I lack the math and background to actually understand the theory. What it sounds like is the possible Higgs bosun is the object that makes matter different from energy, although that also sounds like a small contradiction with the idea of mass and energy being forms of the same thing. If a unit of energy like light is combined with the Higgs bosun then it becomes matter. I chose light since photons are thought to move at the speed of light and most matter with mass moves a lot slower. The contradiction with mass and energy is that the Higgs boson is the only difference.
A humorous aside, a co-worker once hypothesized that the ultimate particle that makes up all matter is the moron. This explains the Big Bang theory in that a critical mass of morons get together, something goes wrong and ka-bloowie. The moron theory also explains why I get nervous when congress is in session.
There’s no proof it exists, and yet we know its mass.
That’s the biggest joke about the Higgs boson, a hypothetical particle in the world of physics that physicists theorize gives other elementary particles mass. (Its own mass is thought to be in the neighborhood of 125 million electron volts, which are the units of mass or energy used in particle physics.)
But a pattern in new data, collected over the last several years by physicists at the Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., may show that the elusive particle does indeed exist.
But “may” is the operative word. More data could also negate the effect seen in the latest data.
The results were presented Wednesday by Wade Fisher of Michigan State University to a physics conference in La Thuile, Italy.
Why it’s significant
Still, this newest data is significant, because it comes, for the first time, with some backup: It roughly agrees with results released in December by two independent research groups at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, outside Geneva. (Particle accelerators such as the Tevatron and the LHC study “the smallest known particles, the fundamental building blocks of all things,” as CERN says on its Web site.)
This is the first time that different groups searching for the Higgs boson have ever agreed.
From what we know now, these new patterns in both sets of data from both Tevatron and LHC indicate that the Higgs does exist, though the existing data is not itself enough to prove its existence. “But,” The New York Times reports, “the recent run of reports has encouraged them to think that the elusive particle, which is the key to mass and diversity in the universe, is within sight, perhaps as soon as this summer.”
The report states, “Based on the current Tevatron data and results compiled through December 2011 by other experiments, this is the strongest hint of the existence of a Higgs boson.”
What the latest data says about Higgs boson
Although the Higgs boson has never been observed, it should explain how three of the four fundamental forces of nature work. Until last December, what had never been predicted was its mass.
But then, two groups that run particle detectors at at CERN reported finding “bumps” of data showing masses between 124 and 126 billion electron volts. For comparison, a proton is a billion electron volts and an electron is a half million.
The lastest finding at Fermilab shows a broad hump in their data between 115 billion and 135 billion electron volts. “The chances of this signal being the result of a random fluctuation in the data were only about 1 in 100, the group said,” The Times reports.
In April, the Hadron collider, which is currently on winter break, will start up again and should, this year, gather enough data to conclusively confirm or deny the existence of the Higgs boson.
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- The elusive Higgs surfaces! Prof. Higgs that is. ‘God particle’ physicist in rare interview
- Particle of doubt: the Higgs boson and scientific uncertaintly
photo: The Tevatron accelerator’s main ring at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. (Reidar Hahn/Fermilab)
via: The New York Times, Fermilab
