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Higgs Boson, Big Bang Theory Particle Discovery is Confirmed

Higgs Boson, Big Bang Theory Particle Discovery is Confirmed
Bernadine Racoma

Physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research or CERN have discovered a new particle last summer. However, they held back the information as they wanted to be very sure about their findings. They have finally confirmed last Thursday, March 14 at an international conference in Italy that the Higgs boson, after years of research, had been found.

The discovery was actually made in July 2012 but experiments and further research were still to be made before the scientists made the decision to confirm their findings.

The Higgs boson, also called the “God particle” is highly important to physics. The boson and its energy field were crucial in the shaping of the universe that is linked to the 13.7-billion year Big Bang Theory. This pertains to the creation of stars, of the planets and all life forms, and in scientific jargon, the particle that gives mass to matter.

Tentative

While the scientists are very excited about their discovery, they are still tentative. They have been working on this for decades and yet they are still hesitant to confirm that this is the elusive boson that they have been searching for. Joe Incandela, spokesperson for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), one of the two teams working on this project at CERN said that although it is a Higgs boson, it does not seem to have all the properties the theoretical Higgs boson must display.

Higgs boson and its importance

The particle was named after Peter Higgs, a British physicist. Fifty years ago Higgs has predicted that the boson (the particle and its energy field) exist. These are the last of the major elements that were missing in the Standard Model they have created, to simulate at the basic level, how the cosmos works.

For decades the questions on why some key particles have mass had remained unanswered. Its high importance was defined by the construction of the world’s most expensive experimental facility, the Large Hadron Collider, the highest energy particle accelerator and the largest in the world. Its construction started in 1998 and completed in 2008. Over 10,000 scientists, engineers, as well as hundreds of laboratories and universities from more than 100 countries collaborated for the creation of the Large Hadron Collider, located in a 175-meter deep and 27-kilometer long tunnel near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.

What next?

While the discovery may not interest the laymen, it is a monumental find in the scientific community as this will enable them to have a better understanding of the formation of the universe, because for them, the Higgs boson is its building block.

However, other results of further experiments will have to wait. The “atom smasher” Large Hadron Collider had been shut down last February 2013 to allow its power and reach to double and would be back in operation in 2015.

Photo Credit: CMS-Higgs Event

Comment Below
  • Reid Barnes

    Stephen Hawking said he lost 100 dollars betting the Higgs wouldn’t be found. If he paid, he may have lost the money, but he hasn’t lost the bet yet. We have to wait until 2015. According to CERN Research Director, Sergio Bertolucci, "Only when we know that it has spin-zero will we be able to call it a Higgs." And more proof is needed. Also, scientist, Raymond "Volkas says that physicists and Higgs-watchers may have to prepare themselves for the possibility that the LHC data never establishes … the Higgs predicted by the standard model," New Scientist reports. 2015 will be 48 years from when a paper was published, and three physicists received the Nobel prize for the first "Standard Model" with the "Higgs mechanism." But they had all given up and gone to other pursuits after the 1967 paper that eventually sparked the award. Why? Something has been holding back the hunt for the Higgs. https://www.facebook.com/notes/reid-barnes/has-something-been-holding-back-the-search-for-the-higgs-boson/430347917017788

  • Sandy Sites Clarke

    I told u millions of Buddhists couldn’t be wrong.

  • Abed Peerally

    Reid Barnes has reminded us of an important issue. It is a pity that science done by thousands of scientists, in CERN and elsewhere, is being hailed as a miraculous feat to a larger extent by nonscientists. Something probably went wrong to explain why Salam and others did not publish more on the Higgs. I for sure, as in many comments I made elsewhere, make it clear, know exactly why the Higgs which IMPARTs mass to particles cannot possibly exist. What happens during beta decay which goes as Higgs mechanism probably in related in a distant way to mass giving and in any case what happens here cannot be generalised on a cosmic scale. Our understanding of the realities of the universe and of its origin. of the production of particles, atoms, molecules and the inevitable development of life if conditions are appropriate, all that will be at danger of ad infinitum posponement if we decide that there is such a thing as a boson being responsible for imparting mass. Our understanding of the universe, as I see it and will write about it later, is much more dramatic and fascinating without the Higgs mass giving property.

  • Keri Lanette Haggerty-netzel

    I just think the whole thing is so amazing! I’m a child of th "Appollo" era, and those missions were amazing! We have come a long way, finding planets around other suns, etc. I hope in my grandchilds lifetime they will make contact or find another earth like planet because we all know there out there! Its so mind boggling and amazing!

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