Posted on 03/07/2015 10:57:00 AM PST by BenLurkin
Dark matter has long remained one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the universe. While its presence can be inferred from the gravitational pull it exerts on visible matter, the fact that it does not emit or absorb any radiation makes it next to impossible to detect.
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The new model put forward by a team headed by Christoffer Petersson, a theoretical particle physicist from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, suggests that the Higgs boson, discovered by the LHC in 2012, might be responsible for the birth of dark matter particles. According to this model, if supersymmetry is real, the Higgs particle can disintegrate into a photon -- a light carrying particle -- and a dark matter particle.
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The theory has found support among scientists at CERN, who, in the words of Tara Shears, a particle physics professor from the University of Liverpool, are looking to break the Standard Model.
Instead of trying to test the truth of this theory, what we really want to do now is break it -- to show where it stops reflecting reality. That's the only way we're going to make progress, Shears told BBC. We're looking at something deeper and more exotic.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Higgs Boson Hofstadter Koothrappali particle.
Physicist Penny: We know that... Newton was a really smart cookie. Oh, is that where Fig Newtons come from?
Leonard Hofstadter: Most people aren’t that interested in what I do.
Penny: Ahem. Actually, that’s not true, Leonard. In fact, recently I’ve been thinking that given the parameters of your experiment the transport of electrons through the aperture of the nano-fabricated metal rings is qualitatively no different than the experiment already conducted in the Netherlands.
Penny: Their observed phase shift in the diffusing electrons inside the metal ring already conclusively demonstrated the electric analog of the Aharonov-Bohm quantum interference effect.
Penny: That’s it; that’s all I know. Oh, wait! Fig Newtons were named after a town in Massachusetts, not the scientist.
Let’s just hope they don’t accidentally discover a way to destroy the entire universe or something. Crap happens when you’re messing around with things you don’t fully understand.
I’m only partially kidding.
Yeah, what you said.
May not have been the Higgs they tripped over.
There is no “dark” matter.
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