We know, we’ve been hearing rumors about interesting “data bumps” for months now, but this is big news — over the weekend the world’s two greatest particle smashers announced tantalizing hints that the Higgs boson may soon be within reach.
Again, no one is shouting eureka just yet, but taken together, collision data from the Large Hadron Collider and the Tevatron suggest scientists may have seen the first glimpses of the elusive Higgs particle, the grand prize of physics.
At a conference on Friday, the Atlas and CMS teams at the LHC reported finding a large number of interesting particle events between a mass range of 130 and 150 giga-electronvolts (GeV). Then over the weekend, several media outlets reported the DZero and CDF teams at the Tevatron also saw some extra signals around 140 GeV.Though the LHC data is considered to have a higher degree of certainty, neither set of data is close to conclusive, physicists warned. But that didn’t stop several theorists from using words like “tantalizing,” “exciting” and “intriguing.”
“There might be some picture emerging from the fog,” DZero spokesman Stefan Soldner-Rembold told the BBC.
Even oddsmakers are feeling confident. Today, the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power slashed the odds on the Higgs boson being scientifically proven to exist before the end of 2011 from 12-1 to 1-3.
Both the LHC and Tevatron have been hurtling subatomic particles around a ring, colliding them at huge energies to blast them apart and study the pieces. This has already yielded plenty of interesting physics, including the announcement of a brand-new particle just last week. The point is to prove what’s called the standard model of particle physics, the system of particles and forces that governs the universe. The Higgs boson, named for the physicist who proposed its existence, is the most sought-after piece of the standard model puzzle. The Higgs particle is thought to endow other particles with mass, and it would unify the weak nuclear and electromagnetic forces.
While the Tevatron and LHC have been operating at high power, especially in the past two years, scientists have been studying the remnants of particle collisions to look for signs of the Higgs. They haven’t seen in yet, so they have been able to determine a host of electronvolt ranges in which it doesn’t exist. But the interesting activity at 130-150 GeV suggests it could exist in that range. (Some physicists are arguing the opposite, that the new data shows the Higgs doesn’t exist in that range. Check out this helpful post by MSNBC’s Alan Boyle for further explanation.)
Either way, the data will help narrow down the mass-energy ranges in which the Higgs may be found. Within the next year, physicists will either find it or rule out its existence, the director of CERN told the BBC.
The bookies give 5-2 odds on the Higgs being found at 141 to 150 GeV. (You can make a bet here, if you're so inclined.)
If it doesn’t exist, that means the standard model must be wrong, and that would be very interesting. So either way, the news coming out of the Tevatron and LHC will remain intriguing for some time. Stay tuned.
[Nature News, BBC]
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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Anadish Kumar Pal
No collision 'on earth' can bring out Higgs. I literally mean 'on earth', because these are not the condition which can take us back to the so-called big bang. Further, Higgs is theory. In practice gravity is due to particles whose spin is of course 0, but the rest is not so definitive as being thought in the SM. My site gives a chronology of the developments in my research efforts; don't be too much disappointed by the absence of details (it's a blog really), the details shall be published with the publication of my US patent application.
"Higgs" was the name of the bosun on my cruise to Phloston Paradice. He was massive.
@rettaH_daM, So, how is your day? I hope you are fine. People on this site get rather constipated, when I go off on tangets. Say, I was wondering can you look up the definition of ' internet trolling' and post it, thanks so much, bu bye.
@BubbaGump:
I looked up "Internet Trolling" for you. Here is the definition:
A troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
I hope that was helpful, but for future reference, you can find that type of information on a web site called "Wikipedia" at http://en.wikipedia.org.
@rettaH_daM, Just so you know, I find your little comment funny. Thank for posting the comment, yes I have read the definition of internet trolling. I do not insult people and I do try not to be sarcastic; but other than that, I am going to write what every I choose and I am ok if you do also.
The will never find the "god particle" because it doesn't exist. Nuclei are being held together my infinitely small black holes at the center of all nuclei
http://theresonanceproject.org/research/scientific
I wish science would just hurry up and begin making worm holes. Forget the small stuff, lets go big, really big!
So LHC sees something interesting concerning the Higgs Boson and CERN announces this on Friday. Then after almost 30 years of operations the Tevatron also suddenly sees something interesting exactly after the CERN announcement. Haha. Come on now. That is the best joke of the Century. They are just taking a free ride on the LHC news. Tevatron can always claim to see possibly something in possibly some of their data. Especially after a much more powerful Collider produces many interesting particle events at this energy range. Anyway. Great news. The coming year will be very interesting and exciting for particle physicists.
@maxb500 - I wondered the same thing about the timing. Perhaps someone shared a little insight with another and that led to a change in calibrations. Or maybe there is something else happening in the atmosphere making these more prevalent although I doubt it. Let's hope something truly incredible comes from all this.
@rettaH_daM - I thought it was funny ;-)
I miss my spiral-graph, sniff, sniff!
Realists speculate that the God Particle must be composed of 100% pure hate.
The physical world is not real. Kinda like the matrix lolz.
I love that you can make bets on this.
all matter and mass are illusions anyway created by the different arrangements of energy. We are all holograms.
I won't stop being excited until the graviton is found. Finding the graviton is the first step to learning how to manipulate it and get true anti-gravity.
Although, finding the Higgs boson is the first step to learning how to manipulate IT, and that would lead to true inertial dampeners.
Damn. Why can't we have more huge colliders so we can look for all these things at once?
-IMP ;) :)
Great article, but please stop calling it the "God Particle". This is science we don't need woo woo :)
come now hadez,
Most of the celestial bodies in our solar system were given the names of gods. Should we change them as well?
As an atheist, I believe science and religion to be quite incompatible indeed. However, the nostalgic factor that can be evoked within the ancient nature of "gods", is something I think science can use to our benefit, especially in metaphorical terms.
Just look up the name Apophis and you will see my point.
Besides, I can think of no better backdrop to gaze at the Milky Way then that of the Parthenon. There's something about our fascination with creating gods to worship, juxtaposed with the very real beauty and mystery of universe. This is where we find god. The problem comes, of course, when man tries to define it in manmade terms of glory.
Lets call it the " Alien partical ". lol.
Definition of Alien:
·li·en (l-n, lyn)
adj.
1. Owing political allegiance to another country or government; foreign: alien residents.
2. Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange. See Synonyms at foreign.
3. Dissimilar, inconsistent, or opposed, as in nature: emotions alien to her temperament.
n.
1. An unnaturalized foreign resident of a country. Also called noncitizen.
2. A person from another and very different family, people, or place.
3. A person who is not included in a group; an outsider.
4. A creature from outer space: a story about an invasion of aliens.
5. Ecology An organism, especially a plant or animal, that occurs in or is naturalized in a region to which it is not native.
Alien—Synonyms
1. immigrant. 2. See stranger. 3. outcast. 7. exotic, foreign.
D13
I would challenge the "why" question in the first place.
What if there is no "why"? Why do we need a why?
I realize we are sentient beings, and as such, have logical cognitive progressions that lead us to such a question. But, I also believe we need to be prepared for a less-then-sexy answer of: There is no why.
There very well could be no rhyme or reason to why the universe came into being. I think our fascination with the "why" shows our inability to escape our own human, illusions of grandeur. "There's got to be a reason I'm here! There must be a reason I exist."
This may not be what you were getting at with your post, but I find it usually the sole cause behind such a question ..... finding meaning behind our own existence, and not just that of the universe.
The truth about it all, from a well known and reliable source, I promise.
The reason cern had so many problems is the gods realized they would soon be discovered, so they kept sabotaging the project. Finally they come up with a new way, replace the god particles in the test with bunny particles, this would eventually lead to humans believe god was a bunny.
Look closely you can see big ears and a bushy tail.
It's somehow disenchanting to name it God particle. It's like saying a piece of us can be successfully studied by an ant.Shaw Capital Management Online
It's somehow disenchanting to name it God particle. It's like saying a piece of us can be successfully studied by an ant. Shaw Capital Management Online
when we find "Singularity". we will be "given" the GOD particle.
Personally, it's reminiscent of the Plank all-sky map.