203.jpg

[wakaleo]

Hmm, yes! Just a bit out of my field of understanding Ray. Think I'll leave this one to the boffins.

[Radar]

Yeah its not everyone's cup 'o tea Jim. I find this stuff (particles) interesting though, because it is what governs the fabric of the universe. So to me, this is still sorta astronomy. :duh:

Cheers

Ray

[Draig]

AAAAARrrg!!

Head Hurt :duh:


Go lay down now

:duh:

[Radar]

Actually, the only way I can appreciate this stuff is by watching documentaries that are done in layman's terms. The doco's worth watching (guaranteed to blow you away) are Imax - The Elegant Universe Part 1, 2 and 3. Once you see part one, you'll be a full bottle on particle physics and string theory, the basis of which is quite straight forward to comprehend.

The amount of money being poured into researching this is astronomical.

Cheers

Ray

[Robert TG]

What is the alternative?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1695390.stm

"If there is no Higgs, science will be left totally unable to explain mass."

[Radar]

The new particle accelerator being built by CERN is apparently powerful enough to detect the higgs bosun. Have to keep our fingers crossed.

Ray :pipethinker:

[Robert TG]

"The Need to Understand Mass

By Roger Cashmore Department of Physics, University of Oxford, UK.

What determines the size of objects that we see around us or indeed even the size of ourselves? The answer is the size of the molecules and in turn the atoms that compose these molecules. But what determines the size of the atoms themselves? Quantum theory and atomic physics provide an answer. The size of the atom is determined by the paths of the electrons orbiting the nucleus. The size of those orbits, however, is determined by the mass of the electron. Were the electron's mass smaller, the orbits (and hence all atoms) would be smaller, and consequently everything we see would be smaller. So understanding the mass of the electron is essential to understanding the size and dimensions of everything around us.

It might be hard to understand the origin of one quantity, that quantity being the mass of the electron. Fortunately nature has given us more than one elementary particle and they come with a wide variety of masses. The lightest particle is the electron and the heaviest particle is believed to be the particle called the top quark, which weighs at least 200,000 times as much as an electron. With this variety of particles and masses we should have a clue to the individual masses of the particles.

Unfortunately if you try and write down a theory of particles and their interactions then the simplest version requires all the masses of the particles to be zero. So on one hand we have a whole variety of masses and on the other a theory in which all masses should be zero. Such conundrums provide the excitement and the challenges of science.

There is, however, one very clever and very elegant solution to this problem, a solution first proposed by Peter Higgs. He proposed that the whole of space is permeated by a field, similar in some ways to the electromagnetic field. As particles move through space they travel through this field, and if they interact with it they acquire what appears to be mass. This is similar to the action of viscous forces felt by particles moving through any thick liquid. the larger the interaction of the particles with the field, the more mass they appear to have. Thus the existence of this field is essential in Higg's hypothesis for the production of the mass of particles.

We know from quantum theory that fields have particles associated with them, the particle for the electromagnetic field being the photon. So there must be a particle associated with the Higg's field, and this is the Higgs boson. Finding the Higgs boson is thus the key to discovering whether the Higgs field does exist and whether our best hypothesis for the origin of mass is indeed correct. "





The above is a good explanation of what is a Higgs boson and why they are looking for it.


There is the possibility that they won't find the Higgs boson, there is a theory that has a Higgs mechanism, and a Higgs field throughout our Universe, without there being a Higgs boson. The next generation of colliders will sort this out.

Finding the Higgs boson would be an important discovery.

So far the Higgs boson wasn't discovered at the lower energy level that they expected it to be and so they need to explore the higher energy level.

If it is not found then the theory of mass will need to be altered.

[Robert TG]

From,

Simon Hands , Theory Division, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

"The Higgs' ability to fill space with its mysterious presence makes it a vital component in more ambitious theories of how the Universe burst into existence out of some initial quantum fluctuation, and why the Universe prefers to be filled with matter rather than anti-matter; that is, why there is something rather than nothing. To constrain these ideas more rigorously, and indeed flesh out the whole picture, it is important to find evidence for the Higgs field at first hand - in other words, find the boson. there are unanswered questions: the Higgs' very simplicity and versatility, beloved of theorists, makes it hard to pin down. How many Higgs particles are there? Might it/they be made from still more elementary components? Most crucial, how heavy is it? Our current knowledge can only put its mass roughly between that of an iron atom and three times that of a uranium atom. This is a completely new form of matter about whose nature we still have only vague hints and speculations and its discovery is the most exciting prospect in contemporary particle physics. "

[Jimbot]

Love this stuff, even if it does make the brain work overtime. But like string physics until there are some valid palpable results people will continue to discuss and that is a good thing.

Jim

[wakaleo]

What is the alternative?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1695390.stm

"If there is no Higgs, science will be left totally unable to explain mass."

No Higgs bosun, no mass - this should make levitation a lot easier Ray!!!

I agree with you Jimbot - great mental exercise, even if it does leave the brain somewhat mushy, and me in need of a cuppa, an asprin and a good lie down.

Jim