topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 4:05 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: LHC Researchers Expect First Glimpse of the Higgs Boson Next Week  (Read 7026 times)

Josh

  • Charter Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Points: 45
  • Posts: 3,411
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
cms_higgs2.jpgLHC Researchers Expect First Glimpse of the Higgs Boson Next Week

There’s no official announcement yet--that comes next week--but word on the street and around the cafeteria at CERN says that scientists may announce that they’ve glimpsed the elusive Higgs boson at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider have been saying that they are closing on the so-called God Particle for a while now, and while a rock-solid 5-sigma event isn’t in the offing we might finally see our first experimental data that points toward a real Higgs sighting.

Why all the buzz all of a sudden? Firstly, next week’s meeting will see presentations by researchers from both the ATLAS and CMS experiments, the two main experiments at the LHC charged with finding the Higgs. That’s not particularly out of the ordinary, but rumor has it senior scientists from each experiment will be presenting, something that is usually delegated further down the chain of command.

PopSci.com Source

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: LHC Researchers Expect First Glimpse of the Higgs Boson Next Week
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2011, 06:15 PM »
Awesome! Finally something really interesting and newsworthy to look forward to. Thx Josh! :Thmbsup:

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: LHC Researchers Expect First Glimpse of the Higgs Boson Next Week
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2011, 06:26 PM »
Yes, I found this about the theoretical Higgs boson in Wikipedia:
Spoiler
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. Its existence is postulated as a means of resolving inconsistencies in the Standard Model. Experiments attempting to find the particle are currently being performed using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, and were performed at Fermilab's Tevatron until Tevatron's closure in late 2011. Recently the BBC reported that the boson will possibly be considered as "discoverable" in December 2011, although more experimental data is still needed to make that final claim.

The Higgs boson is the only elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model that has not been observed in particle physics experiments. It is an integral part of the Higgs mechanism, the part of the SM which explains how most of the known elementary particles obtain their mass. For example, the Higgs mechanism would explain why the W and Z bosons, which mediate weak interactions, are massive whereas the related photon, which mediates electromagnetism, is massless. The Higgs boson is expected to be in a class of particles known as scalar bosons. (Bosons are particles with integer spin, and scalar bosons have spin 0.)

Theories that do not need the Higgs boson are described as Higgsless models. Some theories suggest that any mechanism capable of generating the masses of the elementary particles must be visible at energies below 1.4 TeV;[4] therefore, the LHC is expected to be able to provide experimental evidence of the existence or non-existence of the Higgs boson.


Interestingly, there are apparently two groups of scientists:
(a) Higgs: those scientists who are believers in the SM (Standard Model) predictions and who apparently:
... expect the LHC experiment to be able to provide definitive experimental evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson.

and

(b) Higgsless: those scientists who are non-believers in the SM - and who thus hold instead that the HM (Hiiggsless Model) is the Truth and who apparently:
expect the LHC experiment to be able to provide experimental evidence of the non-existence of the Higgs boson.

Scientists! They're a funny lot aren't they?     :huh:

I don't know how many of either group might be climate scientists.

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Hiding in the Higgs data: hints of physics beyond the standard model
Looks like some seriously good science is going on here, demonstrated by the openness to revealing positive results as well as negative results.
It will be interesting to see whether a theoretical model - Standard ("Higgs") or Higgsless - might eventually be supported by the results of this research.

Josh

  • Charter Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Points: 45
  • Posts: 3,411
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Hiding in the Higgs data: hints of physics beyond the standard model
Looks like some seriously good science is going on here, demonstrated by the openness to revealing positive results as well as negative results.
It will be interesting to see whether a theoretical model - Standard ("Higgs") or Higgsless - might eventually be supported by the results of this research.


And people called Cave Johnson crazy....Now let's go do some science!

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
Hiding in the Higgs data: hints of physics beyond the standard model
Looks like some seriously good science is going on here, demonstrated by the openness to revealing positive results as well as negative results.
It will be interesting to see whether a theoretical model - Standard ("Higgs") or Higgsless - might eventually be supported by the results of this research.


A corollary there... If there is good science happening, there must be no vested interests in that particular field quite yet... :P
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
A corollary there... If there is good science happening, there must be no vested interests in that particular field quite yet... :P
Yes, I wondered about that. This project must be consuming a mass of money and it'll probably be funded by organisations with more than an entirely philanthropic interest in pure research.

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
A corollary there... If there is good science happening, there must be no vested interests in that particular field quite yet... :P
Yes, I wondered about that. This project must be consuming a mass of money and it'll probably be funded by organisations with more than an entirely philanthropic interest in pure research.

Well, once you put it like that...  :(

I was holding out for some hope of actual science happening still. :(
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Well, science is now political, though I think it didn't used to be.
"Pure" research used to be funded by Government, but that was kinda defenestrated during the economic crises from the mid-'80s onwards. It all had to be "cost-effective", implying a commercial payback or rate of return within a reasonable time-frame - so that then was the "make or break" rule for the business case for a project to get funded.

I recall the DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) in New Zealand - founded in 1926 - had most of its borderline projects canned when it was reconstituted into profit-driven "Crown Research Institutes" under the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992.

Whilst I could see the need for viability and cost-effectiveness, I reckoned this was a huge potential loss to society, because some of its research projects were in their infancy and had been quite imaginative and with potentially far-reaching benefits.
For example, as an environmentalist and whilst working in the energy sector (where I have done quite a bit of consulting work), one project that I was watching with interest was the research to make wood alcohol (ethanol) fuel as an additive to petrol, to reduce the national economic cost and dependency on imported fossil fuels. Potentially good for the environment and the balance of payments.
This research project was unceremoniously canned in its preliminary viability trials as the new profit-driven regime kicked in. Apparently not viable/cost-effective enough, though I was always skeptical of this as I never could get hold of any figures that proved this was the case. It was all "estimates". My bet is that it could have been so cost-effective (NZ has humungous stocks of pine forests - a national asset) that it scared the pants right off of the petroleum importers/suppliers, and so they maybe (say) lobbied Government appropriately, perhaps by agreeing to contain the rising cost of petrol over a predefined period (of years).

The DSIR research had also paved the way for a feasible national supply/distribution infrastructure to support CNG and LPG fuel conversions to vehicles, and fortunately this project had proved its viability and been implemented in the market, supported by financial incentives (subsidies) to convert, and before the CRI Act canned it.
The subsidies came off and the technology showed itself to still be viable and cost effective for high mileage vehicles. A lot of taxis and commercial vehicles use it now, for example, but it is definitely not cost-effective for domestic cars/mileage - even after increased petrol prices. Similarly for "hybrid"-powered cars.
I wish it were otherwise, but reality bites.

And I wish similar success to CNG/LPG could have been seen for the research into wind-powered generation of electricity in New Zealand, but it can't and so seems to have died a death. This is after a lot of risky implementation had gone ahead for proof-of-concept trials, funded by taxpayers (Government). It has proven neither viable nor cost-effective, and in New Zealand's primarily pastoral economy there has been a public backlash because the technology definitely despoils the extremely beautiful and formerly unspoiled environment (a national environmental asset), and apparently conservationists and ornithologists say it has decimated (or has the potential to decimate) some bird stocks including some of the rare ones (another national environmental asset). However, the official body-count for this has not been declared/published so I reckon it is probably true and we are not to be told because it is highly political.

I think these might be the same/similar reasons to the Governments in UK and Germany recently withdrawing the huge subsidies for wind-powered and solar-powered generation. Surprising in Germany, as they seemed to have committed themselves regardless of the cost, but I guess in the end the lack of viability/cost-effectiveness cannot be ignored or subsidised indefinitely by the taxpayer - especially when there's a serious economic crunch in progress.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2012, 06:34 AM by IainB »

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: LHC Researchers Expect First Glimpse of the Higgs Boson Next Week
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2012, 08:23 AM »
This is amazing.
I didn't realise you get a first glimpse of the Higgs Boson - here.