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| God Particle |
Scientists are closer than ever to respond to the enigma of so-called Higgs boson, in which there is an elusive particle that would explain the behavior of elementary particles and the origin of mass, whose search has invested great efforts and resources. Representatives from CMS and ATLAS detectors, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, today presented the results this year and that they give evidence "intriguing" to the possible existence of the well known as a particle of God, considered crucial for understanding the structure of matter at the subatomic level.
The preliminary conclusion is that "too early" to give a definitive answer, although the empirical prediction is that the pace at which research progresses the question will be clarified later than the end of 2012.
British physicist Peter Higgs Ware made in 1964 the so-called Higgs boson, which states that there is an unknown particle that would explain the operation is based on the current physics. The two detectors at CERN seek in parallel and independently of each other, and in the year to have achieved results that are within the same range, but still do not permit statistically announce his discovery. "It's been a fantastic year (...), but more collisions to see if (the Higgs) Higgs is confirmed or not. However, we have made extraordinary progress and reduced the window (where the particle might be found ), "said CERN Director General Rolf-Dieter Heuer.
According to the findings of scientists, the Higgs boson, if any, must have a mass of between 115 and 130 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), a measure of energy refers to very small masses. However, the problem of finding the Higgs is that your life is that very quickly turns into other particles. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, stressed that l "Higgs window is getting smaller" and added: "Let's be clear, we have not found, but we have not excluded."
Collisions of protons
To find the Higgs boson, millions of protons per second are thrown into the LHC to collide with each other and throwing an immeasurable amount of data that, after a first filter, are analyzed by scientists at ATLAS and CMS.
The energy level at the LHC is running the most intense ever recorded and enables protons give 11,000 times a second around the ring circumference of 27 kilometers from the accelerator, buried to a depth of between 50 and 150 meters, just in the border between Switzerland and France.
Finding the Higgs particle would be for science like finding a needle in a haystack, but literally like finding a needle in 100,000 haystacks, as illustrated by a scientist at CERN in a past conference. However, ATLAS spokesperson, Fabiola Gianotti, told a press conference after presenting the results as if it were established that the Higgs does not exist would be "equally exciting" than the reverse. "I would prefer that there is a particle that we have sought for many years, which we believe has different characteristics and that would solve other problems in the Standard Model of physics, but if not there, there must be something else," he said.
On these developments, the Spanish physicist Juan Alcaraz Maestre, scientist and researcher at the CIEMAT CMS, said that with the data of 2012 "we can define what is really happening, if it is a statistical fluctuation or if a particle." "As a scientist I prefer not to think about whether or not there. It would be interesting to find, but not finding it where we think it is also open very interesting and exciting ways," he added.
Javier Cuevas, atomic physics professor at the University of Oviedo Spanish and responsible for data analysis in the CMS detector, said there is great satisfaction in the community of CERN "by how well the detector has operated" in which he works. The detector "has shown great efficiency in data collection exceptionally high. It has achieved more than we expected," Cuevas said enthusiastically. To give an order of magnitude of the experiment, said the CMS detector weighs 12,000 tons, ie 30 percent more than the Eiffel Tower.
SOME KEY
The standard theory of particles. It is the most accepted theory about what are the elementary particles that make up matter and forces which interact between them. These particles, among others, would be the quarks (which are grouped together to form protons or neutrons) or electrons. The fundamental forces are gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force (which binds quarks to form protons, for example) and the weak nuclear force (which causes radioactivity).
What is a boson. There are two types of particles, fermions that make up matter (quarks and electrons, for example) and bosons, responsible for the fundamental forces acting.
Why is believed that the Higgs boson exists. To save a contradiction of the standard theory: that the photon of electromagnetism carrier particle has no mass, while the W and Z bosons, responsible for the nuclear interaction weak, are enormous. Peter Higgs and other scientists thought that the only solution is the existence of a field that determines the mass of the particles. W and Z bosons have a mass because of its strong interaction with the Higgs field, while the photon lack of it by not interacting with the field.
Why is it so important. Not only because it explains the mass of the particles (the amount of matter it contains), but it is the only particle that has been predicted by standard theory and has not been observed experimentally. It is very difficult to detect because it disintegrates in a split second.
The standard theory of particles. It is the most accepted theory about what are the elementary particles that make up matter and forces which interact between them. These particles, among others, would be the quarks (which are grouped together to form protons or neutrons) or electrons. The fundamental forces are gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force (which binds quarks to form protons, for example) and the weak nuclear force (which causes radioactivity).
What is a boson. There are two types of particles, fermions that make up matter (quarks and electrons, for example) and bosons, responsible for the fundamental forces acting.
Why is believed that the Higgs boson exists. To save a contradiction of the standard theory: that the photon of electromagnetism carrier particle has no mass, while the W and Z bosons, responsible for the nuclear interaction weak, are enormous. Peter Higgs and other scientists thought that the only solution is the existence of a field that determines the mass of the particles. W and Z bosons have a mass because of its strong interaction with the Higgs field, while the photon lack of it by not interacting with the field.
Why is it so important. Not only because it explains the mass of the particles (the amount of matter it contains), but it is the only particle that has been predicted by standard theory and has not been observed experimentally. It is very difficult to detect because it disintegrates in a split second.
