chloe
07-26-2011, 10:36 PM
God particle: The Higgs boson isn't just any particle. It's the linchpin of the Standard Model of particle physics theory that explains the Big Bang, because it is believed to answer a fundamental question about why matter has mass.
GRENOBLE, France Scientists hoping to puzzle out how the Universe began will find a long-sought theoretical particle — or rule out that it exists — by the end of 2012, the director of the world's largest atom smasher predicted Monday.
Rolf Heuer (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Rolf+Heuer), director of the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Geneva+(Switzerland)), said his confidence was based on the latest findings from the $10 billion proton collider under the Swiss-French border.
"I would say we can settle the question, the Shakespearean question — 'to be or not to be' — end of next year," he told reporters at a major physics conference in Grenoble (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Grenoble).
They have tested the Standard Model very well," Heuer said of CERN scientists. "They are now ready to bring us into uncharted territory. We are still missing the most wanted particle, the Higgs boson."
Fabio Zwirner (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Fabio+Zwirner), a physicist at the University of Padua (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/University+of+Padua), Italy (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Italy), said there is "considerable excitement because of the many new results" at the conference, but physicists were still unsure whether they were seeing "hints" at finding the particle, or were running into statistical errors.
Physicists also hope the collider will help them see and understand other suspected phenomena, such as dark matter, antimatter and supersymmetry. Dark matter has been theorized by scientists to account for missing mass and bent light in faraway galaxies. Scientists believe it makes galaxies spin faster.
Physicists once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of the atom's nucleus, but colliders showed they are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0726/God-particle-the-Higgs-boson-could-be-found-in-2012
GRENOBLE, France Scientists hoping to puzzle out how the Universe began will find a long-sought theoretical particle — or rule out that it exists — by the end of 2012, the director of the world's largest atom smasher predicted Monday.
Rolf Heuer (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Rolf+Heuer), director of the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Geneva+(Switzerland)), said his confidence was based on the latest findings from the $10 billion proton collider under the Swiss-French border.
"I would say we can settle the question, the Shakespearean question — 'to be or not to be' — end of next year," he told reporters at a major physics conference in Grenoble (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Grenoble).
They have tested the Standard Model very well," Heuer said of CERN scientists. "They are now ready to bring us into uncharted territory. We are still missing the most wanted particle, the Higgs boson."
Fabio Zwirner (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Fabio+Zwirner), a physicist at the University of Padua (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/University+of+Padua), Italy (http://www.debatepolicy.com/tags/topic/Italy), said there is "considerable excitement because of the many new results" at the conference, but physicists were still unsure whether they were seeing "hints" at finding the particle, or were running into statistical errors.
Physicists also hope the collider will help them see and understand other suspected phenomena, such as dark matter, antimatter and supersymmetry. Dark matter has been theorized by scientists to account for missing mass and bent light in faraway galaxies. Scientists believe it makes galaxies spin faster.
Physicists once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of the atom's nucleus, but colliders showed they are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0726/God-particle-the-Higgs-boson-could-be-found-in-2012