Higgs "God Particle" Boson found - sort of

[DocM]

They've found the elephant's footprints, but haven't seen its trunk.

http://hosted.ap.org...-07-02-09-27-46

Proof of 'God particle' found

GENEVA (AP) -- Scientists working at the world's biggest atom smasher plan to announce Wednesday that they have gathered enough evidence to show that the long-sought "God particle" answering fundamental questions about the universe almost certainly does exist.

But after decades of work and billions of dollars spent, researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, aren't quite ready to say they've "discovered" the particle.

Instead, experts familiar with the research at CERN's vast complex on the Swiss-French border say that the massive data they have obtained will essentially show the footprint of the key particle known as the Higgs boson - all but proving it exists - but doesn't allow them to say it has actually been glimpsed.

It appears to be a fine distinction.

Senior CERN scientists say that the two independent teams of physicists who plan to present their work at CERN's vast complex on the Swiss-French border on July 4 are about as close as you can get to a discovery without actually calling it one.

"I agree that any reasonable outside observer would say, `It looks like a discovery,'" British theoretical physicist John Ellis, a professor at King's College London who has worked at CERN since the 1970s, told The Associated Press. "We've discovered something which is consistent with being a Higgs."

CERN's atom smasher, the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider, has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to help them understand suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and ultimately the creation of the universe billions of years ago, which many theorize occurred as a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.

For particle physicists, finding the Higgs boson is a key to confirming the standard model of physics that explains what gives mass to matter and, by extension, how the universe was formed. Each of the two teams known as ATLAS and CMS involve thousands of people working independently from one another, to ensure accuracy.

Rob Roser, who leads the search for the Higgs boson at the Fermilab in Chicago, said: "Particle physicists have a very high standard for what it takes to be a discovery," and he thinks it is a hair's breadth away.

Rosen compared the results that scientists are preparing to announce Wednesday to finding the fossilized imprint of a dinosaur: "You see the footprints and the shadow of the object, but you don't actually see it."

Though an impenetrable concept to many, the Higgs boson has until now been just that - a concept intended to explain a riddle: How were the subatomic particles, such as electrons, protons and neutrons, themselves formed? What gives them their mass?

The answer came in a theory first proposed by physicist Peter Higgs and others in the 1960s. It envisioned an energy field where particles interact with a key particle, the Higgs boson.

The idea is that other particles attract Higgs bosons and the more they attract, the bigger their mass will be. Some liken the effect to a ubiquitous Higgs snowfield that affects other particles traveling through it depending on whether they are wearing, metaphorically speaking, skis, snowshoes or just shoes.

Officially, CERN is presenting its evidence at a physics conference in Australia this week, but plans to accompany the announcement with meetings in Geneva. The two teams, ATLAS and CMS, then plan to publicly unveil more data on the Higgs boson at physics meetings in October and December.

Scientists with access to the new CERN data say it shows with a high degree of certainty that the Higgs boson may already have been glimpsed, and that by unofficially combining the separate results from ATLAS and CMS it can be argued that a discovery is near at hand. Ellis says at least one physicist-blogger has done just that in a credible way.

CERN spokesman James Gillies said Monday, however, that he would be "very cautious" about unofficial combinations of ATLAS and CMS data. "Combining the data from two experiments is a complex task, which is why it takes time, and why no combination will be presented on Wednesday," he told AP.

But if the calculations are indeed correct, said John Guinon, a longtime physics professor at the University of California at Davis and author of the book "The Higgs Hunter's Guide," then it is fair to say that "in some sense we have reached the mountaintop."

Sean M. Carroll, a California Institute of Technology physicist flying to Geneva for the July 4th announcement, said that if both ATLAS and CMS have independently reached these high thresholds on the Higgs boson, then "only the most curmudgeonly will not believe that they have found it."

[zeta_immersion]

so, they found strong hints at its existence as there is no way to "observe" it directly ... CERN - start finding coo stuff and black holes to unlimited energy, stop messing around :)

[Tekkerson]

All right so I understand what the higgs boson is. If it's proven to exist, what possible applications can come of it?

[mudslag]

It's called the god particle because it gives "mass" like the Pope. :D

[Growled Member]

So after all these years it's still a theory.

[+SOOPRcow MVC]

All science is theory :)

[Tom]

So after all these years it's still a theory.

Yes? Everything is theory. The word 'theory' has a stigma attached to it that suggests it's a guess some scientist has made with nothing behind it but that's not at all true.

theory

a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonlyregarded as correct, that can be used as principles ofexplanation and prediction for a class of phenomena:Einstein's theory of relativity. Synonyms: principle, law,doctrine.

[Phouchg]

Perhaps funding is running out? Tevatron was about to be shut down and then suddenly the wretched thing "nearly found it" :laugh:

[mudslag]

Perhaps funding is running out? Tevatron was about to be shut down and then suddenly the wretched thing "nearly found it" :laugh:

You do realize Tevatron is the particle accelerator in the US right? This was the LHC at CERN, not Tevatron.

[Growled Member]

Yes? Everything is theory.

Gravity is not a theory.

[seta-san]

this article is very old. i remember reading it months ago.

[mudslag]

Gravity is not a theory.

Gravitational Theory is still technically a theory. The law describes the attraction between objects, the theory describes why there is attraction between objects.

[mudslag]

this article is very old. i remember reading it months ago.

The information has been updated, this article is from today.

[Phouchg]

You do realize Tevatron is the particle accelerator in the US right? This was the LHC at CERN, not Tevatron.

Indeed, no. I thought they're two hostile backyard football teams :sleep2:

[still1]

Gravity is not a theory.

garvity is a law and theory.

law of gravity describes the attraction between two objects

Theory describes why the object attract to each other

[simplezz]

It's called the god particle because it gives "mass" like the Pope. :D

lol :)

What I want to know is - why it has taken so long to find it if it supposedly exists everywhere as physicists claim. To me this sounds just like dark matter/energy/force fudge factors.

[Growled Member]

garvity is a law and theory.

law of gravity describes the attraction between two objects

Theory describes why the object attract to each other

But gravity is also a force and it can be measured.

[Tom]

But gravity is also a force and it can be measured.

Yes but the collection of evidence that comprises the measurements and other evidence build up a 'theory'.

So yes, gravity is a theory. Now you can understand why scientists get annoyed when people pull out the 'evolution is just a theory' argument.

[still1]

But gravity is also a force and it can be measured.

so?? T

he law of gravity says if we drop an object it falls to the ground but its the

gravitational

theory that explains how and why it occurs.

so its both

[Kondrath]

One step closer to sending text messages and electronic info into the past...

Let me dream.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

So Femilab and the Tevatron got it down to within 115-140 GeV with a 99.63% confidence, CMS and ATLAS at CERN narrowed it down to 125.3 ? 0.6 GeV with 99.9999% confidence.

It's good enough for them to classify it as a discovery, but they're not going to call it the actual Higgs boson until they're absolutely sure, it could just be another boson that resembles it, etc.

[FloatingFatMan]

So Femilab and the Tevatron got it down to within 115-140 GeV with a 99.63% confidence, CMS and ATLAS at CERN narrowed it down to 125.3 ? 0.6 GeV with 99.9999% confidence.

It's good enough for them to classify it as a discovery, but they're not going to call it the actual Higgs boson until they're absolutely sure, it could just be another boson that resembles it, etc.

20 years ago they'd have just called it as found by this point, and be done with it. But these days, where everyone and his dog is suddenly a fully qualified "internet physicist", they have to be more careful about what they say. Hell, just look at how many people (even on here) that don't have a clue what a scientific theory actually is...

[compl3x]

This is why the media is ill-equipped to deal with science news. They dub things "the God particle" or "the Missing Link" and confuse people and confuse the science.

I read a comment about this story on another site which said something along the lines of "Finally, if scientists prove this, it'll shut up those atheists."

I've never wanted to shoot myself more than I did after reading that comment.

[FloatingFatMan]

This is why the media is ill-equipped to deal with science news. They dub things "the God particle" or "the Missing Link" and confuse people and confuse the science.

I read a comment about this story on another site which said something along the lines of "Finally, if scientists prove this, it'll shut up those atheists."

I've never wanted to shoot myself more than I did after reading that comment.

Better idea! Shoot the one who made that comment! :p