Scientists may have found 'God particle'
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MILESTONE DISCOVERY
Scientists may have found 'God particle'
Mr Rolf Heuer, director of the European Centre for Nuclear Research. PICTURE: REUTERS
To cheers and standing ovations, scientists at the world's biggest atom smasher claimed the discovery of a new subatomic particle yesterday, calling it "consistent" with the long-sought Higgs boson - popularly known as the "God particle".
The Higgs boson, which until now has been a theoretical particle, is seen as the key to understanding why matter has mass, which combines with gravity to give an object weight.
"We have now found the missing cornerstone of particle physics," Mr Rolf Heuer, director of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (Cern), told scientists.
He said the newly discovered subatomic particle is a boson, but he stopped just shy of claiming outright that it is the Higgs boson itself-an extremely fine distinction.
"This is the physics version of the discovery of DNA," Sir Peter Knight, president of the Institute of Physics said.
To take an analogy of gravity and Isaac Newton's discovery of it: Gravity was there all the time before he explained it.
But now scientists have seen something very much like the Higgs boson and can put that knowledge to further use.
Cern's atom smasher, the US$10 billion (S$12 billion) Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border, has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to investigate dark matter, antimatter and the creation of the universe, which many theorise occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang. - AP.
Global News watch, The New Paper, Thursday, July 5 2012, Pg 16
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Scientists may have found 'God particle'
Higgs boson crucial to theory on origin of mass in the universe
(From left) Belgian physicist Francois Englert, Dr Rolf Heuer and Dr Peter Higgs at Cern yesterday. The Higgs boson is dubbed the "God particle" because it is powerful and ubiquitous, yet so hard to find. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA - After a quest spanning nearly half a century, physicists say they have found a new subatomic particle that could be the basic building block of the universe.Rousing cheers and a standing ovation erupted at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) yesterday as scientists presented astonishing new data in their search for the mysterious particle, known as the Higgs boson.
Many hailed it as a moment in history, and white-haired veterans of the quest shed tears of joy.
"We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," said Cern director-general Rolf Heuer.
He and others cautioned, however, that further work was needed to identify what exactly had been found. "As a layman, I would say we have it, but as a scientist, I have to say, 'what do we have?'" Dr Heuer told a press conference. "We have discovered a boson, and now we have to determine what kind of boson it is."
British physicist Peter Higgs, who in 1964 published the conceptual groundwork for the particle and whose name became associated with it, expressed delight.
"I never expected this to happen in my lifetime and shall be asking my family to put some champagne in the fridge," the 83-year-old said in a statement.
Finding the Higgs would validate the Standard Model, a theory which identifies the building blocks for matter and the particles that convey fundamental forces.
It is a hugely successful theory but has several gaps, the biggest of which is why some particles have mass but others do not.
Mooted by Dr Higgs and several others, the boson is believed to exist in a treacly, invisible, ubiquitous field created by the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago.
When some particles encounter the Higgs, they slow down and acquire mass, according to the theory. Others, such as particles of light, encounter no obstacle.
Cern uses a giant underground laboratory where protons are smashed together at nearly the speed of light, yielding sub-atomic debris that is then scrutinised for signs of the fleeting Higgs.
The task is arduous because there are trillions of signals occurring among particles at different ranges of mass. The Higgs has been dubbed the "God particle" because it is powerful and ubiquitous, yet so hard to find.
Over the years, tens of thousands of physicists and billions of dollars have been thrown into the search, gradually narrowing down the mass range where it might exist.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERSWorld, The Straits Times, Thurday, 5 July 2012, Pg A20