Physics professors have a newfound excitement for the “God particle.”
Since the discovery of the particle — also known as the Higgs boson — in July 2012, research has been nonstop. The next step in this research is reopening the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the particle accelerator that aided in the discovery. It was shut down two years ago but started up again in March. The LHC’s opening brings an excitement to physicists similar to the discovery of the electron.
According to research by U professors John Matthews, Pearl Sandick and Gordon Thomson, the name “Higgs boson” comes from its two componants. A “boson” is a carrier particle that corresponds with quarks (protons and neutrons) and leptons (electrons). The “Higgs” factor refers to the Higgs Field, which affects particles differently but is hypothesized to give them their mass.
In 2012, using the LHC, scientists discovered a boson in the Higgs Field which they attributed to particles gaining mass. Matthews said the discovery is important to understand because they are “the basic forces holding the universe together.” The Higgs boson could potentially be what gives all matter mass and literally be keeping the universe in one piece — thus the nickname, the “God particle.”
Matthews and Sandick said there are 3,000 scientists pursuing the Higgs boson. Some are working under collaborations such as Atlas and CMS. Others, like Sandick, are pursuing research by developing theories to be tested in the LHC on their own.
“Measuring the properties of the Higgs boson … with higher precision, will allow us to determine whether there are deviations from the expected properties,” Sandick said.
Now that the LHC is up and running, measuring the properties of the particle will become more extensive. The energy in the LHC has been nearly doubled, which will allow scientists to find more complex and heavier particles. Sandick claims that there are many properties and theories pertaining to and away from the Higgs boson that have not yet been discovered.
“There might be other new things, not just the Higgs,” said Thomson. “The question is, ‘are they really there?’ The LHC will help find this.”
Sandick has been researching supersymmetry, an alternative to the Standard Model of physics that predicts the Higgs boson’s mass to be 133 times more than a proton. LHC’s reopening could contribute to Sandick’s theory and help find “dark matter,” a new mysterious type of matter that is currently undetectable, in the galaxy.
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