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Herbascious J
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Is there any possibility that CERN has discovered a particle that appears like a Higgs, but simply could be some other particle that has a different function?
Careful: data is never proof of anything - except maybe that some data was collected.I do believe the data as published is proof of something...
Glad you like it ;)...but the duck analogy works good for me!
"There is a particle" is shown beyond reasonable doubt. Both experiments are well beyond 7 sigma evidence (and I think they don't bother to make those "significance combinations" any more, as it gets pointless), coming from multiple channels and showing clear mass peaks in diphotons and 4 leptons.Simon Bridge said:OTOH: if you are asking "if there is a chance that the data currently held to demonstrate the Higgs existence, actually doesn't?", then that is less certain. The existence of the higgs boson is a very new thing, and while the experiment is pretty good, the existence is not as certain as, say, that of protons and electrons. The data is to be good enough for most people to proceed on the expectation that future tests will add to the evidence pile.
mfb said:"There is a particle" is shown beyond reasonable doubt. Both experiments are well beyond 7 sigma evidence (and I think they don't bother to make those "significance combinations" any more, as it gets pointless), coming from multiple channels and showing clear mass peaks in diphotons and 4 leptons.
Herbascious J said:I'm pretty sure I believe the results that there is a new particle. If the community at large is excited, then I'm excited. I guess the thrust of my question has more to do with wether or not this new particle, in fact, provides mass to particles that would otherwise be wizzing around at the speed of light. Can we really know this particle arises from a higgs like field? Perhaps it carries a different kind of force, perhaps something not well understood yet. I'm just wondering if we assume it's a higgs because we expect one.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs...rticle_as_a_Higgs_boson.2C_and_current_status, "Examples of tests used to validate whether the 125 GeV particle is a Higgs boson."Herbascious J said:I'm just wondering if we assume it's a higgs because we expect one.
The_Duck said:So far all evidence suggests that the new boson's interactions are indeed exactly what the standard model predicts. But I don't believe these coupling strength measurements are very precise yet: it will take more time to measure these couplings precisely than it did to measure the new boson's mass.
CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announced the discovery of a new particle in 2012 that is believed to be the Higgs boson, also known as the Higgs particle. This particle is a fundamental component of the Standard Model of particle physics and is responsible for giving other particles their mass.
The Higgs particle was discovered using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. This is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, which collides protons at incredibly high energies. The data collected from these collisions allowed scientists to observe the existence of the Higgs particle.
The discovery of the Higgs particle is significant because it confirms the existence of the Higgs field, which is responsible for giving particles their mass. This is a crucial piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the universe and the fundamental forces that govern it.
Yes, there is strong evidence that the particle discovered at CERN is the Higgs particle. The data collected from the LHC experiments match the predicted properties and behavior of the Higgs particle, as described by the Standard Model.
The discovery of the Higgs particle has opened up new possibilities for scientific research and has already led to further discoveries in particle physics. It also confirms the validity of the Standard Model and provides insight into the early universe and the fundamental forces at play. The Higgs particle also has potential applications in fields such as medicine and technology.