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
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
New data is bringing scientists much closer to proving that a particle discovered in the Large Hadron Collider last year is the elusive Higgs boson. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld 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?
By Kate Seamons 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Tune in this week for the latest episode of the Tech Fetish podcast, IGN‘s official technology and consumer electronics podcast. This week hosts Scott Lowe, Mark Ryan Sallee, and Justin Davis discuss the leaked PlayStation 4 controller prototype, Intel’s new set-top box, the Large Hadron Collider’s 2 year hiatus, HTC One pricing and release rumors, and more.
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Tech
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider will be shutting down for the next two years for maintenance, a pause in operations that will no doubt herald a new wave of black hole jokes from those outside the scientific community. During the next 48 months, the accelerator will be subjected to a series of extensive repairs and upgrades that will affect every component of its hardware.
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Tech
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
The world’s largest and most powerful atom smasher goes into a 2-year hibernation in March, aiming to reach maximum energy levels that may lead to more stunning discoveries after hunting down the so-called “God particle.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
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
