HomeComputingMobileInternetGamingElectronicsExtremeDealsExtremeTechExtremeLHC confirms we’ve definitely discovered the Higgs boson, and (sadly) it behaves exactly as the Standard Model predictsLHC confirms we’ve definitely discovered the Higgs boson, and (sadly) it behaves exactly as the Standard Model predictsBy Sebastian Anthony on June 23, 2014 at 8:16 amComment
Share This articleSome two years after a Higgs boson was discovered at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, a new study confirms that the newly discovered particle is definitely the Higgs boson, and it behaves exactly as the Standard Model of particle physics predicts. On the one hand, this is obviously a huge win for science — but on the other, there will be many scientists who are disappointed that, yet again, the Standard Model has held up to another round of immense scrutiny. If you were hoping for the Higgs boson to be the weird particle that led us towards the weird and wonderful nether regions of science beyond the Standard Model — supersymmetry, dark matter, dark energy — then sadly this is not the particle you were looking for.
This new study, published in Nature Physics, is confirmation from the LHC’s CMS experiment that the particle observed in 2012 decays into fermions. Previously we had only confirmed that this particle decayed into bosons. Bosons are force-carrying particles (like photons and electrons), while fermions are mass-carrying particles (like protons and neutrons). The Standard Model predicted that the Higgs boson is the particle that actually gives fermions their mass — and now, by smashing protons together at the LHC, the CMS detector has finally confirmed that Higgs bosons decay into fermions (bottom quarks and tau leptons). [doi:10.1038/nphys3005 - "Evidence for the direct decay of the 125 GeV Higgs boson to fermions"]
Peter Higgs (who proposed the Higgs boson), hanging out at LHC’s CMS detector. The photo at the top of the story is also the CMS.Following this study, we now have confirmation that this is the Higgs boson as predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. It sits in the mass-energy region of 125 GeV, has no spin, and it can decay into a variety of lighter particles (pairs of photons, fermions, etc.) This means that we can say with some certainty that the Higgs boson is the particle that gives mass to… well, everything. “Our findings confirm the presence of the Standard Model Boson,” says Marcus Klute of the CMS Collaboration. “Establishing a property of the Standard Model is big news itself.”
There are two key takeaways here. First, it’s hard not to be slightly disappointed that the Higgs boson is behaving exactly as expected. If its decay path had been slightly different — if it coupled with fermions slightly differently — then whole new avenues of research would’ve opened up. This confirmation from CERN’s CMS detector, though, reaffirms that — yet again — the Standard Model stands up. On the flip side, it means we’re no closer to pushing beyond the Standard Model. The Standard Model doesn’t account for gravity, dark energy and dark matter, and some other quirks of reality.
And one last photo of the CMS detector, with a human included for scaleWhile we can only really guess at what causes these quirks, one of the most popular theories is supersymmetry. Supersymmetry postulates that every Standard Model particle also has a superpartner (called a sparticle, believe it or not) that is incredibly heavy (thus accounting for the 23% of the universe that is apparently made up of dark matter). It is hoped that when the LHC turns back on in 2015, after upgrades that will almost double its collision energy to 13 TeV, that it will have energy to discover these sparticles. If that doesn’t work, supersymmetry will probably have to wait for LHC’s 60-mile-long successor, which is already being planned.
Tagged In sciencequantumcernlhchiggs bosonparticle physicsstandard modelfermionscmsShare This Article .article {margin:0px !important;}.AR_1 {margin :0 0 20px 0 !important;}.AR_2 {margin:0 0 20px 0;} CommentPost a Comment VirtualMarkI think it’s good that they have a working model that holds up to scrutiny, it shows that they’re on the right tracks.
What I want to know is – what does a boson or fermion look like? If we were to keep zooming in, would they have their own set of parts making them? What about those parts? Is there an ultimate size limit? There’s probably a limit on what we’ll be able to measure(the Planck length), but is there an ultimate size limit for particles? Or does it just end?
It really is mind boggling, and hard to imagine that we’ll ever have the complete picture.
Jeff VahrenkampI believe fermions are pretty much considered small indivisible units. ie you can’t split an electron or a photon. I’m not sure but that might also be the case for quarks (the small ones, not the big ones). At this point we’re only finding larger particles, not smaller ones. Essentially we started at the bottom of the mass table because these are the most stable and easily formed particles, and have been working our way up finding heavier less stable particles, because they are less stable and require huge amounts to be present in a small place to exist for even a moment.
That being said, maybe there is a smaller subset of particles that make up electrons and quarks… I just haven’t heard of anyone looking for them.
gopher652003You mean bosons, not fermions. Bosons include electrons and photons. Fermions include protons and neutrons.
Ralf AllrutzJust to avoid confusion, also the article has got this wrong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermion: particles with integer spin are bosons, while particles with half-integer spin are fermions., i.e. electrons are not force carrying, they have spin 1/2, mass and charge, the photons are force carrying, they have spin 1 and they carry the electromagnetic force.
Jeff VahrenkampWikipedia (which is never wrong) says electrons (leptons) are fermions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermion. That said, i guess the point I was making was that the lower class of leptons, quarks, nutrions and photons are the “Smallest” units we’ve seen that typically go together to build something larger. At the same time, that’s not really true (Are electrons used to build protons, or positrons used to build nutrons since they are releasd during beta decay?). At that level, you can’t really say that something is made of something else since everything is made from energy, and as long as you have the right energy present, you can make anything from anything else… Particle physics gives me a headache.
http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian AnthonyThe idea is that the fundamental particles REALLY ARE fundamental. You can’t get any smaller than a tau lepton (which is a type of fermion). You can’t zoom in any further.
But yes, that’s a pretty hard idea to visualise :)
(And I assume, if supersymmetry is correct, then there’s actually two particles there. But then what happens if you split those two? Can you go any further? etc.)
VirtualMarkI have a hard time getting my head around this idea. I might read up on it, as it’s a really interesting subject. I just don’t understand how these particles have their respective properties.
massaumaybe the easiest answer would be to say that the universe in fractal. but on the other hand it could be discrete because we have some hard limits in time and space. (plank constant)
Neutrino .I think that in physics the term ‘particles’ is quite the misnomer. We aren’t dealing with little bits of stuff at this level, (since these things are what ‘stuff’ is made of).
The way I think of it is that what is really meant by ‘particle’ is actually a set of properties of related observed phenomena that are called ‘particles’ primarily as a convenient short-hand abstraction.
Breakthroughs commonly occur when people reinterpret existing ideas using a radically different abstraction, as when Maxwell explained electricity and magnetism through the mechanism of a combined electromagnetic field instead of particles, and then Einstein did something similar by explaining gravity through curved space-time instead of force.
The data we glean from the observations generally gets better and better over time, but the theory we use to explain something can be thrown out at any time and replaced with something radically different that is still consistent with the exact same data.
dcWhat ? no proof of dark matter. Call me shocked. /sarcasm
George RainaDark Matter and Energy: https://www.academia.edu/6410478/Dark_Matter_and_Energy
Rishi Singhwhat LHC is revealing has been found long AGO (more than a decade experimetally,in 1970s theoreticllay) only thing is they are acknowledgin it publically now.
LHC is meant to study GOD particle,BOSONS, dark matter ,anti matter and their application
Overheard at the LHC:
“The Higgs follows the Standard Model? This is blasphemy! This is madness!”
“Madness? … This is a SPARTICLE!”
MojoI wonder what the other “quirks” are that they were referring to.
Rishi SinghWhen will we get a correct THEORY OF EVERYTHING.
there are so many flaws in STANDARD MODEL
Theory of Everything: https://www.academia.edu/4168202/Theory_of_Everything_-_4_Dimensional_String_Theory
BillBashamDissassembling and trying to figure out the code for the universe is so 1980's. If we had access to the source code it would be much simpler and we could all start improving the way it works…
mrseanpaul81God should have open-sourced the Universe! (GodHub??)
GranFaloSentadoOpen H-Universe.
GuestBut there are 4k YouTube Videos ;)
Just search for “4K”.
George Rainahttps://www.academia.edu/4158863/Higgs_Field_and_Quantum_Gravity
Marcel Klein“Bosons are force-carrying particles (like photons and electrons), while fermions are mass-carrying particles (like protons and neutrons).”
As others already pointed out, an electron is a fermion and no boson. Electrons need to exchange photons to interact with each other (or positrons, protons, etc.) and have a mass.
Eric JarviBush Lies
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