Collider tunnel at CERN’s LHC.
Originally uploaded by videoschmideo

I recently attended the RCI Public Lecture, Unlocking the Mystery of Mass: Searching for the Higgs Boson Particle. The speaker, Wendy Taylor, is one of over 2,000 physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. She began the lecture with a brief prelude to particle physics, then began to discuss the Why and How  of using the LHC to search for the Higgs boson particle.

Why
• they have made significant observations about other particles (W and Z bosons) with colliders, but to find the Higgs boson, more energy in the collisions is necessary
• the LHC will collide protons together with an energy seven times that of the largest such collider running now

How
• “smashing things together” (protons)
• accelerating protons in a 27-kilometer tunnel to near the speed of light
• and by creating billions of collisions a second, it is hoped that a Higgs boson will be observed

Basically, by recreating conditions a fraction of a second after the Big Bang the postulated Higgs boson will likely be observed. The Standard Model of particle physics has already successfully predicted the existence of particles such as W and Z bosons, before they had been observed. The Higgs boson is another particle predicted by the Standard Model, and seemingly fundamental to it. Why is it that some particles like photons (involved in electromagnetism) can appear massless? And why are other particles so heavy, such as the W and Z bosons (involved in the weak force)?

The best way to think about the importance of finding the Higgs boson is this: there is a discrepancy in the explanation of mass amongst the elementary particles, and by finding the Higgs boson — a sort of “missing link” — we will be closer to explaining why this is. To further elaborate, there is a theory of Higgs fields, which could be generally thought of as a field that slows down particles, thereby responsible for the inertial mass of particles. I can’t predict the full implications of this, but knowing how particles acquire mass would be nothing less than revolutionary for scientists, and without question contribute to advances in technology. However, what if they don’t find it? Well, here’s a few points to assuage your disappointment:

• If the Higgs boson doesn’t exist, it would mean that some theories predicted by the Standard Model would be incorrect, leading us to revise them or to search for alternative explanations. (Superstring theory, anyone?)
• The LHC is one of the largest machines on Earth (check out some photos), a collaborative project between many countries, and has brought over 2,000 physicists from 34 countries together to work on it. It’s great to see what people can accomplish when we all work together.

More information:

• See what other lectures RCI will be hosting: RCI Public Lectures
• More information on the LHC from CERN: LHC Homepage
• Feb 27, 2005, ScienceDaily article: Largest Machines On Earth: Particle Colliders
• Previous MaRS blog: “Scientists create mini big bang to explain universe creation”

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