What Now For The Higgs Boson?

Although its mass has been measured around 125-126 GeV most of the other properties of the particle remain unknown. Its spin appears to be 0 or 2 but more results are required to nail this down. If it is the standard model Higgs, the spin should be 0, resulting in a fairly symmetric distribution of decay products in the detectors.

We may know this year if it's not the standard model Higgs - this would be the case if it doesn't decay into specific particles with the expected frequency. However if it is the standard model Higgs, it may take many more years to be certain. The large hadron collider will be shut down in 2013 for upgrades so that higher energies up to 14 TeV can be tested. Right now the LHC is operating at 8 TeV. The next announcement is expected in December.

[sebastiankohleroberg]

Just to clarify: The higgs boson fitted the standard model making everyone really sad. :(

[veritasium]

I'm working on it. I want it to be really good - that takes time. Sorry for the wait!

[Danketydankdrummer]

Excellent. The fact of Peter Higgs being alive to see these results is incredible and motivational.

[JJC]

I'm visiting the CERN Open Days this weekend so I'm watching a bunch of vids about the LHC and Higgs to prepare, and this is the most illuminating one I've seen. Thank you!

[elbuenjergar]

For a species that has come from hunting in the savannah, evolving through millions of years, developing civilization and knowledge, to break matter into it's most fundamental components, and discovering how the universe works, this is a remarkable time, worthy of awe and optimism for future generations.

[veritasium]

not only were these very high energy collisions, they were also high luminosity which means lots of collisions per second. That results in much more data, allowing better statistical discrimination of the signal from noise.

[veritasium]

they do create new particles. They create particles that weren't there before. For example, it is possible to turn a photon into an electron-positron pair if the energy of the photon is high enough.

[FrankenPC]

It amazes me that CERN recently shut down the super collider for a several year period to re-tune it for more power. It takes SEVERAL YEARS to turn it off, re-calibrate it, and power it back up. That machine has to be added to the "wonders of the world" list. It's an engineering accomplishment that is absolutely mind boggling.

[michaelgimbel]

This was perhaps the best of all of the videos you have made.

[manifestgtr]

holy cow...this was 3 years ago already? I must be getting old man...I remember this like it was yesterday...if you'd asked me when this was from, I'd probably say something like "january? maybe march? I forget"...unreal...

[veritasium]

it actually is not talking about a mirror expanding universe - but a doubling of the number of fundamental particles. These 'supersymmetric' particles have not yet been observed.

[andrew_cunningham]

"I better like to be late than early"... Words to live by.

[Tegfateh-cmvu]

RIP Peter Higgs. The loss of the universe by his death may not be in mass, But in the loss of a brilliant man, with a godly mind.
🌌

[TVTacon]

Just came back from there two days ago. Had a good look around LHCb.

[blackeagle]

My brother in law helped find the Higgs!

[dustynbones]

2-3 years later now they're coming to find out that it's something more profound.

[JoelMurphy]

I wonder: does the standard model address whether the Higgs field is homogeneous? If the field is of uniform density throughout, a 1kg mass would have 1kg of inertial resistance anywhere in the universe. On the other hand, if the field were "clumpy" like a fog or perhaps even clustered like galaxies, that 1kg mass could experience greater inertia where the Higgs field is more dense and less inertia where it's less dense.

[tusharpapnai]

well someone hit 10 million, congrats brother

[Dankro]

It awesome how I got this video recommended on July 4th.. when the announcement was made.

[veritasium]

There are lots of fields, no need to single out the Higgs field - what about the electromagnetic field, the electron field, or the quark field? Reality seems to be based on the existence of quite a few fields. So if you want, you could ask why does anything exist at all? Lawrence Krauss took a stab at this in his latest book.