Higgs Boson – Australian Science

Weekly Science Picks

Kelly Burnes — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 09:13:10 +0000

Close-up view
Giant ants (Paraponera Clavata), appearing at the exhibition “Mille milliards de fourmis” at the Palais de la Decouverte in Paris. (Copyright: Getty Images)

Welcome to this edition of Weekly Science Picks!

Here’s a great little story to get us started about how one scientist found out about his Nobel Prize win this past week. He doesn’t carry a mobile.

Prof Peter Higgs did not know he had won Nobel Prize by BBC News

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Prof Peter Higgs has revealed he did not know he had won the award until a woman congratulated him in the street.

It’s now the 11th day of the US Government Shutdown. This past week I attempted to go to the Census Bureau website for research on population demographics near a development project I’m working on. No dice. This next story shows the impact that government funding has on science. The implications could be huge.

Fears for science amid US shutdown by David Shukman

Imran Khan, chief executive of the British Science Association, said: “The biggest lesson we should take from this week’s Nobel Prizes is that science doesn’t belong to one nation; it’s an international and collaborative human enterprise.

One could spend hours, even days pondering the origins of our solar system. Some devote their life’s work to it. Check out this story about comets and presolar grains.

First Evidence Found of a Comet Strike on Earth by Andrew Fazekas

“Because there is no sign of an impact crater, it has been a mystery as to what kind of celestial event actually could have caused this debris field, but a small, black stone found lying in the middle of the glass area caught our attention,” said study co-author David Block, an astronomer at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Balancing the needs of economic development with conservation principles is not easy. Governments do have hard choices to make. Sustainable management of resources, both natural and economic, is not a choice; it should be a top policy priority.

In Indonesia, Environmentalists See a Disaster in the Making by Sara Schonhar

Now conservationists say the rapid clearing of virgin forest is paving the way for environmental catastrophe, turning critically endangered orangutans, tigers and elephants into refugees, and triggering landslides and flash floods.

These next two links speak for themselves. You know that line, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The power of communication, through both photos and words, assists scientists in developing and proving theories and solving problems of the modern world. Enjoy your weekend. Maybe grab a camera, or your smartphone, and capture some scientific snapshots of your own.

Awesome Photos of NASA Equipment Tests by Vincze Miklos

The best science and technology pictures of the week by BBC Future

Cite this article:
Burnes K (2013-10-13 09:13:10). Weekly Science Picks. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 03, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/news/weekly-science-picks-50/

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The Higgs: An Unexpected Boson

Markus — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:14:39 +0000

The interesting thing about research is that the most interesting results are always the ones which are unexpected. This is particularly true out in the frontiers of physics where, frequently, no one really knows quite what to expect. While news reporters were swift to leap to the conclusion that the Higgs boson had been discovered back in July, the scientists at the CERN press conference were noticeably hesitant to make any such claims outright. Interestingly, it seems that they were wise to do so – in light of the more recent findings, their apprehension has been proven to be well advised. Simply but confusingly, the CERN experiments seem to have yielded two bosons for the price of one.

A huge experiment like any of those taking place at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collects a lot of data, and believe me when I say that analysing and interpreting the data you can collect from any experiment is not an easy task. A lot of effort needs to be made in order to make sure you understand everything you’re seeing. Back in July, there were a few obvious things which were uncertain. For one, the “Higgs-like particles” observed at CERN appeared to be breaking up and decaying into photons more rapidly than predicted. This was the first clue that something unexpected was going on with the LHC data. However, on closer inspection, the results were so unexpected that there was thought to be a fault with the equipment. Everyone was hoping to find a peak for the Higgs boson, but no one expected there to be two! With one signal detected at 123.5 GeV and a second at 126.6 GeV, there’s a statistically significant difference of 3.1 GeV between the two. While the data have been checked and re-checked throughout November, they appear to be perfectly sound. As far as anyone can tell, these are two genuine detections of two particles.

What exactly this means is very much an open question. Assuming these data are correct, aren’t any existing theories which explain why there would be two Higgs-like signals so close together. Some hypotheses predict multiple Higgs bosons, but none predict them to be so close together. What’s more, these two particles seem to fragment into different products – the 123.5 GeV particle decays into two Z-particles (a different, more familiar variety of boson), while the 126.6 GeV particle decays into photons. So what’s going on?

Physicists are interesting folk, and I’m sure some would be fascinated if this turned out to be something new. Fabiola Gianotti, director of the ATLAS experiment at CERN has appeared noticeably excited before by the prospect of new and unknown physics being discovered. However, the other thing about physicists is that by their nature, they need to be highly skeptical, particularly when it comes to their own work. Adam Falkowski, a Paris-based particle physicist, states what most researchers are probably thinking on his blog Résonaances – that the result is most likely due to a “a systematic problem”. In other words, a problem in the apparatus such as a poorly calibrated detector. To date, there is no explanation from CERN for the unusual data. So is it a glitch, or could there really be two particles being detected here?

Whatever is being seen here, it certainly appears to be at least subtly different to what the theories predict. Even if the second detection turns out to be a fault in the detectors at CERN, the fact that the original detection appeared to decay into photons more readily than it should is still unusual – though as noted by Matt Strassler in his blog, Of Particular Significance, “the excess is still not yet 3 standard deviations. Deviations of this size do come and go. And we don’t have confirmation from CMS. So the situation remains tantalizing but unfortunately not yet very convincing.” Right now, we still need to wait for official confirmation from CERN. Personally, I suspect that isn’t likely to happen until they know more about it themselves. A further announcement is currently scheduled for March 2013.

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-01-01 00:14:39). The Higgs: An Unexpected Boson. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 03, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/research-2/the-higgs-an-unexpected-boson/

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Weekly Science Picks

Markus — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:28:12 +0000

By now, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re reading this, it means the world didn’t end on Friday. Which is rather a good thing, because a lot of interesting things have been happening recently! Even though I’ve been busy as can be, writing papers and trying to finish off a thesis there have still been a few fascinating little gems to catch my eye in the news this week…

Firstly, NASA have announced a new prototype space suit, with new and improved technology. Intended to be easier to put on, amongst other things, the most exciting part of the news is that these new suits are intended for deep space missions, focussing on safety “during spacewalks and potential surface activities”! Oh, but there’s just one thing which everyone’s noticed…

Nasa’s New Space Suit Looks Exactly Like Buzz Lightyear

Nasa said one of the key differences was that the new suit has a one-piece design, into which the wearer crawls in through a hole in the back, as opposed to the trousers-top-helmet version currently in use on the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, in Switzerland, physicists have been puzzled by the results they’ve seen from the LHC. While there’s now little doubt that they’ve detected a signature which matches what they’d expect from “a Higgs-like boson”, it seems like there’s more going on than they realised…

Two Higgs Bosons? CERN Scientists Revisit Large Hadron Collider Particle Data

Yesterday researchers at the Atlas experiment finally updated the two-photon results. What they seem to have found is bizarre—so bizarre, in fact, that physicists assume something must be wrong with it. Instead of one clean peak in the data, they have found two.

The Sun, is slightly larger and more active than Tau Ceti. Credit: R.J. Hall/Wikimedia Commons

Finally, one star near to Earth which has always garnered much attention from science fiction writers is Tau Ceti – right in our neighbourhood at a mere 12 light years away. For a long time, many have speculated on the potential for life-sustaining worlds around the Sun’s slightly more orange neighbour, and now it looks like there may well be. While we’re still waiting for confirmation, there may be 5 planets around Tau Ceti, and two of those might be candidates for sustaining life!

Nearby Tau Ceti may host two planets suited to life

The highlight of this alien solar system is Tau Ceti e, which has a mass of over four Earths and a year just under half as long as ours. It orbits in the star’s habitable zone, the region where liquid water is thought to exist. “It is in the right place to be interesting,” says [Hugh] Jones.

Short but sweet, that’s all for this week. I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas (or whichever of this season’s holidays and festivals you choose to celebrate). See you next time!

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Sonification of the Higgs Boson – the Sound of Particle

Editorial Board — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 06:43:33 +0000

The July 4 achievement and the discovery of Higgs Boson particle, created new possiblities for the researchers who have “sonified” the data from the Atlas experiment, by turning these scientific findings into music using data sonification. Working from results supplied by the Atlas experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), researchers have created melodies that make the results easier to understand.

Sonification requires enormous amounts of networking and processing power to produce results, as the pan-European GÉANT network reports, it is the project coordinated by Domenico Vicinanza of DANTE (the UK-based organisation that operates the GÉANT network on behalf of European national research and education networks (NRENs)), in collaboration with Mariapaola Sorrentino of ASTRA Project, Cambridge, who contributed to the sonification process and Giuseppe La Rocca from INFN Catania, responsible for the computing framework.

“In the music the peak of high notes in the second bar is the appearance of the Higgs-like particle (about 3.5 seconds into the recording). The researchers created two versions, one as a piano solo, and the second with added bass, percussion, marimba and xylophone.”

Take a listen on a SoundCloud:

“The discovery of the Higgs-like particle is a major step forward in our knowledge of the world around us,

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A brand new boson?

Markus — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:13:17 +0000

It’s official. As was the subject of a press conference here in Europe this morning, the LHC has discovered a new particle. Is it the much talked about Higgs boson? Evidently it’s far too early to say with certainty. But whatever it is, it’s a brand new subatomic particle, it’s consistent with a Higgs boson signature, and it’s enough to make CERN physicists quite excited.Whatever it may turn out to be, it’s brand new and never seen before.

This is physics at its most fundamental. The standard model of particle physics is probably our best depiction of how the universe operates at subatomic scales, but our picture is incomplete. A jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces which must still be searched for. One of those pieces is a piece so basic that for a long time it was simply overlooked. Why do objects have mass at all? The existence of the Higgs boson in the Standard Model seeks to address that question. It posits that all the universe is filled with a so-called Higgs Field. Any particles, protons or neutrons for instance, passing through that field will interract with it, and it will interract via Higgs bosons. Any particle which exists in this field will effectively be surrounded by a cluster of these Higgs bosons. The more bosons, the stronger the interraction, and the more massive that particle will be.

Simulation of Higgs Boson decay.

But exactly what it is that’s been discovered is still being analysed. Amid a press conference full of journalists asking pointed questions about “the Higgs boson”, scientists were noticeably hesitant to outright say that this is what they’ve discovered. And for good reason too, because science doesn’t work like that, no matter how many people might want to run through the streets naked shouting ‘Eureka’. In all of this, only one thing is certain – a new particle has been discovered with a mass of approximately 126 giga electron volts (126 GeV), with a statistical significance of 4.9 standard deviations (4.9 σ).

Peter Higgs himself, declined to make any comment twice during the conference, simply stating that it would not be appropriate to answer detailed questions at this stage. The other members of the panel too, agree that it’s very difficult to say anything definitively right now and that “Higgs-like” would be a better description of what they’ve found. It’s compatible with a Higgs boson detection, but the “uncertainties are still large”. While definitely being “consistent with a Higgs boson”, interestingly it’s noted that they cannot say if this is the Higgs boson (i.e. the one required by the Standard Model), rather at this stage it may be a Higgs boson. Scientifically speaking, it’s far better to only make statements on what’s known to be true, rather than to make brash announcements which may prove to be incorrect a few months later.

Whatever happens after the months of data analysis which are due to follow is that we’re set to unravel a lot more about the fundamentals of the universe. This discovery is on the very edge of human understanding. It may help to refine our knowledge of the Standard Model of particle physics, or it may hint that this particular Higgs boson is not a part of the standard model – a prospect which ATLAS experiment director Fabiola Gianotti seemed visibly quite excited by.

The ATLAS instrument, a detector in the LHC.

Rolf Heuer stressed the fact that the most exciting thing here is the fact that they have a discovery of something brand new, perhaps suggesting that we shouldn’t get too caught up in our expectations and simply enjoy the excitement of there being something never before seen in physics in the process of being analysed. Moreover, this could be the very first fundamental scalar particle, and the first gauge boson which actually has any mass. If it does turn out to be a Higgs boson, then this holds the additional thrill that this particle has a relationship to the state of the universe itself, embodying the substance to all other particles which exist.

In the meantime, as the LHC prepares to power down for a couple of years of maintenance, this discovery will certainly stoke the fires of curiosity in thousands of scientists worldwide. The data are still being picked apart too, for things which are completely unknown. Perhaps even more brand new physics is still waiting to be found. It’s an exciting time in physics right now!

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Mr Boson, I presume…?

Charles Ebikeme — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 06:04:25 +0000

When Peter Higgs steps out onto the tarmac at an airport near the franco-swiss border, it will probably be with equal parts trepidation and elation.

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and the world’s leading laboratory for particle physics, is to hold a scientific seminar on July 4th, with Peter Higgs in attendance, to deliver the latest update in the search for the Higgs boson — the famed “God Particle

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