How About the Higgs Boson

I know enough about particle physics to come off like a fool if I comment on it. Just the same, I find the story of the Higgs boson curious enough that I thought I'd blog about it. What is the Higgs boson and why is it's story curious?  

So we  have the elements (example; hydrogen), a single one of which is called an atom that, in turn, consists of three parts called, protons, neutrons and electrons. Once the physicists had that figured out, then they had to know what those three atomic bits were made of.   So they built these massive machines that allow them to smash one atomic bit into another atomic bit with an off-the-scale amount of electrical power . When they do that, the bits are blasted into a whole bunch of different kinds of sub-atomic particles. Thus was born the science of particle physics.  There are many different particle types that are predicted by the math behind the science.  Blasting atomic bits apart has yielded clear evidence of the existence of all but one of the particles predicted. That would be the Higgs boson,  named after the British plysicist who first predicted its presence,  Peter Higgs.

Until recently the machines designed to blast apart  atomic bits were not powerful enough to induce the kind of reaction theotretically required to confirm the presence of the Higgs boson.  Then, a few years ago, the most powerful machine yet, CERN's Large Hadron Collider, came on line near Geneva, Switzerland.  It is the largest and highest energy machine ever built.  It lives in a 17 mile long, underground circular tunnel filled with massive electromagnets designed to keep electrons and protons on a collision course. It was built in a collabration of thousands of scientists and engineers from more than 100 countries. Over 100 universities and research labs are also working directly with the CERN project. It took a decade and 10 billion dollars to construct the ultimate machine of our time.

One of the principle reasons for building the large hadron collider was to create the conditions for detecting and confirming the existnce of the Higgs boson. In order to do it, the LHC has to generate power in excess of 125 billion electron volts.

This diagram shows the results of a proton-on-proton collision in the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS detector last September, with four muons indicated by red tracks. Such a result could be consistent with the Standard Model with or without the Higgs boson, depending on the analysis of multiple events.
Photo and caption lifted from MSNBC science editor, Alan Boyle

Here is a link to a one hour BBC production that tells the story of the search for the Higgs boson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raKN0RddL3A&feature=player_embedded

Here is the MSNBC article on the Higgs Boson

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12488155-higgs-boson-buzz-hits-new-heights?lite


On July 4, 2012,  CERN announced publicly that the large hadron collider had provided data that showed the presence of a new particle, not seen before. Is this new particle the elusive Higgs Boson or some other particle not previously accounted for by theory?  At this point, after spending $10 billion on the LHC, it appears the scientists don't know. 

The Higgs particle is crucial to the current understanding of how particles form atoms, stars, and all of life.  The Higgs is thought to be the 'glue' that holds everything together.  The question now is, did the scientists at CERN find the Higgs Boson, or did they reveal something else entirely; something that could require a serious rethinking of current particle theory.  In the scientific world, this could be labeled a thriller.