Both of the Higgs hunting experiments at CERN have independently discovered the Higgs Particle! This is massive news! (Pun intended). Both ATLAS and CMS detectors have logged Five Sigma results in the 125.6 GeV energy levels. That's 99.99997% accuracy!
I can't possibly explain how cool this is if you don't understand, so here's some youtube clips that should make you all as excited as I am.
Hi Murphy
Hugely exciting times isn't it! I have been watching the live Cern webcast and keeping up with the news since 6pm and phew haven't stopped and have been celebrating with glasses of wine *hick* must stop now .
The news is only just starting to trickle through in the last hour or so.
It's been such a rush to witness this historical news and watching the media releases come through!
I have to say, I couldn't understand a lot of what they were talking about in the webcast announcement with all their graphs etc, but hey, my eyes were glued to the screen and I was so excited, even if I didn't full understand how they got to where they got to, to find it, I knew it was important stuff and I was going to soak in every single bit of it!!!
The theory of everything... here we come!
This is from Brian Greene on my facebook wall...
Quote:
Hi Everyone,
Here's the situation just announced at CERN:
Each of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider has discovered a new particle with properties that are consistent with it being the long-sought Higgs particle. It will require more data and work to definitively establish that the particle is indeed the Higgs, but there's now no doubt that a new particle has been found.
When this result was announced at CERN, the auditorium erupted into prolonged applause, fitting for this historic discovery. No doubt, physicists worldwide erupted into similar applause. Decades of work by thousands of scientists around the globe have resulted in this spectacular achievement.
Yeah I've been glued to the webcast too! Interestingly the Theory of Super Symmetry (SUSY ) actually requires 5 Higgs particles, not to mention all the anti-leptons and anti-fermions which either haven't been discovered or don't exist so CERN and the LHC still have a LOT of work to do.
I loved the stunned silence when the CMS director announced a "Five Sigma" result, proper goosebumps moment that was.
The series Sixty Symbols is great - I had no idea they were about - many thanks for posting.
Im first year uni physics - so I have a long way to go...
Cheers Petra d.
If you like Sixty Symbols also check out Brady's other channels "Periodic Table of Videos" "Deep Sky Videos" and "Nottingham Science". Far too easy to burn a few hours being sapiosexual. (There's a familiar face from IIS on Deep Sky Videos )
Nevertheless a small part of me is almost disappointed. As plenty have observed before me, not finding the Higgs might have been much more interesting, in that it would have required a major rethink of a whole lot of 'known' science.
That said, as mentioned below, it still leaves a lot of work and potential surprises.
So the ad hoc assumptions of the Higgs mechanism were obviously spot on.
The knock on effects of the discovery are being seen.
The electroweak theory which predicted the W and Z bosons and were discovered in the 1980s, was based on the existence of the Higgs boson, is now fully vindicated.
While the Standard Model was never able to nail down a firm prediction for the Higgs mass, String theory predicted the Higgs mass in the 122-129 GeV interval.
A major triumph for String theory?
Regards
Steven
Last edited by sjastro; 05-07-2012 at 10:35 AM.
Reason: Grammar
So the ad hoc assumptions of the Higgs mechanism were obviously spot on.
The knock on effects of the discovery are being seen.
The electroweak theory which predicted the W and Z bosons in the 1980s and was based on the existence of the Higgs boson is now fully vindicated.
While the Standard Model was never able to precisely nail down a firm prediction for the Higgs mass, String theory predicted the Higgs mass in the 122-129 GeV interval.
A major triumph for String theory?
Regards
Steven
So what are the exact implications of the discovery. They say it's going to be a leap forwards in our understanding of the structure of matter. Is this going to have any practical effects in near future technology used in everydays life?
While the Standard Model was never able to precisely nail down a firm prediction for the Higgs mass, String theory predicted the Higgs mass in the 122-129 GeV interval.
A major triumph for String theory?
Regards
Steven
Hi Steven,
Didn't know that.
Interesting to see whether the properties of the Higgs leans further towards string theory.
So what are the exact implications of the discovery. They say it's going to be a leap forwards in our understanding of the structure of matter. Is this going to have any practical effects in near future technology used in everydays life?
I doubt it in the near term but who knows in the long term? People once wondered what we could ever do with electricity.
So what are the exact implications of the discovery. They say it's going to be a leap forwards in our understanding of the structure of matter. Is this going to have any practical effects in near future technology used in everydays life?
I doubt very much we will see any technological benefits in the foreseeable future, for example the W and Z bosons were discovered in the 1980s and no one has been able to put the associated theory or the bosons to good use.
I suspect however Cosmologists are very interested in the discovery. The creation of bosons with mass is an example of what is known as symmetry breaking.
Cosmologists see symmetry breaking as a possible mechanism to explain inflation in the early history of the Universe, some even see it as causing the Big Bang, so perhaps the Higgs boson will play a central role in Cosmological theories.
So what are the exact implications of the discovery. They say it's going to be a leap forwards in our understanding of the structure of matter. Is this going to have any practical effects in near future technology used in everydays life?
I'm reminded of Robert Wilson's justification of the (at the time) enormous cost of setting up Fermilab at the height of the Cold War. He was expected claim that it would help defend America against Communism. Instead, he said that it would help make America worth defending - a sentiment sadly in shorter and shorter supply.
In respect of the "usefulness" of the Higgs field, I think that, based on previous experience, it is not yet possible to know whether or not it is going to lead to some kind of technology.
Faraday, the great pioneer of practical electricity, was once asked what was the use of all of his mucking around on a tabletop with magnets and wires and compasses. He is reported to have answered : "what is the use of a child?"
. 
) actually requires 5 Higgs particles, not to mention all the anti-leptons and anti-fermions which either haven't been discovered or don't exist so CERN and the LHC still have a LOT of work to do.
)
