Physicists Anxiously Await New Data on ‘God Particle’

[wa3zrm]

High noon is approaching for the biggest manhunt in the history of physics. At 8 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday morning, scientists from CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, are scheduled to give a progress report on the search for the Higgs boson — infamously known as the “God particle” — whose discovery would vindicate the modern theory of how elementary particles get mass.
The report comes amid rumors that the two competing armies of scientists sifting debris from hundreds of trillions of proton collisions in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, or L.H.C., outside Geneva, have both finally seen hints of what might turn out be the elusive particle when more data is gathered next year.
Alternatively, the experimentalists say that a year from now they should have enough data to rule out the existence of the most popular version of the Higgs boson, sending theorists back to their blackboards in search of another explanation of why particles have mass.
So the whole world will be watching.
Among them will be Lisa Randall, a Harvard particle theorist and author of the new book “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World.” In an interview with Dennis Overbye of The Times, Dr. Randall provided this guide to the action for those of us in the bleachers.
Q. What is the Higgs and why is it important?
A. The name Higgs refers to at least four things. First of all, there is a Higgs mechanism, which is ultimately responsible for elementary particles’ masses. This is certainly one of the trickier aspects of particle physics to explain, but essentially something like a charge — not an electric charge — permeates the vacuum, the state with no particles.
These “charges” are associated with a Higgs field...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

[AtreyuKun]

I really wish I had gone into physics. But oh god do I hate math.

[clint404]

The Higgs boson is not the end all be all particle. We still have to solve super symmetry, dark energy, and figure out particle wave duality. Google the double slit expperiment and watch how waves turn into particles when measured. Its strange stuff.

[Frosted]

The Higgs boson is not the end all be all particle. We still have to solve super symmetry, dark energy, and figure out particle wave duality. Google the double slit expperiment and watch how waves turn into particles when measured. Its strange stuff.

Absoloutely. But the confirmation that the Higgs exists confirms that they're going in the right direction, so it's extremely important.

[clint404]

Oh no doubt. The validity of the standard model is riding on it. Its the only non super symetric particle that has not been found as predicted in the standard model and if not found we have to start all over. I'm excited and finding gravitons, WIMPS, AND virtual particles.


Is anyone else a sofa physicist like me?

[Frosted]

Yeah - finding out what gravity actually is I think is going to be utterly mind blowing.

[lxskllr]

Is anyone else a sofa physicist like me?

Not exactly a sofa physicist, but I find it all very fascinating. I stick to a very low level of understanding, cause I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concepts, and when you get down to it, I think everyone is wrong. The real nature of the (multi)universe will turn out to be absolutely mind blowing, and at our stage of exploration, we're on the level of monkeys getting ants out of the ground with a stick.

[clint404]

The crazy thing about gravity is if the sun were suddenly to disappear all of the planets would fly off all at once in a straight line. What this means is that forces move faster than the speed of light. You would think that the inner planets would be affected before the ooutter planets felt the loss. But no. Gravity is a force, although many millions of times weaker than the weak and nuclear force, that is transmitted faster than light. Its because of quantum entanglement. One of the strangest phenomonon we know

[Frosted]

They might find that gravity is interdimensional (if my memory serves me right).

[clint404]

Yep they think gravity goes in and out of infinitely tiny rolled up demensions that are everywhere. I don't know much more about it than that but we may never know because we can't see that small. Its strange nut the smaller we try to see the more energy is requires.

[Crow]

Here are the key numbers: The CMS team said that if it exists, the Higgs boson would have to have a mass somewhere between 115 billion and 127 electron volts (that's 115-127 GeV for short). ATLAS reported a range of 116-130 GeV. Both teams saw "tantalizing hints" of a detection around the 124-125 GeV level, but nothing that could yet be called a discovery. That's because the confidence values are no higher than 3.6 sigma for ATLAS, and 2.6 sigma for CMS.

In scientific observations, a level of 3 sigma constitutes "evidence" that an observed effect is real, and not just a fluke. You have to go up to 5 sigma to declare a "discovery." Thus, the observations hint at where the Higgs boson might be found, but this can't yet be called a discovery. In its news release, CERN used a different analogy to describe the confidence level, using dice rather than coins: "Taken individually, none of these excesses is any more statistically significant than rolling a die and coming up with two sixes in a row."

What's next? However the results are spun, more data will be required to nail down a confirmed detection of the Higgs. The proton beams have been shut down for CERN's holiday break, but they'll be started up again next year. The results so far have raised hopes that confirmation of the Higgs' existence (or its non-existence) will come by the end of 2012. After next year's round of experiments, the LHC will be shut down until 2014 for a major upgrade. It won't ramp up to its full power of 7 trillion electron volts per beam until after the upgrade. There'll be a long wait to get to the deepest mysteries of particle physics — but based on the latest results, there's renewed hope for the Higgs.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...e-a-mini-guide

[WolfenJack]

Fascinating stuff for sure, every answer we come up with leads to more questions.

[sgreger1]

[sgreger1]

The crazy thing about gravity is if the sun were suddenly to disappear all of the planets would fly off all at once in a straight line. What this means is that forces move faster than the speed of light. You would think that the inner planets would be affected before the ooutter planets felt the loss. But no. Gravity is a force, although many millions of times weaker than the weak and nuclear force, that is transmitted faster than light. Its because of quantum entanglement. One of the strangest phenomonon we know

Yah this is one of the most interesting observations regarding gravity, it's using some sort of exploit to break all the rules and exert it's force on things quicker than even the light traveling between those things. We need to figure out how the **** that works with a quickness. Ive read about 4 books on quantum entanglement and related topics and it still eludes me exactly how it all works, I have a general understanding but to believe it requires me to let go and say "some shit just doesn't make sense". The difference between quantum physics and magic are few, but in the end Lx is right in that we are still pretty primitave from a scientific standpoint, we still use fire to produce energy to move around for the most part and most of the population doesn't even believe in evolution, so we have a ways to go still.

[Jimbob11]

Not exactly a sofa physicist, but I find it all very fascinating. I stick to a very low level of understanding, cause I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concepts, and when you get down to it, I think everyone is wrong. The real nature of the (multi)universe will turn out to be absolutely mind blowing, and at our stage of exploration, we're on the level of monkeys getting ants out of the ground with a stick.

Well said.

About every third book I read is scientific in nature. I have to space them out to keep from getting too frustrated because I want to visualize rather than just accept. More than a high IQ is needed to wrap your head around concepts like this. The physiological aspects of the brain are probably just as important, if not more. The two hemisphere's of Einstein's brain were basically woven together (apart from other anomalies). I'd bet there are other "great minds" that have higher function due to unique aspects of their brains. And even with all the fantastic discoveries made, we are really still in the dark for the most part...