Creation particle search narrows
Source: Agencies |
December 14, 2011, Wednesday
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INTERNATIONAL scientists said yesterday they had found signs of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle believed to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe after the Big Bang.
Scientists at the CERN physics research center near Geneva said, however, they had found no conclusive proof of the existence of the particle which, according to prevailing theories of physics, gives everything in the universe its mass.
"If the Higgs observation is confirmed ... this really will be one of the discoveries of the century," said Themis Bowcock, a professor of particle physics at Britain's Liverpool University.
"Physicists will have uncovered a keystone in the makeup of the universe ... whose influence we see and feel every day of our lives."
The leaders of two experiments, ATLAS and CMS, revealed their findings to a packed seminar at CERN, where they have tried to find traces of the elusive boson by smashing particles together in the Large Hadron Collider at high speed.
"Both experiments have the signals pointing in essentially the same direction," said Oliver Buchmueller, senior physicist on CMS. "It seems that both ATLAS and us have found the signals are at the same mass level."
Fabiola Gianotti, the scientist in charge of the ATLAS experiment, said ATLAS had narrowed the search to a signal centred at around 126 GeV (Giga electron volts), which would be compatible with the expected strength of a Standard Model Higgs.
"I think it would be extremely kind of the Higgs boson to be here," she told a seminar to discuss the findings. "But it is too early" for final conclusions, she said.
"More studies and more data are needed. The next few months will be very exciting."
Under what is known as the Standard Model of Physics, the boson, named after British physicist Peter Higgs, is posited to have been the agent that gave mass and energy to matter after the Big Bang creation of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
While its discovery would cement current knowledge about particles such as electrons and photons, results of work at CERN could also prove it does not exist. This would undermine the foundations of accepted theories of the make-up of the universe.
"If the first inklings of the Higgs boson are confirmed, this is just the start of the adventure to unlock the secrets of the fundamental constituents of the universe," said Stephen Haywood, head of ATLAS at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
The ATLAS results were followed by explanation of the experiment by CMS. "We are homing in on the Higgs," said Claire Shepherd-Themistocleus, head of CMS at STFC Rutherford Appleton.
Scientists at the CERN physics research center near Geneva said, however, they had found no conclusive proof of the existence of the particle which, according to prevailing theories of physics, gives everything in the universe its mass.
"If the Higgs observation is confirmed ... this really will be one of the discoveries of the century," said Themis Bowcock, a professor of particle physics at Britain's Liverpool University.
"Physicists will have uncovered a keystone in the makeup of the universe ... whose influence we see and feel every day of our lives."
The leaders of two experiments, ATLAS and CMS, revealed their findings to a packed seminar at CERN, where they have tried to find traces of the elusive boson by smashing particles together in the Large Hadron Collider at high speed.
"Both experiments have the signals pointing in essentially the same direction," said Oliver Buchmueller, senior physicist on CMS. "It seems that both ATLAS and us have found the signals are at the same mass level."
Fabiola Gianotti, the scientist in charge of the ATLAS experiment, said ATLAS had narrowed the search to a signal centred at around 126 GeV (Giga electron volts), which would be compatible with the expected strength of a Standard Model Higgs.
"I think it would be extremely kind of the Higgs boson to be here," she told a seminar to discuss the findings. "But it is too early" for final conclusions, she said.
"More studies and more data are needed. The next few months will be very exciting."
Under what is known as the Standard Model of Physics, the boson, named after British physicist Peter Higgs, is posited to have been the agent that gave mass and energy to matter after the Big Bang creation of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
While its discovery would cement current knowledge about particles such as electrons and photons, results of work at CERN could also prove it does not exist. This would undermine the foundations of accepted theories of the make-up of the universe.
"If the first inklings of the Higgs boson are confirmed, this is just the start of the adventure to unlock the secrets of the fundamental constituents of the universe," said Stephen Haywood, head of ATLAS at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
The ATLAS results were followed by explanation of the experiment by CMS. "We are homing in on the Higgs," said Claire Shepherd-Themistocleus, head of CMS at STFC Rutherford Appleton.
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