Higgs field

LHC: “we have observed a new particle consistent with a Higgs boson. But which one?”

Pete Baker on July 4, 2012, 4:31 pm

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That’s what they’ll be trying to work out over the next few years. Matt Strassler’s probably the man to go to for more on the options ahead. But, for now, the news from Cern is that they have, almost certainly, found “that damned elusive particle“, a Higgs boson. Earlier this morning one of the six theoreticians who predicted the field/boson, Peter Higgs, instructed his family to start chilling the champagne, and Stephen Hawking has conceded that he has lost his …

LHC: “2012 looks set to be a vintage year for particle physics”

Pete Baker on April 5, 2012, 3:10 pm

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As the BBC reports, the Large Hadron Collider [LHC] at Cern is back with stable beams of protons after its winter break, and at a new record collision energy of 8 trillion electron volts. From the BBC report Running the LHC at higher energies makes it more likely that Higgs particles, if they exist, will show themselves in the debris of the proton collisions. “The increase in energy is all about maximising the discovery potential of the LHC,” said Cern Research …

LHC: “Evidence soon emerged however that this particular squib might be of the damp variety…”

Pete Baker on December 13, 2011, 4:37 pm

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After the hype, “somewhat excited” reporters are straining to sound convincing – the Guardian live-blogged the presentation. And Matt Strassler was at the circus in CERN. I have been chatting with my colleagues, all particle physicists working at or visiting CERN, and finding out how many say that the evidence presented today convinces them that the Higgs has been found. So far — Experimentalists — No: 9, Maybe: 1, and a good one; will explain shortly. Yes: 1 (Tomaso Dorigo, of …

“Maybe Picasso did not paint any pictures at all, at least not the Mona Lisa.”

Pete Baker on December 4, 2011, 3:52 pm

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As the Guardian’s Ian Sample notes from the science desk The runup to Christmas looks exciting for the Large Hadron Collider at Cern near Geneva. Staff at the laboratory have arranged a special seminar on Tuesday 13 December at which the latest results in the search for the Higgs boson will be made public. The presentation is due to happen directly after the lab’s scientific policy committee has convened one of its regular meetings behind closed doors. So what can we …

Now for the science bit…

Pete Baker on September 8, 2011, 6:06 pm

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Quantum field theorist Professor Matt Strassler, whom I mentioned previously and who’s been spending a few days at the Perimeter Institute, takes issue with the science in this BBC science report of “hints” of dark matter in his latest post. Meanwhile, a bit more insight into the CRESST dark matter situation (see yesterday’s post). There have already been silly press articles. The BBC article says Researchers at the Cresst experiment in Italy say they have spotted 67 events in their detectors that may be …