New results indicate that new particle is a Higgs boson

[Drakkith]

This was released today so I'm not sure if most have seen it yet. It appears that "a" Higgs Boson is confirmed.

http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/03/new-results-indicate-new-particle-higgs-boson

At the Moriond Conference today, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented preliminary new results that further elucidate the particle discovered last year. Having analysed two and a half times more data than was available for the discovery announcement in July, they find that the new particle is looking more and more like a Higgs Boson, the particle linked to the mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles. It remains an open question, however, whether this is the Higgs boson of the Standard Model of particle physics, or possibly the lightest of several bosons predicted in some theories that go beyond the Standard Model. Finding the answer to this question will take time.

 

[dlgoff]

To me, these detectors are works of art. Yea Standard Model.

 

[DiracPool]

To me, these detectors are works of art. Yea Standard Model.

Well, don't get too excited. Remember, the bigger they come, the harder they fall...

 

[dlgoff]

Remember, the bigger they come, the harder they fall...

That's mass for ya.

 

[strangerep]

To me, these detectors are works of art.

I used to get a bit concerned several years ago when people referred to CMS as "See-A-Mess".

So great, how it's all turned out.

 

[humanino]

Not sure whether it is good news or bad news...

 

[skeptic2]

Question from a non-physicist:

Does the Higgs boson explain both aspects of mass, inertia and gravity, or only inertia?

 

[humanino]

Does the Higgs boson explain both aspects of mass, inertia and gravity, or only inertia?

Gravity is not part of the standard model of particle physics, hence the Higgs is unrelated to gravity in this model^(*). The Higgs boson describes inertia for elementary particles. Please note that most of the mass of ordinary everyday objects is not due to the Higgs (rather, it is "frozen energy" in the glue field of hadrons). Even worse, please remember that most of the mass in the universe is not "ordinary" (dark matter).

edit
(*) you can in principle describe gravity with the same formalism as the standard model of particle physics, namely perturbative quantum field theory. However, this description fails at high energies (very high energies), so gravity is not part of the "standard" version.

For future visitors : this thread used to be in the "general discussion", hence the above informal tone...
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[skeptic2]

Thanks, Humanino.

 

[DrDu]

Is there more material available than this short press release?

 

[Drakkith]

Is there more material available than this short press release?

No idea. I just saw this linked on facebook and decided to post it here.

 

[Bill_K]

Is there more material available than this short press release?

The papers presented at Moriond, especially the Thursday morning session.