Has anyone found a boson for Professor Higgs yet?

Question

...and is everything now neatly sorted out? or are we still confused about supposedly basic stuff like gravity?

Answer 1

To add to what people are saying about the LHC in CERN, the great thing about it that even not discovering the Higgs will tell us something. Right now, current theories put limits on the Higgs mass squarely in the energy range of the LHC. So, not finding one will lead to what most call "Higgsless Standard Models" of particle physics. It doesn't discount it, but it certainly makes it unlikely. It is also estimated that Higgs will be found (if it exists) within the first year of data taking, so you've got two years for the real answer to this question.

Answer 2

No, they have not done it yet. CERN's Large Hadron Collider will be operational in 2007, although it may be a few more years before a real chance of finding it will come. By no means is everything sorted out. The Higgs boson (if found) will help explain why the particle that carries the electromagnetic force, the photon, is masless; whereas the particles that carry the weak force are massive. This is related to symmetry breaking as well. I suggest reading a few of Ed Witten's papers on the subject (some of them are non-technical). A google search should direct you to his website. He's at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton.

Physicists are still trying to create a quantum mechanical version of gravity. String theory is a candidate (the only one that I'm aware of). There's a long road ahead of us still. Isn't that exciting by the way?

Answer 3

It does not particularly. There are theories with reference to the initiating of the universe that don't especially _require_ God to get issues began, yet it particularly is a a procedures cry from proving God does not exist. The term "God Particle" is an unlucky determination of words, because of fact it implies something that only isn't there. As I comprehend it at that's maximum elementary, the Higgs boson would clarify why some debris have mass, whilst others do no longer. there is what's called the "prevalent style" of particle physics. each and all of the debris predicted by using the SM were earlier discovered, different than for the HB. If the HB isn't discovered, the the SM ought to be transformed, and various of alternative what we expect of all of us understand approximately sub-atomic debris is going out the window. If has been discovered, it ought to circulate a protracted way in direction of explaining how the 4 person-friendly forces (gravity, electromagnetism, and the susceptible and robust nuclear forces) went from being unified (we expect of) on the tiniest fraction of a 2d after the universe began, to being the 4 forces all of us understand on the instant.

Answer 4

I see science as the never ending process of discovery.I'll bet that there might be more bosons than you could shake a stick at for Professor Higgs.

Answer 5

Nope, not yet. That's what they're hoping the hadron collider will show us. Great piece in current Scientific American about the implications if the higgs shows up.

Answer 6

Hmm, aren't they hoping they can use that particle accelerator to prove the existence of the graviton? Good question, I'd love to know.

Answer 7

no