Greatest Discovery of Our Lifetime: Higgs Boson

[I'm Murrin]

Oh, I understand all that. They've found a particle, it's in the correct range, and it's a boson. The rest remains to be confirmed - whether it matches the description of the Higgs, which variation of the Higgs it resembles, whether there are multiple varieties (one model I think says 4 Higgs at same mass with different charges?).

What's important is that there is something there, just like the theorists predicted. That's one part of their model confirmed. The existence of a particle (or several) in that mass range also invalidates some versions of Supersymmetry.

[peter]

What's important is that there is something there, just like the theorists predicted. That's one part of their model confirmed. The existence of a particle (or several) in that mass range also invalidates some versions of Supersymmetry.

And that in itself is positive in that even the boson itself was ultimately tracked down by successive experiments that confirmed where it *wasn't* in the theoretical range of where it could be, ever reducing the places it had left to hide. The great risk I believe was that the final bit of the initially predicted range would be studied and the HB would be 'found to be missing'. So as some consolation the proponents of the now invalidated Supersymetry models may now at least feel that with this 'discovery' we are indeed a good bit closer to an understanding of 'how the world works'.

[I'm Murrin]

Pretty good video about the Higgs:

vimeo.com/41038445

[peter]

Very Good!

[Menolly]

SD already shared the Bohemian Gravity a capella string theory video in a different thread (brilliant, btw, if you haven't seen it yet). The kid's (yes, one musician master-level physicist comprises A Capella Science, the "group.") musicality is awesome.

Bohemian Gravity has gotten a nod of approval , and mention on his blog, from astrophysicist, and Queen founding member and guitarist, Brian May. But Bohemian Gravity is A Capella Science's second video. He released his first one last year, a take off on Adele's Rolling in the Deep, called Rolling in the Higgs. More raw than Bohemian Gravity, but really impressive for a first outing.

Chorus:
We could have had a model (Particle breakthrough, at the LHC)
Without a scalar field (5-sigma result, could it be the Higgs)
But symmetry requires no mass (Particle breakthrough, at the LHC)
So we break it, with the Higgs (5-sigma result, could it be the Higgs)

[Zarathustra]

Higgs boson might be even more important than we realized. LHC is going to test a theory that it might decay into dark matter. So I guess that means we might be able to create dark matter? And that's when the 'magic' starts!

[Hashi Lebwohl]

The Large Hadron Collider is once again operational and ready for more experiments. It now sports twice as much power as it had before so physicists can smash subatomic particles together at greater velocities and energy levels. The next couple of years should produce interesting results.

[Vraith]

The Large Hadron Collider is once again operational and ready for more experiments. It now sports twice as much power as it had before so physicists can smash subatomic particles together at greater velocities and energy levels. The next couple of years should produce interesting results.

Hee, peeps been having fun with this lately.
Serious peeps, too, not just crazy folk.
Apparently, there is the real possibility that it could create tiny black holes [though they aren't dangerous, they disappear almost instantly]. And if those are at the right energy levels, they provide evidence that the Big Bang never happened...and/or parallel universes are real...and/or that extra spacial dimensions exist.
Some or all of those are related to a Gravity Rainbow---in physics/reality, not in Pynchon/fiction.

I really wish they could pump it up to full power much faster, and analyze much more quickly.