What is the Higgs Boson? Has it been discovered yet?

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"It's hard not to get excited by these results," said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci. "We stated last year that in 2012 we would either find a new Higgs-like particle or exclude the existence of the Standard Model Higgs. With all the necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we're seeing in the data."

The results presented today are labelled preliminary. They are based on data collected in 2011 and 2012, with the 2012 data still under analysis. Publication of the analyses shown today is expected around the end of July. A more complete picture of today's observations will emerge later this year after the LHC provides the experiments with more data.

The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe. Are its properties as expected for the long-sought Higgs boson, the final missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics? Or is it something more exotic?

The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles from which we, and every visible thing in the universe, are made, and the forces acting between them. All the matter that we can see, however, appears to be no more than about 4% of the total. A more exotic version of the Higgs particle could be a bridge to understanding the 96% of the universe that remains obscure.

"We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle's properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe."

Positive identification of the new particle's characteristics will take considerable time and data. But whatever form the Higgs particle takes, our knowledge of the fundamental structure of matter is about to take a major step forward.

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Tags: higgs boson cern lhc atlas experiments found observed new fundamental particle physics standard model forces universe properties mysteries data july 2012
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[saulremi]

I think the idea is that the Higgs field interacts in such a way so as to endow mass. The Higgs particle is an extension of that field idea with QED (quantum electro-dynamics). But that we can more or less think of this field permeating all of space. In the particle description, it would just be bunch of particles permeating most of space. The "most" part is the tricky part obviously. This will be interesting to watch unfold.

[Mathview]

Nice qualitative explanation by John Ellis. Thank you very much. It is particularly refreshing to hear proper scientific conservatism. As Prof. Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." I believe that's the quote. Caution, self checking and rechecking, multiple independent confirmations of findings, "We found a particle, but is it the right particle?" This is how real scientists talk about theory and experiment. Humble, hopeful, skeptical, and ruthlessly rigorous.

[riderlibertas]

Well said, I actually understood that. This is a big step. I'm glad it was CERN that was able to make the final step.

[fermista]

No probs! I'm always happy to help someone who is interested in actually learning the theory, as opposed to ignorant dismissiveness.

[fermista]

If you do know some of the aforementioned basics, a good book to start with is Eisberg & Resnick's "Quantum Mechanics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei and Particles". This book has many great physical examples, and isn't too heavy on the maths (which may be a downside if you want to learn the linear algebraic side of QM). Leonard Susskind's lecture series on QM and is on Youtube, and is also quite good, so you should certainly look them up! You may want to start with Classical Mech. though...

[MoonBnuuy]

Hi Poe, fancy meeting you here.
By the way, it's the "Goddamn Particle" but the publisher for the book wouldn't let them say that on the title, so they went with God Particle instead.

[jacobreinvented]

Hypothesis: Matter does not cause curvature of space as described in general relativity. All quanta with mass are discrete curvatures of space (read: they interact with the Higgs field). What we call matter, is a byproduct of persistent curvatures of space. Thus, matter does not cause curvature of space, but persistent curvature of space causes the phenomena we describe as matter. Discuss.

[AngelOne]

That was my thought as well. It is just insane what people do!

[martinazores]

Very well done, science is very cool. its nice to have this info.. When i was a kid, we had 2 t.v. channels. things are a bit different now, dont you think ?

[Martymer]

In principle, if an object could be shielded from the Higgs field, I believe it would effectively be without mass. Massless bodies travel at c. However, I can't see how that would ever be possible. It's a cool idea for sci-fi, though.

[Gnug]

(cont.) You could even say I'm intimidated, but certainly not for those ridiculous and bloated reasons you gave.
The advancement of science for the benefit of all science, as was put forth in this video, actually gives me some comfort and hope for humanity. Your comment reminded me of how much sway superstition still has in life, and how much it ruins for everyone.
I am quite secure in what I feel, but I am not blind to what others feel, and what that may entail for society.

[SalamaSond]

So from what we know of the nature of gravity (a property unique to mass), how come things that interact with a Higg's field are attracted to one another in proportion to their degree of interaction with that field?

[manniman]

It's a sigma 5 signal meaning that they are 99.9994% certain that a particle with energy 125 GeV has been detected. There is no known particle with this mass and the hypothetical mass of the Higgs is superior to 115 GeV.

What they need to confirm now is the actual properties of that particle which was detected: does it fit the properties of one of the many variations of the Higgs or is it a particle with completely different properties?

[SpookyFan]

I'm well aware of the harm superstition causes. I speak out against it and debunk it in other comment threads. A 'dislike' is not something that causes me to trash as you broadly did. Context / reasonable response (if any is needed - not in this case imo). That's all I'm saying.

We're off-topic and I believe we've both made our points. You may have the last word in your next reply. Nice chatting. Tc.

[erthx]

Awesome T-shirt John! Is y_ij the Yang-Mills tensor, i.e. SU(2) and SU(3) gauge symmetries?

[robotfolly]

Have you heard of Scishow's channel on Youtube? They have a good video about the Higgs Boson from a few months ago.

[fermista]

That's ok, I'm a physics PhD student and even I haven't learned the technicalities surrounding the Higgs boson yet :-) I'll tell you what I do know. The Higgs boson is a particle, the field corresponding to which has a "non-zero expectation value". This means there's a chance you'll find a Higgs boson even in a complete vacuum. Without the Higgs boson, all particles would be massless, so comparing particles based on mass alone can't distinguish them. This is called a "symmetry".

[nutsbutdum]

In Physics lab is pretty much what you would call nature for other sciences like biology etc., especially when it pertains to infinitesimally small particles.The fact that they need to build a collider is just to confirm within a controlled environment what already happens in "open air". They actually are not "creating" anything that doesn't already exist.

[Efilzeo]

That quotation isn't from Segan but for Euclides.

[MD_Slaine]

Yes I understand what you are saying. But I am asking, fundamentally what is the difference between the two.