American Accelerator's Last Hurrah: 99.8% Certainty God Particle is Found

Daily Tech ^ | July 3, 2012 7:58 PM | Jason Mick (Blog)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Tevatron presents strong evidence Higgs boson was observed, but LHC needed to provide final verification

Tomorrow, while America celebrates July 4, mankind worldwide may celebrate a separate momentous event -- the discovery of the legendary Higgs boson.

I. Riding Into the Sunset -- Tevatron Goes Out With a Bang

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will tomorrow hold a special press conference at 9 a.m.  The event will provide an update to the world on the progress in the search for the critical particle using the Large Hadron Collider, the largest and most expensive laboratory apparatus in history.  Many physicists expect evidence supporting the existence of the Higgs boson to be presented.

On the eve of that event the U.S. Department of Energy's FermiLab, has published information that strongly hints at the existence of the Higgs boson, but stops short of providing explicit proof of its existence.

The data comes courtesy of Tevatron, a smaller accelerator 4 miles in circumference.  Located on the FermiLab grounds just east of Batavia, Ill., Tevatron was long the world's most powerful accelerator.  Its tests actually wrapped up last year, before the accelerator was permanently shut down, after the U.S. decided being a world leader in scientific research was no longer among its spending priorities.

But Tevatron's last hurrah has offered a tantalize tease of what lies ahead with the LHC.  Taking 10 years worth of data involving approximately 500 trillion particle collisions, the FermiLab teams offered up signs of elusive particle.

_{The Tevatron's greatest legacy may be in finding the first evidence of the Higgs boson.
[Source: FermiLab]}

States Rob Roser a spokesman for one of the two Tevatron experiments, "Our data strongly point toward the existence of the Higgs boson.  But it will take results from the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to establish a discovery."

The Tevatron was able to determine with relative accuracy that the particle it observed was a Higgs boson.  But the 1-in-550 chance that the finding was a statistical fluke (99.8 percent level of certainty) was unacceptably high in the laser-precise world of particle physics -- hence the LHC's firepower is necessary.

The LHC is better equipped to find the Higgs boson, with its higher beam energy, longer 17 mi. (circumference) track, and state-of-the-art detection gear.

II. Why the Higgs Boson Matters

The Higgs boson is the only fundamental subatomic particle predicted by the Standard Model that has yet to be observed.

But it is not mere novelty that drives researchers to observe this particular particle, one must understand the Standard Model of particle physics.  This pillar of physics theory predicts that the Higgs boson gives rise to the so-called Higgs mechanism, a sort of "sticky field" that coats particles like a spoon dipping through a jar of honey.  This "sticky" effect is thought to give protons, neutrons, and electrons -- the building blocks of matter that most of us are familiar with -- their mass.

Unfortunately the Higgs boson needs very high beam energy and luminosity in order to be provide enough mass and conditions favorable to a Higgs boson.  The Higgs boson is predicted to be less that 1.4 TeV, if the Standard Model is correct.

If the Higgs boson or similar electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism are not found to give the subatomic particles their mass, then it will be an intriguing open season for new theories.  But if the Higgs boson is observed, mankind will be content in knowing that we have quantified yet another facet of reality as we know it.

Nobel Prize laureate Leon Lederman popularized the hunt for the Higgs boson in his book "The God Particle", which chronicled his work hunting for the particle at FermiLab.  Professor Lederman originally intended the title to be "The Goddamn Particle" -- an expression of his frustration at the difficult observing it.  The title was subsequently shortened and the phrase "God particle" stuck as a colloquialism for the complex theoretical particle.

_{A Nobel prize winner nicknamed the Higgs boson the "God particle", a less cheeky shortening of his longer name for it -- the "Goddamn particle". [Image Source: Gandee Vasan/Getty Images]}

The latest results from his lab do little to end the frustration, but they do provide indication that a Higgs boson's mass would be between 115 and 135 GeV -- about 130 times the mass of the proton.

Now all that remains is to see what exactly the LHC has gleaned within that band of energies.

Was the Tevatron's blip, unlikely as it may be, a mere stastical fluctuation, or was it the first observation of the God particle?  The data from the LHC should offer evidence towards which possibility is true.

Sources: FermiLab, CERN

[HiTech RedNeck]

More about the Higgs mechanism than I could ever possibly understand, from Wikipedia

I can't come anywhere near grokking all the esoteric stuff in this, but it sounds like they're saying the universe is full of this "Higgs field" and I can't tell if it in turn is supposed to be composed of Higgs bosons. If those bosons are all over the place why isn't it possible to get a handle on one directly -- why does it have to be forged in a multi-GeV fire?

[newheart]

It has nothing to do with religion or God.

I know. Like I said, an accidental reference to the particle's creator.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Sounds like an apocryphal anecdote to me.

It seems as likely that the name “God” would have been attributed to the particle due to its hypothesized omnipresence.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Definitely, if this Higgs Boson is real, it was a creation of God. But it only tells humans more about how God built the universe. It doesn’t tell humans why God built the universe, or what God wants humans to do in the universe.

[newheart]

I can't come anywhere near grokking all the esoteric stuff in this, but it sounds like they're saying the universe is full of this "Higgs field" and I can't tell if it in turn is supposed to be composed of Higgs bosons. If those bosons are all over the place why isn't it possible to get a handle on one directly -- why does it have to be forged in a multi-GeV fire?

Beats me. My degree is in philosophy—so at least I am familiar with the word "grok". But that is as far as it goes. Sounds like the Higgs boson mechanism is what gives other things their mass. So we can "see" (perhaps better to say measure?) the mass of the other things, but at that point, Higgs is no longer Higgs or has moved on. I guess the little fellows are sticky and slippery at the same time.

[alstewartfan]

These scientists are brilliant people, but generally, their ultimate objective is to disprove God. This is impossible, of course, but they are being driven mad by the fact that what they see before themselves on a microscopic level seems miraculous, like a “blind watchmaker” built it. If they all circle the wagons, they may convince *themselves* that they have discovered a secular Alpha and Omega. No independent thinker will buy it, but this just proves that a mathematical genius can be an ordinary rube on the common sense plane. Bob

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Announcement rom Reuters....FR Thread:

"It's a boson:" Higgs quest bears new particle

[newheart]

Not sure if I understand any more than I did before, but at least it was fun to watch:

Higgs on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics

[newheart]

These scientists are brilliant people, but generally, their ultimate objective is to disprove God.

That is true of some, but I would not categorize all scientists that way. Especially in the area of physics. Most, with a few notable (and noisy) exceptions, understand that science neither proves nor disproves God. That is not what science is for.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Scientists in the hard sciences don't have nearly as much doubt about God than those in softer ones like sociology. Old-earth creationist and scientist Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe mentioned, IIRC, that when an atheist was needed to participate in a debate at his university they usually had to go to the philosophy department; the astrophysics and astronomy departments were useless.

[alstewartfan]

I love Hugh Ross. His intellect is awesome! Bob

[Linda Frances]

Now I remember why the only C I got in college was in Chemistry. I started to think I was a liberal and needed to change my major. Did not matter, I had to drop out the next year.

[HamiltonJay]

No, many fields are OMNIPRESENT in particle/theorhetical physics if I am not mistaken, The concept that particles as we understand them interact with various omnipresent fields is not new or unique to Higgs.

What is unique with HIGGS is that particles interacting with this field is what creates what we perceive as MASS. All fields in PARTICLE PHYSICS to my understanding are treated the same way.. nothing unique about HIGGS, other than its the one that gives you mass.

I don’t think there is any hidden meaning to it, just a nice name that sells well and gets clamped onto.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hugh is very, very smart chap, that I once met in person. I don’t buy all his theories (I think he isn’t skeptical enough about catastrophic anthropogenic global warming — he’s too quick to run with that ball), but he’s admirably relentless in ferreting out the universe’s witness of the glory and grace of God — the quantitative side of the qualitative picture.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Higgs would be arguably the most practically important omnipresent “field” of them all. Without it, the other particles can’t really do anything interesting.

The creation of the Higgs field would be part of Genesis 1:1, where in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. “Let there be light” would come later, as a consequence.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

...an everpresent higgs bosson field, that everything travels through, and particles Stick to this field in varying degrees.. this “STICK” is effectively MASS.. the more it sticks to the HIGGS BOSSON field the more mass it has.

...a PHOTON has no mass, so it flows through the ever present higgs bosson field with no “resistance”.

Is that like saying "it has no mass because it has no resistance and it has no resistance because it has no mass". Circular reasoning or tautology? Maybe I'm missing something but if a photon has no mass because it does not interact with the Bosson field can we truly know that the Bosson field exists? What makes a photon different from other particles which do interact w/ the Boson field? Does the Bosson field occupy all of space/time? If not would that mean such field free space would contain no matter of any kind? Could the Bosson field be manipulated to alter a particle's mass? Since all masses interact to give us the illusion of gravity would fiddling with the Bosson field allow us to manipulate gravity (move ordinary matter at photonic speeds?)...

Regards,
GtG

[21twelve]

“...WHAT AND HOW MASS exists.”

Thanks for the simple explanation! I eagerly await the new Higgs Boson miracle weight-loss plan that will surely be advertised on late-night TV.

[alstewartfan]

I’ve lost touch with Hugh’s writings in recent years. His AGW belief just proves my point that even geniuses can have blind spots, or simple naivete. Bob

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hugh’s take is that it’s happening and it’s fortuitous as it is staving off an ice age. Interesting take, but in all other debate about CAGW, nothing is said about expected ice ages.

[Marine_Uncle]

Sort of like playing with colored blocks.