God Particle: Theory And Findings

Recently Large Hadron Collider (LHC) claimed that they might have discovered God particle, the long-sought Higgs boson. Notice here the key word is 'may', that underlines the ambiguity about this elusive sub-atomic particle. While the scientific world has come to some sort of conclusion regarding the peculiar characteristics of God particle, there has been no physical evidence to suggest that it exists.

Consistent with any discovery, various camps have sprung up either to express support or simply being skeptical. Though what is unanimous across the various scientific communities is that if this is proven to be true, it is going to be classified as one of the greatest scientific discoveries in the last 40 years. So why is there a big fuss about something that is largely theoretical?

For one to even begin to appreciate the significance of this discovery, it calls for a fundamental understanding on what makes the Universe. Our universe is made of particles that in turn morph into atoms and molecules, and then all the matters that fill up the space we see. Of course, there will be forces that direct them, alongside with an additional reservoir of more exotic particles. The theory is described as the Standard Model and it is widely established in modern science. However, it did not take too long for the more inquisitive folks in the fraternity to soon question about the origin of particles mass. You see, mass simply describe the stuff inside things (particles, atoms, molecules) and they lend some stability to those things along the way. Without mass, all would be shooting around all over the shop at light speed, thus making the formation of universe impossible (or the universe is never going to hold up for a decent amount of time). In came the Higgs mechanism to explain this phenomenon.

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Higgs mechanism suggests that within our Universe, there is a particular field - the Higgs field – and interactions through which would give particles mass. Think of it like you are making a trip through a field of snow, and the act itself would slow you down caused by the interactions between your shoes and the snow particles. You can also imagine that mass represent a measure of the resistance to movement. Correspondingly, if the field is not as strong, less mass would be accumulated and thus less resistance to movement.

The current research to find God Particle is largely done through the rule of exclusion, which is to say that it attempts to determine what are not Higgs bosons. In such experiments, Large Hadron Collider (LHC), or simply particle accelerators, are employed to look over a range of particles from masses that scientists have reasonable confidence that this elusive particle resides in. The working principle is straightforward: two beams of protons (yet another sub-atomic particle) are smashed together at almost light-speed. Observations would then be made to try to match the underlying patterns of these particles created at high energies with those established characteristics defined for Higgs boson. It is no surprise that some critics have lamented that this less-than- comprehensive approach would not lead us to Higgs boson in its original form directly. But not all are pessimistic! According to researchers, the first objective is to aim for a potential sighting of a Higgs boson. Once this can be conclusively derived (e.g. through behavioral or pattern matching), the particles involved could be broken down into yet more particles. This process would leave us a trail to the ultimate god particles, technology limitation notwithstanding.

Some have argued that we may be going down the wrong path. Their reasoning is no less valid. While the Higgs mechanism attempts to address the issue of mass in The Standard Model, there is no guarantee that it provides the right answer. But isn't this the beauty of Science? We ask question and we look for answer! And fear for failure or fear for the unknown should never be an impediment to our endeavor for scientific discovery.

At A Glance

• Higgs did not give the name God Particle. It was Leon Lederman, the Nobel winner physicist who gave the name 'goddamn particle'. However, Lederman's editor did not allow that name and it was truncated as God Particle.
• In Standard Model, Higgs boson is a type of particle that will allow the existence of multiple identical particles in same quantum state and in same space.
• Higgs boson does not have color charge, electric charge and spin.
• Higgs boson is extremely unstable and it decays into other types of particles immediately.