Why was the particle accelerator built? What is the Higgs particle? Here is an explanation of the next step taken on the way to understanding the mysteries of the universe
Yair Hakavi | Galileo
Physicists all over the world missed a beat on July 4th. One of the most important scientific seminars of the generation took place at the Cerne research center in Geneva. At the seminar, the heads of two groups at CERN (CERN - the European Center for Nuclear Research) took the stage and announced that they had discovered (each group separately, without knowing the results the other group reached) a new particle.
Already in the sixties, when the theory of elementary particles (known as the "Standard Model") was built, the existence of a boson-type particle was predicted by physicist Peter Higgs and others. Since then the particle is known as the "Higgs boson". Until the seminar at Saran, it was the only particle in the standard model that had not been discovered in experiments. The Higgs particle plays a key role in the model, as it is responsible for giving mass to all other elementary particles. Without it, the model collapses, and a new theory must be found. This is why many experiments in the last 50 years have searched for the Higgs particle religiously.
How do you discover a particle?
The way to discover a new particle is in a particle accelerator, where particles are made to collide at high speed. As implied by Albert Einstein's famous formula, the energy from the collision can turn into mass and produce new particles. Large detectors surrounding the collision region detect the particles created (or their decay products, if they are unstable particles, such as the Higgs).
The greater the mass of the particle you want to discover, the higher the energy of the accelerator must be used, so that it can be created in a collision. The discovery indicates a mass of about 126 giga-electron volts (more than 100 times the mass of the proton, and in any case more than any other elementary particle).
In the Large Hadron Collider - Sarn's accelerator in Geneva - which began operating in 2008, protons are accelerated to higher energies than ever before in a circular orbit with a circumference of about 27 km. After the protons, moving in opposite directions, are accelerated to the desired energy, they are brought into a collision course within one of the detectors. The researchers at the accelerator examine the products of millions of collisions and look for the telltale signs of the formation of the Higgs boson.
Since it is impossible to know for sure whether the Higgs was created in a particular collision, a statistical analysis of a large number of collisions is necessary. This is similar to the need for a large number of tosses of a coin to determine whether it is fair or not (a fair coin is a coin that has an equal chance of landing on each side. A 4/6 wood/jack result can happen with high probability on a fair coin or not, but a 400/ 600 already raises the suspicion that it is an unfair currency). The results presented at the seminar in Saran indicated a 99.99997% certainty that a particle with properties attributed to the Higgs had been discovered (we note that this is the minimum level of certainty needed to declare a discovery).
A tremendous scientific achievement
So what does the discovery mean? Scientifically, this is a tremendous achievement. A theory was invented, its consequences were calculated mathematically, and it was found that they required the existence of a particle that was not known until then. A tremendous machine was built, capable of producing conditions that have not existed anywhere in the universe since the Big Bang, and the particle was indeed found. Now the properties of the particle can be further investigated, which may answer some of the most fundamental questions in science.
From a practical point of view, no one can guess what the consequences of the discovery will be. At the end of the 19th century, when the electron was discovered, the physicists who discovered it raised a toast to the "useless electron". Today, we are unable to imagine our world without the discovery of the electron - a world without electricity, without radio and telephone transmissions. Therefore, raise a toast in honor of the Higgs and in honor of the scientific discovery that may be the greatest we will see in our lifetime.
The full article was published in Galileo magazine, August 2012
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Cosmic events happen all the time as well as the flight of particles and steroids that reach the direction of the Earth, only that we have the magnetic field and the stratosphere that protects us, cosmic rays and the magnetic field makes sure that the asteroids that fall all the time will burn up in contact with their stratosphere The argument of the ions + is enormous What causes them to heat up and burn, what happens in the particle accelerator is a fraction compared to what would happen if a real black hole was formed. The accelerator is only a means to an end. and is not intended to create a self-destructive situation, and everything is carried out under supervision and control.
Only there are no detectors there and there is no control over how much energy was invested in accelerating the particle like black holes
As far as I remember this was one of the arguments of the scientists against those blackness seers who thought everything would collapse
The argument is that these events are constantly happening and according to this the earth would have disappeared a long time ago
Because it is constantly hit by particles with even stronger accelerations than the type produced in the particle accelerator
For all those who ask, this experiment is only intended to confirm the theory that such a particle exists
This does not mean that the theory surrounding this particle is correct
It only means that the theory has passed another test
They also write "It is well known" and not "Hera" or "Ra".
Erez, write "Mashar" and not "Mashar".
Avi Cohen
You are right about your reservation that it is the Higgs particle that is being sought after. Find a particle heavier than normal and announce with great solemnity, without empirical proof, that it is the Higgs particle. In the absence of empirical proof, the chances are that they found a heavy particle that has nothing to do with the Higgs particle (if there is one).
In order to prove that it is a Higgs particle, it is necessary _at least_ to prove empirically that the particle that was discovered _changes the mass of other particles_. As far as I know nothing has been proven in this direction.
You are probably also right about the difficulty of proving empirically that it is a Higgs particle, because such a proof requires tracking the movement of massless particles (or those with minimal mass). After all, tracking massless particles (or with minimal mass) is almost impossible.
May this discovery finally allow us to build a hovering skateboard as shown in the movie "Back to the Future 2", it will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of technology for the human race.
We'll keep our fingers crossed.
The Higgs boson is the first particle that was created about a millionth of a second after the big bang, meaning its mass is 100 times the mass of the proton, and why? Because it is possible for the rest that before the big bang there was a state that can be called empty (a state without time, without space and without mass that would function as stars and such because a star is mass. Apparently the same particle they found is the absolutely absolute primary particle (like absolute zero = -273 degrees Celsius) which In it were all the ingredients for the foundation of the universe and it was compressed into itself until it exploded in the big bang, which actually "torn" the void itself.
And one more thing: there are three fundamental dimensions in our world: the dimension of time
the dimension of space
The mass of the material
I have a few questions: Is it possible to find another particle and not a Higgs boson? Of course a new particle can be called by any name, but maybe we will find a particle whose properties are different from the one expected from a Higgs boson particle?
And if we find "more than 100 times the mass of the proton" how do we know that it is one particle and not a collection of new particles?
Isn't it possible that there are many more particles that we are not aware of? And if the Higgs boson particle provides the mass to the particles, isn't it possible that there is a whole family of particles that do not contain mass, and therefore do not interact much with the particles we know, and are therefore difficult to detect?
@tschi,
The Higgs boson particle has a greater interaction with itself than with the proton.
"The Higgs particle plays a key role in the model, as it is responsible for giving mass to all other elementary particles."
"More than 100 times the mass of the proton, and in any case more than any other elementary particle"
How does a particle that gives mass to all other particles have a greater mass than the particles themselves?