Finding the God Particle

CERN's LHC Searches for the Higgs Boson

Sep 12, 2008 Kelly Whitt

Scientists hope to solve the mystery of matter by mimicking conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

The Standard Model in particle physics is incomplete. The theories that make up the Standard Model cannot explain why matter has mass. Scientists have been trying to solve this problem, and their best hope at finding the answer is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that is part of the European Organization for Nuclear Research's particle physics laboratory outside of Geneva, Switzerland. (CERN is the acronymn for the French name for the European Organization for Nuclear Research.)

What Is the God Particle?

The God Particle is a nickname given to the Higgs Boson. The God Particle is enigmatic in that it is everywhere, but no one has seen it. This particle, first proposed by British physicist Peter Higgs in 1964, is believed to be the source of all matter's mass.

The Higgs Boson is the missing piece in the Standard Model of particle physics. If the LHC can find the Higgs Boson, it will solidify the Standard Model. However, if the Higgs Boson cannot be found, or if something completely different is found, it could undermine the Standard Model and cause scientists to go back to the drawing board. Discovering the Higgs Boson will help scientists understand the fundamental laws of nature and describe the workings of the Universe.

What Does the Large Hadron Collider Do?

The Large Hadron Collider is an extremely ambitious project that has been decades in the making. The "Doomsday Machine," as some have termed it, lies 300 feet underground beneath the Swiss-French border. Fear from a few has surrounded the project. Some scientists theorize that the LHC could create microscopic black holes. But physicists calmly explain that if any black holes came into being, they would be too weak to create a problem and would evaporate nearly instantly.

The LHC is the world's largest particle accelerator. This underground bunker consists of a giant 17-mile ring with gigantic superconducting magnets. These magnets are the coldest place in the known universe at -456 degrees Fahrenheit. Absolute zero, the temperature at which all motion ceases, is -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. In comparison, the cosmic microwave background radiation is approximately 2.7 K, or -454.81 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the LHC is operating, it will accelerate protons around the ring at velocities nearing the speed of light. The protons will race in opposite directions around the seventeen-mile tunnels eleven thousand times per second until they crash into each other, exploding open and revealing their mysterious insides. The high energies created will mimic the conditions that existed a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Although the LHC already performed its first test run on September 10, 2008, the news from CERN is so far anticlimactic. The good news first is that the Earth was not destroyed as a handful had believed. But the Higgs Bosons have not come dancing out yet either. The process is a complicated one. A huge volume of data must be analyzed after each experiment, and the analysis could take years. At the soonest, any discovery as to true nature of the God Particle still lies a few years down the road.

The copyright of the article Finding the God Particle in Astronomy & Space is owned by Kelly Whitt. Permission to republish Finding the God Particle in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

One of the First Images from the Sept 10 2008 Test

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Sep 20, 2008 10:50 PM

Guest :

I personnally do not believe in the God Particle, the Higgs particle, because I think they should already have found it a long time ago. I also do not believe in a graviton to explain gravity … it is too easy : when you cannot explain something, you just create another something to imagine what happens, but that also does not explain anything.
Maybe the Higgs ” field ” exists, if we may call it aether, yes why not …. but particles moving in it and gaining mass ….. I think for exemple they then should slow down at some moment …
No ! I believe only in energy, it’s all about energy and vibrations/energy fields !! I think MATTER only is existing when mass particles come together to form atoms and molecules and matter is just the new vibration on a different level created by the protons and neutrons and electrons together … it is the vibration/energy field of the atom, of the molecule … Mass becomes matter only on atom scale, I think you have MASS particles ( proton, electron, neutron ) and massless ones ( photons ) and when you put mass particles together they form a atom, and that atom IS MATTER.
If I may explain it this way : it feels like matter in the same way that you can feel a resistance when you put 2 magnets North against North : you feel resistance, the more you want to put them together, the more resistance you feel … and MATTER IS resistance - it’s all a question of vibrations, energy fields.
Photons have NO MASS, but they can give energy to mass particles - electrons - to move on a higher level, and when the electron looses its energy again it gives birth to a photon …. When you knock on matter, you knock on a energy field !! do you really think that your feet are walking on the ELECTRONS ( around the nuclei ) of the stones ?? You surely also do not walk on the protons ! the electrons of your feet atoms are NOT touching the electrons of the stone atoms : you walk on a energy field created by the ATOM of the stone, the electrons around the nucleus !! otherwise you would smash and crush the atoms or you would be like a photon pushing electrons away !!!!! Not convinced ?

Sep 23, 2008 9:29 AM

Guest :

You say, "But physicists calmly explain that if any black holes came into being, they would be too weak to create a problem and would evaporate nearly instantly." How does a gravity point that lets out nothing evaporate? If moving which seems it must in the LHC it will find other "matter" to grow from and as get lager its gravity well will "find" more. And the great "they" explain it calmly? Is this same team that talk of black holes as the most pwowerful, destrutive items known?

Sep 24, 2008 11:26 AM

Kelly Whitt :

Black holes do not feed on everything, to eventually turn the Universe into one large black hole. For a typical black hole in the galaxy, it will consume nearby fuel but eventually become stable. However it will continue to give off radiation until it dissolves.

Oct 8, 2008 10:59 AM

Guest :

When photons give rise to electrons and positrons which have greater mass than the masseless photon where do the elentron and positron get their mass?

Oct 8, 2008 12:53 PM

Guest :

What does it mean to add mass to matter. Does it mean to add more matter to pre-existing matter? Does it mean to add a quantity of matter to pre-existing. When one says that mass is an inherent property or characteristic of matter what does one mean by mass let alone matter. Are we talking about inertia or energy?

Sep 16, 2009 3:28 AM

Guest :

i don't think so that there is any problem with this "LARGE HADRON COLLIDER".If the higgs boson exists,it will be the greatest discovery ever made.but i should not be restricted to find just the higgs boson,it could also be used toi find other things.may be they will be more successfull.

Sep 21, 2009 9:37 PM

Guest :

It is the beginning of a huge underground sustainable city, that will be built inward and outward... higgs boson, ppffff f f f. Ffffff

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