A year ago, the world’s largest particle collider made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science, identifying what is believed to be the Higgs Boson—the long-sought maker of mass. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
New results to be presented at the EPS-HEP conference in Stockholm, Sweden, this afternoon have put the Standard Model of particle physics to one of its most stringent tests to date. The CMS and LHCb experiments at CERN’s1 Large Hadron Collider will present measurements of one of the rarest measureable processes in physics: the decay of a Bs (pronounced B-sub-s) particle into two muons. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
(Phys.org) —A research team made up of physicists from the US, Canada and Germany has succeeded in making the first individual-particle measurement of the magnetic moment of an antiproton. In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, they describe how they managed to capture a single antiproton and measured its magnetic moment in a way that is more precise (by a factor of 680) than any previous measurement efforts to date. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Last July, scientists at CERN announced that, using the Large Hadron Collider, it had discovered a particle that was consistent with the properties they’d expect to find in Higgs boson. A Higgs boson is the particle that the current model of physics describes as giving mass to all particles in the universe. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Scientists working at the world’s biggest atom smasher near Geneva have announced they are confident that the new subatomic particle discovered last summer is a version of the long-sought Higgs boson. The particle bears key attributes of the so-called “God particle” that was theorized nearly a half-century ago as fundamental to the creation of the universe. It took thousands of scientists from around the world to hunt the particle in the atom-smasher operated by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GOD PARTICLE?
Everything is made of atoms, inside of which are electrons, protons and neutrons. And those, in turn, are made of quarks and other subatomic particles. Scientists have wondered how these tiny building blocks of the universe acquire mass. Without mass, the particles wouldn’t hold together — and there would be no matter.
One theory proposed by British physicist Peter Higgs and teams in Belgium and the United States nearly a half-century ago is that a new particle must be creating a “sticky” energy field that acts as a drag on other particles. The atom-smashing experiments have now confirmed that this particle exists in a form that is similar to — but perhaps not exactly like — what was proposed.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
The Higgs is part of many theoretical equations underpinning scientists’ understanding of how the world came into being. If the particle didn’t exist, then those theories would have needed to be fundamentally overhauled. The fact that it does exist, in some form, means scientists have been on the right track with their theories. So far the measurements seem to line up with was expected under the so-called Standard Model of particle physics. This is disappointing for scientists who were hoping to see new discoveries including a theory known as “super-symmetry” where particles don’t just come in pairs — think matter and anti-matter — but quadruplets, all with slightly different characteristics.
HOW MUCH DID IT COST?
CERN‘s atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, which forms a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border, cost some $10 billion to build and run. This includes the salaries of thousands of scientists and support staff around the world who collaborated on the two experiments that independently pursued the Higgs.
WHAT IF ANY PRACTICAL RESULTS MIGHT COME FROM THE SEARCH?
Physicist John Ellis talks about the subatomic particle that has taken the world by storm. CERN researchers have discovered the particle that gives all other matter its mass with the help of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Space.com
Physicists say they are now confident they have discovered a long-sought subatomic particle known as a Higgs boson.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, says a look at all the data from 2012 shows that what they found last year was a version of what is popularly referred to as the “God particle.”
CERN physicist Joe Incandela said in a statement Thursday that “it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is.”
The long-theorized subatomic particle would explain why matter has mass. It is considered a missing cornerstone of physics.
Last July scientists with the world’s largest atom-smasher announced finding a particle they described as Higgs-like.
Physicists said Thursday they are now confident they have discovered a crucial subatomic particle known as a Higgs boson—a major discovery that will go a long ways toward helping them explain why the universe is the way it is. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By Kate Seamons 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Physicists say they are now almost certain that the curious “Higgs-like particle” revealed last year at CERN is a Higgs boson. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Information and communication technology has enabled us to solve complex problems in collaboration across the world. Everything from wiki-based platforms to open software development all the way to the experiments in CERN has benefited from advances in ICT. Not only have unprecedented forms of synergy emerged, but also inevitable clashes of opinions between large numbers of individuals. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
The Large Hadron Collider, which discovered what is believed to be the elusive Higgs boson, is being shut down for a two-year overhaul. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
By MarketNewsVideo Kellogg (K) had its estimates and price target increased by BMO (BMO) due to improving North American sales trends. A $63 price target was issued with a market perform rating. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
The world should know with certainty by the middle of this year whether a subatomic particle discovered by scientists is a long-sought Higgs boson, the head of the world’s largest atom smasher said Saturday.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
The world should know with certainty by the middle of this year whether a subatomic particle discovered last summer is a Higgs boson long sought by physicists, the head of the world’s largest atom smasher said Saturday.
Rolf Heuer, who is the director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said he is confident that “towards the middle of the year, we will be there.” By then, he said reams of data from the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border near Geneva, should have been assessed.
The timing could also help Scottish physicist Peter Higgs win a Noble Prize, Heuer said in an interview with The Associated Press in the Swiss resort of Davos.
CERN‘s atom smasher helped scientists declare last July their discovery of a new subatomic particle that Heuer calls “very, very like” a Higgs boson, that promises a new realm of understanding the universe.
The machine, which has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to investigate dark matter, antimatter and the creation of the universe, is being put to rest early this year. The data from it, however, takes longer to analyze.
“Suppose the Higgs Boson is a special snowflake, so you have to identify the snowflake, in a big snowstorm, in front of a background of snowfields,” Heuer said by way of analogy. “That is very difficult, you need a tremendous amount of snowfall in order to identify the snowflakes and this is why it takes time.”
He said the standard model of particle physics describes only 5 percent of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.
To explain how subatomic particles, such as electrons, protons and neutrons, were themselves formed, Higgs and others in the 1960s envisioned an energy field where particles interact with a key particle, the Higgs boson.
The idea was that other particles attract Higgs bosons and the more they attract, the bigger their mass will be. But a big question remains: Is this new particle a variation of the Higgs boson, or the same as the Higgs boson that was predicted?
The phrase “God particle,” coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, is used by laymen, not physicists, more as an explanation for how the subatomic universe works than how it all started.
“Now, if there is a deviation in one of the properties of this Higgs boson, that means we open a new window, for example, hopefully into the part of the dark universe, the 95 percent of the unknown universe,” Heuer said.
“If you find the deviation,” he added, “that means if it is not the — but a — Higgs boson, then we might find a fantastic window into the dark universe so we would make another giant leap from the visible to the dark.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Jennifer Hicks, Contributor Yandex, Russia‘s largest online search engine, has collaborated with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, to help physicists and engineers process experimental data more accurately with their machine learning system, MatrixNet. MatrixNet is already being tested with CERN’s data of B-meson decay analysis. MatrixNet allows physicists to filter huge datasets in order to find extremely rare events. Increasing the precision of these events, gives physicists the ability to confirm or refute physical models and theories. Yandex is the only Russian company working with CERN. Forbes caught up with Dr. Andrey Ustyuzhanin, Head of the MatrixNet project with CERN, to find out why a search engine can help some of the smartest physicists in the world. Ustyuzhanin says working with CERN, gives Yandex a chance to help answer some of the most interesting questions about physics and what our universe is made of. Forbes: Why is it important to help scientists process experimental data more accurately? Andrey Ustuzhanin: One of primary goals of scientists at CERN is the confirmation of various theories and models that were created by theoretical physicists. If have more precise tools to do that, they can increase their confidence level of their findings using the same amount of data. Given that CERN is going to close for an upgrade soon, it’s essential to have such tools at their disposal. What does a search engine company have to offer some of the best scientists in the world? AU: One person can very rarely be ‘the best’ in different areas, even if he/she is a respected as genius. So scientists at CERN are really good at physics, but computer science is totally different area. And, algorithms usually belongs to domain of computer science which is the domain of a search engine company. We hope that data analysis, which is about algorithms and crucial for CERN, can be improved by our technology and techniques. Why did CERN choose Yandex and say, not Google? AU: Russia has a very specific cultural background and attitude towards technology. Sometimes when a question is too fascinating, like a question about ‘universe, life and everything’ we can start working on it without any specific budget and revenue expectations, we just want to be a part of that process. What type of results can the scientists at CERN expect? AU: If our tools turn out to be helpful, then physicists can expect to speed up discoveries or improve the confidence level of their findings (say, rejection of the next candidatie for ‘theory of everything’). How about some examples for non-physicists? AU: In November 2012, CERN announced a discovery of a rare decay of B-meson to muon-antimuon pair. The confidence level of this decay was ‘3.5 sigma’ and rate of this decay was in line with the prediction in the Standard Model of particle physics. This effectively closed some marginal supersymmetry theories. So increasing the confidence level from 3.5 sigma to say five sigma, would make it a discovery, instead of just evidence. How much experimental data are we talking? AU: One of CERN big experiments (LHCb) encompasses tens of billion of events per year (which is what they have after pre-filtering), which makes it around a petabyte per year, and that’s not even the biggest CERN experiment. All of CERN‘s experiments are reported to register around 15PB per year. Note: Let’s put that into perspective: The data flow from all of the experiments will be about 700 MBs, that’s around 15,000 000 GB (=15 PB) per year and that’s about the same as a stack of CDs about 20 km tall piled up each year. What’s the long-term benefit to Yandex? AU: Currently we are thinking in terms of helping find answers to some of the most difficult questions about understanding our universe. Besides working on these questions alongside the best physicists in the world, it will help us improve our methodology of machine learning. What do you want to achieve with the MatrixNet at CERN? AU: Our mission is to give answers to users’ questions, so helping answering tough physics questions is just another part of our mission at Yandex. Yandex says its machine learning system, MatrixNet, will make search smarter because they will be able to train/teach the system based on the massive amount of data collected by CERN and of course apply that to it’s business – internet search. For some interesting facts about physics at CERN, click here.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Wrapping up the Large Hadron Collider‘s first three years of work, CERN scientists are nearly positive they’ve found the elusive Higgs boson, also known as the “God particle.”
Source: Latest from Computerworld
