What is the Higgs boson and why is it important? - CNN.com What is the Higgs boson and why is it important? By Nick Thompson, CNN Updated 8:13 AM ET, Tue October 8, 2013 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' Studying the 'God particle' – Three years ago, scientists in Geneva, Switzerland, announced they had proved the existence of the so-called "God particle" known as Higgs boson -- a never-before-seen subatomic particle long thought to be a fundamental building block of the universe. This year, researchers from two different teams combined their measurements of the particle, providing an unprecedented picture of Higgs boson's production, decay and interaction with other particles. Click through the gallery for more. Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' This graphic shows traces of the collision of particles from an experiment at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) -- a large particle detector in Geneva. The Standard Model of particle physics lays out the basics of how elementary particles and forces interact in the universe.

But the theory crucially fails to explain how particles actually get their mass. Particles, or bits of matter, range in size and can be larger or smaller than atoms. Electrons, protons and neutrons, for instance, are the subatomic particles that make up an atom. Scientists believe that the Higgs boson is the particle that gives all matter its mass. Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' An image of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. "The Higgs boson is the last missing piece of our current understanding of the most fundamental nature of the universe," Martin Archer, a physicist at Imperial College in London, told CNN. "Only now with the LHC [Large Hadron Collider] are we able to really tick that box off and say 'This is how the universe works, or at least we think it does'." Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' Studying the 'God particle' – Higgs boson research takes place at the Large Hadron Collider -- a circular tunnel located 100 meters (328 feet) underground. It uses a particle accelerator to collide protons at extreme speeds.

By combining their data, researchers found that there are different ways to produce a Higgs boson, and different ways for a Higgs boson to decay to other particles. Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' Studying the 'God particle' – British physicist Peter Higgs, right, speaks with Belgian physicist Francois Englert at a press conference at Geneva's CERN facility in 2012. Higgs and Englert shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for describing an explanation for why particles have mass. They independently published papers on this topic in 1964. Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' Studying the 'God particle' – CERN's Globe of Science and Innovation exhibition center and surface buildings, which provide access to the Large Hadron Collider, can be seen near Geneva, Switzerland. CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said, "There is much benefit in combining the results of large experiments to reach the high precision needed for the next breakthrough in our field.

By doing so, we achieve what for a single experiment would have meant running for at least 2 more years." Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' Studying the 'God particle' – Teams from ATLAS and CMS Collaborations combined their research to obtain their results. "Combining results from two large experiments was a real challenge as such analysis involves over 4,200 parameters that represent systematic uncertainties," said CMS Spokesperson Tiziano Camporesi. "With such a result and the flow of new data at the new energy level at the LHC, we are in a good position to look at the Higgs boson from every possible angle." Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' Studying the 'God particle' – The particle accelerator magnets of the LHC are shown at the underground test facility at CERN near Geneva. Many scientists dislike the term "God particle," even though it's become popular in the media. The nickname came from the title of a book by Leon Lederman, who reportedly wanted to call it the "Goddamn Particle" since it was so hard to find.

Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Secrets of the 'God particle' Studying the 'God particle' – In the preface to a 2014 book, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking wrote he was worried that Higgs boson might turn unstable and lead to the end of everything. The "universe could undergo catastrophic vacuum decay, with a bubble of the true vacuum expanding at the speed of light," Hawking wrote. "This could happen at any time and we wouldn't see it coming." Not to worry too much. Hawking added that such a scenario would require a "particle accelerator that ... would be larger than Earth, and is unlikely to be funded in the present economic climate." Hide Caption The God Particle (?) - Pepperdine Magazine | Pepperdine University The God Particle (?) Pepperdine professors take on the science, faith, and mystery of the Higgs Boson. WHY DOES ANYTHING EXIST? It’s a big question— one that has sparked the spirit, intellect, and imagination of human beings since time began. It challenges the core of who we are, how we got here, and what we are called to do.

On July 4, 2012, teams working at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland announced a discovery that brought this question to life in headlines and conversation around the world. Scientists detected the first evidence of the Higgs Boson, a particle that explains the origin of mass of all things and was famously dubbed the “God Particle” in 1993. The breakthrough ended a decades-long search towards completing an understanding of sub-atomic particles known in physics as the Standard Model. Could this discovery explain key concepts of our existence? What does it mean to our understanding of matter and the universe? As the subject continues to make news and fuel dialogue, Pepperdine Magazine asks Seaver College professors of physics, religion, and philosophy for their take on the Higgs boson, its controversial nickname, and what it all means from a Christian perspective. GERARD FASEL: visiting professor of physics and coordinator of 3/2 engineering Higgs Boson Named after physicist Peter Higgs, University of Edinburgh. He developed the idea, along with other physicists, of the Higgs mechanism, and from that, the particle (boson), which explains the origin of mass of elementary particles, and by extension, all things.

The Higgs Boson, named after Peter Higgs, the man who is generally credited with predicting its existence (credit is also due to physicists Robert Brout and Francois Englert), was called the “God Particle” by Leon Lederman in a book bearing the same title in 1993. The Higgs Boson is associated with the Higgs field, which is thought to be the mechanism that gives mass to particles that inhabit our universe, including the ones that make up the structure of humans. Its recent discovery completes the table of particles of the Standard Model of physics. The way that this mechanism works is that particles interact with the Higgs field via the Higgs Boson. The greater the interaction of the particle with the Higgs field the greater the mass of the particle. you can visualize this mechanism by considering two large swimming pools, one filled with water and the other tar. You would find walking or exercising in the pool filled with water easier than the pool filled with tar. The less resistance you encounter the easier it is to move. Trying to move in the pool with tar would require an extreme amount of effort; consider the animals trapped in the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.

The same holds for a particle moving through the Higgs field; the greater the resistance it encounters moving through the field the greater the mass of the particle. Particles like photons do not interact with the Higgs field and therefore do not have mass. Even though the Higgs mechanism appears to know how much interference to exert on the different types of particles, this does not imply that the Higgs particle is omniscient. The Higgs particle comes up a little short in the all-knowing category. To be “the God Particle” it must play a bigger role in the evolution of our universe. Maybe it would be a good spokesparticle for Weight Watchers but not “the God Particle.” JAY BREWSTER: associate provost and professor of biology God Particle Name given to the Higgs boson by Nobel Prizewinner in Physics and former Fermilab director, Leon Lederman, in his 1993 book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? The July 4 announcement at CERN revealing experimental evidence of the Higgs boson particle was a breathtaking historical moment in the sciences. This 48-year quest began with mathematical predictions regarding components of the Standard Model of particle physics.

The importance of the discovery is clear, advancing our understanding of the subatomic particles that compose the known universe, and the forces that hold these particles together (and push them apart). However, celebration of the discovery has been muddled by a popular reference to the Higgs boson as the “God Particle.” Though this discovery clearly improves our understanding of the physical universe, there is nothing about the Standard Model that addresses questions regarding God’s existence. God will not be proven or dismissed by scientific revelation. Discoveries in the fields of particle physics or cosmology unravel a universe with seemingly unlimited surprises, though big questions remain. What is the nature of time? What was the beginning of the universe like? I struggle to understand a universe that sprang into existence ex nihilo (from absolute void); something must have existed beforehand to provide the fuel for the universe-creating explosion. If so, where did that fuel originate? There are popular books available currently that offer a “something from nothing” explanation of the origin of the universe, an explanation that is typically offered along with some religion bashing. However, the nothing described in these books is actually something, which in my mind offers no real explanation at all.

Time and origins are truly challenging characteristics of the universe that are mysterious, but not outside the realm of scientific investigation. As a biologist and a Christian, I am accustomed to the insertion of new research discoveries into the faith and science conversation. The insertion seems out of place, as scientists experimentally test and describe the physical universe, and most resist any extension of their work into larger theological questions. However, there is a wonderful complex mystery to life itself, forcing us to consider its origin, and the likelihood of precursor molecules assembling into replicating cells. For the believer, faith comes through a study of the word of God, through the spirit of God working within us, and through our daily experiences as we engage the majesty of the world around us. Scripture tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God each and every day (Psalms 19), and that God’s divine nature is made clear to us through what has been made (Romans 1:20). Paul, referencing the place of Christ in creation wrote, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17, NIV).

For the believer in Christian scripture, God is eternal, outside of time, and is both the beginning and the end of all things. Ultimately we must ask ourselves which explanation makes the most sense: a purposed universe authored by God himself, or a meaningless universe that has sprung up by chance via a specific set of natural laws. GARRETT PENDERGRAFT: assistant professor of philosophy Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Located at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider is currently the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. A hadron is a subatomic particle such as a proton or neutron. When I first heard the term “God Particle,” it didn’t make much sense to me. Was it supposed to be some sort of evidence that God exists? (Probably not.) Was it supposed to explain the things God is typically invoked to explain? (That didn’t seem right either.) So I looked up where the term came from. Here’s what Lederman says (p.

22): “This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle.” So it seems that Lederman is drawing an analogy: he is saying that the Higgs boson is to physics as God is to (theistic) religion. And this analogy suggests a presupposition about the relation between science and religion—or, more precisely, a presupposition that science and religion are unrelated. They are, as Stephen Jay Gould would say, non-overlapping magisteria; neither one can say anything about the other. But I think this is an incorrect model of the relation between science and religion (or science and theology). I prefer a convergence model, according to which science and theology will eventually converge on a unified and truthful description of reality. (I owe this description of the convergence model to Garry DeWeese.) Science and theology often tell us different kinds of things, but ultimately they’re talking about the same thing. When conflict occurs, it will be due to an incorrect theory in science or an incorrect doctrine in theology (or perhaps both).

As we (haltingly) approach an accurate description of reality, science may correct theology or theology may correct science. Both disciplines are part of the broader search for God’s truth that we are committed to as Christians. CHRIS DORAN: assistant professor of religion CERN Established in 1954 as the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research), or CERN for short, it is now known as the European Organization for Nuclear Research. After complaining that God was treating him unjustly, God comes to Job in a whirlwind, takes him on a tour of creation, and then demands answers from Job. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4 NAS). At the end of his encounter with God, Job pronounces one of the more enigmatic lines of scripture, “Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6 NAS). It is at this point that Job appears to comprehend the most profound of existential facts: God is God and he is not. God is the Creator and Job is a creature.

It with this new understanding Job grasps something truly meaningful about himself and the nature of the universe. With the recent discovery of the so-called “God Particle,” physicists now allow us to peer even deeper into the fundamental quantum structures that make up the reality that we see around us. As Christians, we might say that we now understand quite a bit more about “the foundation of the earth,” and how fascinating that foundation truly is. The discovery of the Higgs boson serves as a reminder that while the very substance of reality is indeed deeply mysterious, it is at the same time utterly intelligible. I hope that fact never ceases to amaze us, whether we be persons of faith or not, because there is no logical reason that the universe should be this orderly. In the face of this discovery, perhaps we should find ourselves in a similar position to that of Job and contemplate what our response might be. Will our response be one of awe, which causes us to consider anew what it means to live in such a comprehensible universe? or perhaps we should reflect on what it means to be created and acknowledge that we are not in fact the creator of ourselves?

KEN HENISEY: assistant professor of physics Touting the Higgs boson as the “God Particle” seems to me incongruous. It suggests that God was found hiding in a particle accelerator or that the boson’s discovery is the conclusion of all scientific and religious endeavors. In any case, before we disentangle this mash- up of religious and scientific terms, we ought to identify what we mean by “religion” and “science.” To oversimplify, religion constitutes our understanding of purpose in the context of our relationships with the divine and with each other. Science, on the other hand, is a method by which we refine our models of physical processes by comparing the predictions of falsifiable theories with the outcome of experimentation. Where the purview of religion is purpose, the terrain of science is mechanism.

Karl Popper, a notable 20th-century philosopher, might have explained this distinction with a fictional example: a student happens upon a scientist and a scholar of religion watching a whistling kettle and asks, “Why is the water boiling?” The former responds, “We’ve added heat to the system.” The latter, however, answers, “We’d like to brew tea.” Suppose we ask the above scientist a question that has puzzled physicists for at least several decades: “Why do some particles (for example, the electron) have mass?” She might respond, “In more simple formulations of particle physics, it is not clear that particles should have mass at all despite that seemingly obvious observational conclusion. A more complete theory, however, suggests that some particles become massive via the Higgs mechanism.” In short, the Higgs mechanism postulates a new kind of interaction which imbues the property we call mass to many of the known particles. As a consequence, the mechanism mandates the existence of a previously unobserved particle called the Higgs boson. By seeking out experimental signatures of this boson, scientists aim to corroborate the Higgs mechanism and thereby shed light on the origin of mass in our universe.

Does the Higgs boson somehow indicate meaning instead of mechanism? Have we found purpose where we expected particles? Has our scientist friend answered on behalf of the scholar of religion? Certainly not. In this sense, the Higgs boson is no more the “God Particle” than Einstein’s Relativity is a fifth gospel to follow John’s. How then did the Higgs boson gain its dubious distinction? For Lederman, the boson is godlike not because it evidences the divine but because it acts as the ultimate answer to physical inquiry, science’s Tower of Babel or Holy Grail. If the history of science has taught us anything, it is that each new answer leads to new and more fascinating questions. In overstating the boson’s finality, Lederman diminishes the essence of science. Certainly discovering the Higgs boson is a monumental achievement, but it is neither a singular answer nor an end to inquiry. As we continue to explore new and exciting frontiers in science, may we attend to the interplay between reason and faith, the “how” and the “why”, the transfer of heat and the making of tea… all hopefully with a rounded spoonful of humility. What Should 'God Particle' Be Renamed?

Physicists Weigh In What Should 'God Particle' Be Renamed? Physicists Weigh In By Clara Moskowitz | December 14, 2011 06:00pm ET MORE Particle tracks from a proton-proton collision (also called an event) in the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Events like this are a possible sign of the Higgs particle, though many events must be analyzed together to say with confidence the signal came from the elusive particle. Credit: CERN Physicists love the Higgs boson, but they hate the God particle. The elusive Higgs particle , which scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator announced Tuesday (Dec. 13) that they are closing in on, is popularly known as the "God particle." The moniker, beloved by the press, is almost universally despised by experts who study particle physics . "I detest the name 'God particle ,'" Vivek Sharma, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, and the leader of the Higgs search at LHC's CMS experiment, wrote in an email.

"I am not particularly religious, but I find the term an 'in your face' affront to those who [are]. I do experimental physics not GOD." Other physicists vehemently agreed. [ Gallery: Search for the Higgs Boson ] "It's an awful name," Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist at the City College of New York, told LiveScience. "It does not convey the particle's true role, that it is the last missing piece of the Standard Model, and that it gives mass to the other particles." Some physicists said a new nickname may be in order. They, along with LiveScience's Facebook fans, have offered up ideas, which range from "masson" and "OOM" like the Buddhist chant, to "Super Cool Non-Denominational Particle." Of course, others think "Higgs boson" works just fine. Origin of the term The Standard Model is the physics theory that describes nature's tiniest building blocks. Every particle included in the theory, except for the Higgs boson , has been detected experimentally.

On Tuesday, LHC physicists at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, reported their latest findings in the search for the Higgs, which indicate some preliminary hints that it is being created inside the atom smasher. The particle is thought to be associated with a field that is responsible for giving other particles their mass. Much of the media coverage of the announcement included the term " God particle ," which originated in the title of a 1994 book by Nobel-winning physicist Leon Lederman. The story goes that Lederman originally wanted to name the tome "The Goddamn Particle" because of how difficult it was to detect, but was persuaded by his publisher, Delta, to shorten it. "It's a pity that Leon Lederman, otherwise a nice enough fellow, chose to go ahead with this moniker at the advice of his publishing agents to sell more books," Sharma said. However, ever since the book came out, the Higgs boson hasn't been able to escape the nickname, at least in popular discourse. "I feel the term 'God particle,' invented by a publisher to sell books and make money, insultingly misrepresents both science and religion," Rutgers University physicist Matt Strassler wrote in an email.

Sacrilegious Many of the strongest objections to the name come because of its religious bent. The name "carries almost no information about why the Higgs particle is important, it makes physicists sound pompous and arrogant, and it reinforces a very harmful presumption that physicists are trying to replace or compete with 'God,'" New York University physicist Kyle Cranmer wrote in an email to LiveScience. "In reality, physicists cover the full range from devotee to atheist. Physicists are generally driven to understand how nature works — as 'natural philosophers' we appreciate the beauty of its order and its chaos, perhaps more than most." And ultimately, researchers say the term "God particle" simply doesn't fit the Higgs boson's actual characteristics. "'God particle' is a bad name, in every way," wrote University of Michigan physicist Gordon Kane. "It has nothing to do with the physics. Most (all?) physicists dislike it." However, hatred of the term isn't universal. "It's a catchy name, so why not? :)" wrote Brown University physicist Greg Landsberg. A new name? In lieu of such a controversial nickname, many physicists didn't hesitate to offer alternative suggestions for a popular label.

"One possibility is the OOM particle (after the Buddhist chant, that is supposed to take you to Nirvana)," offered Kaku. "OOM for Origin of Mass particle." Others also focused on the Higgs' role in bestowing mass. "Why not the 'mass particle?'" suggested Boston University physicist Lawrence Sulak. "Or since it is a bosON, like the photON or the gluON, it could be called the 'masson.' Let your imagination go wild, 'stickyon,' 'inertiaon,' 'weighton.'" But many physicists expressed their satisfaction with the simple term "Higgs boson," after Peter Higgs, the leader of the group that first theorized the particle in 1964. "It is all very well for us to bemoan the 'God Particle' and say how much better the 'humongous space kablouie' is than the 'big bang,' but I don't think we will find better words than the 'Higgs boson,'" said CERN physicist William Murray. Perhaps all the "Higgs boson" term needs is a friendly adjective or two around it.

Strassler proposed referring to the subatomic particle as "the evanescent yet essential Higgs boson." LiveScience readers also offered a fount of good ideas via Facebook , including the "Vague Existo Particle" from Scott Dunn, the "Super Cool Non-Denominational Particle" from Amanda Callaghan, or the "Shy Particle,'' since it's so hard to find, from Jitesh Ahuja. Or, a new moniker could make a nod to the $10 billion price tag of the LHC. "Maybe we should call it the "Billion" to remind us how much it cost to find the damn thing :-)" Cranmer wrote. You can follow LiveScience senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ ClaraMoskowitz . Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook . Editor's Recommendations What Is The God Particle? | Is God Real? What Is The God Particle? What Is The God Particle? You may have heard all the ballyhoo about the so-called “God Particle.” Please don’t get me wrong.

The prediction of it’s existence by English physicist Peter Higgs back in 1964 and it’s existence verified nearly half a century later by a galactic team of 3,000 researchers at CERN, Geneva in July 2012 were masterpieces of human achievement. [1] It’s also a testament to what can be achieved through perseverance, patience, and belief. The ballyhoo begins when the discussion somehow spills over into the realm of spirituality. Suddenly we hear a few scientists trying to argue that the discovery of the God Particle has implications concerning the existence of God. They contend it’s existence undermines God’s existence. Here’s my objection. Firstly, the God Particle has nothing to do with God. It’s proper name is the “Higgs boson.” It was coined the God Particle many years ago by a lone scientist writing a book about it. The term was appropriate, in his opinion, because the particle was so central to science, yet as elusive as God. [2] But many scientists disliked the religious parody. They might abhor it even more now that the particle’s existence is proven. It implies perseverance, patience, and belief might lead to God’s elusive existence being proven, too!

The existence of the Higgs boson was the last particle to be verified in the Standard Model of particle physics. It is a major milestone and a source of relief, too. If it was not detected, decades of work and the entire Standard Model might have collapsed. Importantly, the Higgs boson is also a force field that permeates the whole of space. It’s presence is the source of mass in our universe. Without it, the particles that make up you, me, and all the other objects in our universe could not stick together. The universe would be a formless sea of particles. So yes, the Higgs boson is an essential particle. But does it replace God? Surely not. Unfortunately, many spiritual writers are sucked into this pseudo-controversy. I call it pseudo because even intellectually honest scientists such as US physicist Leonard Mlodinow and others agree that science (the Higgs boson or anything else) can never prove or disprove God’s existence. Nevertheless, whenever a claim against God’s existence is exerted, spiritual thinkers emerge to defend and debunk. This is usually in the form of the centuries-old creation-creator/cause-effect/chicken-egg argument: who created the Higgs boson?

They challenge. Skeptics retaliate: Who created God? Apologists for God’s existence adhere tenaciously to this creation-creator concept because they feel there is no other viable ‘proof’ of God. Most have abandoned ancient texts of spirituality as a source of such proof ever since Darwin. They feel the ancient passages cannot be defended because they seem to conflict with scientific discoveries. The dampening of spirits means fewer people have had the courage, insight, or inspiration to revisit those ancient texts in light of newer discoveries concerning both science and ancient spirituality. Indeed, the past five years have revealed hundreds of convergences between cutting-edge scientific discoveries and ancient spirituality. These new agreements, some of them now published in international, peer-reviewed scientific journals, prove without a shadow of a doubt, that divine inspiration can lead to authentic knowledge of our universe. What Is the Higgs Boson? ('God Particle' Explained) What Is the Higgs Boson? ('God Particle' Explained) Natalie Wolchover Pin it Share In 1964, the British physicist Peter Higgs wrote a landmark paper hypothesizing why elementary particles have mass.

He predicted the existence of a three-dimensional "field" that permeates space and drags on everything that trudges through it. Some particles have more trouble traversing the field than others, and this corresponds to them being heavier. If the field — later dubbed the Higgs field — really exists, then Higgs said it must have a particle associated with it: the Higgs boson. Fast forward 48 years: On Wednesday (July 4), physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest atom smasher in Geneva, Switzerland, announced they had discovered a Higgs-like particle at long last. If the new particle turns out to be the Higgs, it will confirm nearly five decades of particle physics theory, which incorporated the Higgs boson into the family of known particles and equations that describe them known as the Standard Model. The search for the Higgs gained a level of public attention unusual for physics partly thanks to the physicist Leon Lederman's 1993 book "The God Particle" (Dell Publishing).

Lederman gave the Higgs its godly nickname because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today , so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive," he wrote in the book. However, he quipped that the second reason was that "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing." Indeed, the Higgs boson eluded detection through the construction and shutdown of two expensive high-energy particle colliders built partially for the purpose of detecting it. In these colliders, particles are accelerated through a tunnel and then smashed together, producing an excess of energy that sometimes takes the form of new and exotic particles. Only the Large Hadron Collider at CERN Laboratory, the most powerful particle collider ever built, turned out to probe energies high enough to generate a Higgs particle, which is roughly 125 times the mass of a proton. [ What If You Put Your Hand in the LHC Beam? ] But what does the Higgs particle actually do? How does it, and the Higgs field associated with it, give things mass ?

In physics, when particles interact with fields, the interaction must be mediated by a particle. Interactions with the electromagnetic (EM) field, for example, are mediated by photons, or particles of light. When a negatively charged electron is pulled by the EM field toward a positively charged proton, the electron experiences the EM field by absorbing and emitting a constant stream of "virtual photons" — photons that momentarily pop in and out of existence just for the purpose of mediating the particle-field interaction. Furthermore, when the EM field is "excited," meaning its energy is flared up in a certain spot, that flare-up is, itself, a photon — a real one in that case. Along the same lines, the Higgs particle mediates interactions with the Higgs field, and is itself an excitation of the Higgs field. Particles are thought to trudge through the Higgs field (thereby acquiring mass) by exchanging virtual Higgs particles with it. And, the thinking goes, a real Higgs particle surfaces when the field becomes excited, flaring up with energy in a certain spot. Detecting such a flare-up (i.e. the particle) is how physicists can be sure the field itself exists.

At the LHC, they managed to bash atoms together hard enough to generate, for a fleeting instant, a 125 giga-electron-volt excitation of what was likely the Higgs field. The flare-up had all the trappings of a Higgs boson. Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @ nattyover . Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @ llmysteries . We're also on Facebook & Google+ . The Man Who Coined 'The God Particle' Explains: It Was A Joke! : The Two-Way : NPR This is what researchers at the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider expect a Higgs boson to look like. The Higgs boson is the subatomic particle that scientists say gives everything in the universe mass. ATLAS Experiment/CERN hide caption toggle caption ATLAS Experiment/CERN This is what researchers at the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider expect a Higgs boson to look like. The Higgs boson is the subatomic particle that scientists say gives everything in the universe mass.

ATLAS Experiment/CERN We've explained it many times : Physicists are irked when we in the media call the Higgs Boson, "The God Particle." The Higgs is important because the elusive subatomic particle is believed to give everything its mass. But as Marcelo Gleiser — of NPR's 13.7 — explained , the nickname doesn't quite explain the particle because while it "does have something of a centralizing influence," it's "nothing quite divine." It's misnomer, even stupid, some physicists say. All Things Considered spoke to the man credited with giving the particle its moniker. In 1993, Dick Teresi co-wrote The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? with Leon Lederman, the Nobel prize winning physicist. He told Melissa Block that the name was born out of a joke, a working title he never thought the publisher would buy.

Dick Teresi Explains How 'The God Particle' Came To Be Toggle more options Embed Embed <iframe src="" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> In fact, he said, "for us being atheists, it's kind of a scary, evil kind of particle that obfuscates what's really going on." So what does he say to his detractors? "They protest too much," he said. In fact, the name will likely stick, he said, just like another famous deregatory term has — "The Big Bang." Article continues after sponsorship Teresi added that in truth, he didn't resent most physicists for complaining. The only one he has a problem with is Peter Higgs himself. Dick Teresi On All Things Considered Toggle more options Embed Embed Higgs boson - RationalWiki Higgs boson v - t - e The Higgs boson, or the " God particle" was the last remaining unobserved particle in the Standard Model of physics , and was the reason so many people feared scientists would destroy the Earth . [1] Like photons , they are a type of boson .

The introduction of the Higgs field (which is a scalar field) spontaneously breaks the symmetry of the electroweak theory and gives the gauge bosons mass . (It also gives the leptons and quarks their mass.) Despite the nickname, confirmation of the "God Particle" neither counts as proof nor disproof of the existence of (a) God . This misunderstanding has led to many fundamentalists and creationists getting hot and bothered about a field of physics which they are probably not mentally equipped to understand. Contents 8 References [ edit ] Quantum field theory and the electroweak theory The Standard Model is formulated as a quantum field theory (QFT) — that is, the fundamental quantities are fields, and the particles arise from quantization of the excitations of those fields. The photon is the quantum of the electromagnetic field, and the Higgs boson is the quantum of the Higgs field. However, at the quantum level, these are not particles in the everyday sense of the word; they have an exact momentum, so, by the uncertainty principle , they are spread out over all space. In QFT, interactions result from exchange of virtual particles. These virtual particles are known as force carriers. For the electromagnetic force, they are photons.

For the strong force, they are gluons. For the weak force, they are the W+, W- and Z0 bosons. All those forces are expressed as gauge theories. A gauge theory essentially says that all interactions are manifestations of symmetries. The problem is, gauge invariance requires that the force carriers be massless. This is not the case: the W and Z bosons are pretty heavy. You could just give the gauge bosons (force carriers) mass by hand, explicitly violating gauge invariance… but this won't work out nicely. There is another method of breaking the gauge symmetry that will work out nicely though: spontaneous symmetry breaking. This involves introducing a scalar field (which is the Higgs field) with the Mexican hat potential so that the Higgs' ground state is not invariant under the gauge transformations. When this interacts with the gauge bosons, it will give them mass. As an added bonus, the theory will also be invariant under the gauge transformations. The same difficulty also applies to the quarks and leptons, and using the Higgs mechanism avoids those. Clever, huh? [ edit ] What about the photon? You may be confused at this point. What about the photon?

If the electromagnetic and weak forces are actually one and the same, and the gauge bosons get mass, how does the photon remain massless? Well, the photon is actually a linear combination of the W0 and B bosons, which both interact with the Higgs field. The interaction of the Higgs field with the W0 cancels out the interaction of the Higgs with the B boson. Hence, the photon remains massless and the U(1)EM symmetry remains unbroken. [ edit ] The Higgs field Still reading? Good! As we have seen, the Higgs particle is the complementary particle to the Higgs field, the proposed mechanism by which particles attain mass. As a result, it is crucial to the understanding of the workings of the Universe and whether the Standard Model is a correct interpretation of the workings of the quantum world. As of December 2011, there were many rumours indicating that the discovery was imminent and that that the boson would be discovered in the mass range of 114.4-131 GeV and more specifically around 125 GeV.

Despite the apparent likelihood of finding it soon, physicists were still disagreeing about when or if we would find it and even whether or not it exists in late 2011. [2] In early 2012 CERN and other data collected by the Tevatron both found inconclusive evidence that the Higgs boson exists with a mass close to 125 GeV. [3] In July 2012 CERN claimed a particle has been found with the properties expected on the Higgs boson. Spectacular claims have been made that the Higgs boson will allow travel at the speed of light and that it will be possible to switch mass off. [4] Time may be needed before we know if these claims will gain acceptance in the scientific community or will be dismissed as wild speculation. Alternatively, the newly discovered particle may not be exactly what the standard model of physics expects the Higgs boson to be, it could be a different and more exciting particle that some non-standard models of physics predict. If that is true the new particle may in the long run explain more than discovering the standard Higgs boson would have explained.

[5] Scientists are very confident that the Higgs boson or something like it exists. [6] [ edit ] The "God" Particle “”So, the Higgs boson walks into a Catholic church , and the priest orders him out. "We don't serve bosons in here!" he said. The Higgs replied, "But without me, how can you have any Mass ? [7] In 1993, Leon Lederman, a physicist and Dick Teresi, a pop science writer, wrote The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?. The book gave a brief history of particle physics as we know it today, but it has become slightly more famous for its title. Lederman described the reasoning behind the name "God Particle" by describing the Higgs boson as: …so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive. However, his "real" reason was that the publishers wouldn't allow the name "Goddamned Particle" in reference to how difficult it is to observe.

The fact that the Large Hadron Collider, at a cost of around $9 billion, was built specifically to find it should be a testament to how important the Higgs boson is and how elusive it was. Yet, the name has stuck for the far more mystical reasons rather than Lederman's attempt at a joke. This has led to masses of confusion amongst religious fundamentalists who have, at one end of the scale, literally thought CERN was looking for God, or at the other, just abused the term for their own ends. [8] Creation Ministries International took the opportunity to note that, despite finding the God particle physicists didn't really give enough attention to the real thing . [9] Twitter users, naturally, secured their place in the bottom half of the internet. [10] Yet another group claims proof the Large Hadron Collider is a torture device designed "to torment the God Particle into telling them the secret equations of life." What is worse, the God particle is getting angry leading to sinkholes, earthquakes, unusual solar flares and " super moons ". The anger of the God particle could destroy the whole Universe. [11] Some conservative commentators were happy to downplay it as much as possible.

Thomas Flemming, writing in the Daily Mail [12] and Terry Hurlbut [13] both managed to completely confuse a five-sigma significant discovery of a boson corresponding to theoretical predictions of the Standard Model with some formal attack on religion. Generally, the discovery sparked a lot of debate about physics and whether that explains life better than God, [14] but how much of this was directly caused by Lederman's mocking nomenclature rather than the actual scientific implications will never really be known. [ edit ] Sci-fi The elusive nature of the Higgs gave science fiction authors a carte-blanche for scientifically "plausible" jargon to fill their scripts [15] up to its discovery in 2012, and since there is still speculation about the exact nature of the newly discovered particle, imaginative fiction may continue. [ edit ] More Sci-fi God/Nature/Something was stopping us finding that Higgs boson. The Higgs boson didn’t want to be created or discovered so it or something was travelling back in time to disrupt the Large Hadron Collider and prevent its creation/discovery. Or God or Nature or something was causing accidents to happen there.

Could the Large Hadron Collider have been sabotaging itself from the future, as some physicists said??? [16] Below are other possibilities: The FBI , the CIA , a secret branch of the United States Marine Corps or some other nefarious American organisation was sabotaging CERN because they didn't want Europe to get ahead of the United States in this important area of research. Extraterrestrials were sabotaging the LHC because they didn’t want Earthlings to get ahead in this important area of research. Now that the LHC has multiple confirmed detections of the Higgs boson under its belt, though, these old conspiracy theories are all moot. Physicists Anxiously Await News of the ‘God Particle’ - The New York Times The New York Times Science |Physicists Anxiously Await New Data on ‘God Particle’ Search Continue reading the main story High noon is approaching for the biggest manhunt in the history of physics. At 8 a.m.

Eastern time on Tuesday morning, scientists from CERN , the European Center for Nuclear Research, are scheduled to give a progress report on the search for the Higgs boson — infamously known as the “God particle” — whose discovery would vindicate the modern theory of how elementary particles get mass. The report comes amid rumors that the two competing armies of scientists sifting debris from hundreds of trillions of proton collisions in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider , or L.H.C., outside Geneva, have both finally seen hints of what might turn out be the elusive particle when more data is gathered next year. Alternatively, the experimentalists say that a year from now they should have enough data to rule out the existence of the most popular version of the Higgs boson, sending theorists back to their blackboards in search of another explanation of why particles have mass. So the whole world will be watching. Among them will be Lisa Randall, a Harvard particle theorist and author of the new book “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World.” In an interview with Dennis Overbye of The Times, Dr. Randall provided this guide to the action for those of us in the bleachers.

Continue reading the main story Q. What is the Higgs and why is it important? A. The name Higgs refers to at least four things. First of all, there is a Higgs mechanism, which is ultimately responsible for elementary particles’ masses. This is certainly one of the trickier aspects of particle physics to explain, but essentially something like a charge — not an electric charge — permeates the vacuum, the state with no particles. Advertisement Continue reading the main story These “charges” are associated with a Higgs field. As particles pass through this field they interact with the “charges,” and this interaction makes them act as if they had mass. Heavier particles do so more, and lighter particles do so less. The Higgs mechanism is essential to the masses of elementary particles. The Higgs particle, or Higgs boson, is the vestige of the simplest proposed model of what created the Higgs field in the first place. Contrary to popular understanding, the Higgs field gives mass — not the Higgs boson. But a discovery of the Higgs boson would tell us that the Higgs mechanism is right and help us pin down the theory that underlies both the Higgs mechanism and the Standard Model .

In the simplest implementation of the Higgs mechanism, the experimental consequence is the Higgs boson. It is the particle that the experimentalists are now searching for. Photo One station of the CMS Endcap Muon chambers built by a collaboration of US institutions, which play a major role in the triggering of the CMS detector. Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Of course, Higgs is also the name of the person, Peter Higgs, who first developed the underlying theory (along with five others who will be in contention for the Nobel Prize if and when the Higgs particle is discovered.) Q. How will we know it when we find it? A. In the simplest implementation of the Higgs mechanism, we know precisely what the properties of the Higgs boson should be. That’s because of its connection to the Higgs mechanism, which tells us that its interactions with any particular particle are determined by that particular particle’s mass. Knowing the interactions, we can calculate how often the Higgs boson should be produced and the ways in which it should decay. It can decay only into those particles that are light enough for energy to be conserved.

Roughly speaking, the Higgs boson decays into the heaviest such particles the most often, since it interacts with them the most strongly. What we don’t know, however, is the Higgs boson’s mass. The Higgs boson decays differently, depending on its mass, since a heavier Higgs boson can decay in ways that a light Higgs boson can’t. So when experimenters look for the Higgs boson, they look over a range of masses and employ a variety of search strategies. Q. What do we know about it so far? A. Experimenters have already ruled out a large range of masses. The Higgs boson, if it exists, has to be heavier than 114.4 giga-electron volts (GeV), which are the units of mass that particle physicists use. By comparison, protons, the bedrock of ordinary matter, are about 1 giga-electron volt, and an electron is only half a million electron volts. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.

Sign Up Privacy Policy Based on recent searches by the L.H.C., the Higgs boson is also excluded between about 140 GeV and 500 GeV. This makes the most likely region for the Higgs mass to be between about 115 and 140 GeV, which is the range Tuesday’s results should focus on, although in principle heavier Higgs boson masses are in contention too. Advertisement Continue reading the main story I don’t want to shatter hopes, but don’t count on Tuesday’s results being definitive. This is the toughest range of masses for the L.H.C., and detection is tricky for this range. I suspect they will have enough evidence not to exclude the Higgs, but too little to fully pin it down without next year’s data. Q. What difference does its mass make? A. Actually, as far as matter’s properties go, it doesn’t really make a great deal of difference. As long as the Higgs mechanism is in place, elementary particles that we know about will have the masses that they do. Photo Lisa Randall, a Harvard particle theorist and the author of “Knocking on Heaven's Door,” is watching for the latest on the Higgs boson.

Credit Chika-Dike Nwokike But no one thinks the Higgs is the final word about what underlies the Standard Model of particle physics, the theory that describes the most basic elements of matter and the forces through which they interact. Even if the Higgs boson is discovered, the question will still remain of why masses are what they are. According to quantum field theory — the theory that combines quantum mechanics and special relativity — masses would be expected to be ten thousand trillion times bigger. Without some deeper ingredient, a fudge of that size would be required to make it all hang together. No particle physicist believes that. We all expect a richer theory underlying the Standard Model. That’s one reason the mass matters to us. Some theories only accommodate a particular range of masses. Knowing the mass will give us insight into what that deeper underlying theory is. Q. Is the L.H.C. a flop if we don’t find the Higgs boson? A. The great irony is that not finding a Higgs boson would be spectacular from the point of view of particle physics, pointing to something more interesting than the simple Higgs model.

Future investigations could reveal that the particle playing the role of the Higgs has interactions aside from the ones we know have to be there for particles to acquire mass. The other possibility is that the answer is not the simple, fundamental particle that the Large Hadron Collider currently is looking for. It could be a more complicated object or part of a more complex sector that would take longer to find. Q. Does this have anything to do with neutrinos — specifically, the ones that were recently reported as having traveled faster than light on a journey that originated at CERN? Advertisement Continue reading the main story A. Neutrinos have tiny masses. The Higgs mechanism is probably partially responsible for those, too. Just nothing that encourages them to go faster than light (which they most likely don’t). Q. In 1993, the U.S. Congress canceled a larger American collider, the superconducting super collider, which would have been bigger than the CERN machine. Would it have found the Higgs particle years ago? A. Yes, if it had gone according to schedule. And it would have been able to find things that weren’t a simple Higgs boson, too. The L.H.C.

can do such searches as well, but with its lower energy the work is more challenging and will require more time. Correction: December 12, 2011 An earlier version of this article misplaced a sentence. The sentence — “In 1993, the U.S. Congress canceled a larger American collider, the superconducting super collider, which would have been bigger than the CERN machine” — was part of a question, not part of the answer to the preceding question. An earlier picture caption also contained incorrect information regarding a chamber. The photo shows one station of the CMS Endcap Muon chambers, not a superconducting magnet at the Large Hadron Collider. A version of this article appears in print on December 12, 2011, on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Physicists Anxiously Await New Data on ‘God Particle’. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Higgs competition: Renaming the God particle | Science | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close It started as a bit of Friday fun and ended a week later with 15 pages of entries and a dash to a nearby university to drop off a crate of ale.

Judging can be thirsty work. The week before last, Peter Higgs celebrated his 80th birthday and to mark the event, we thought we'd try to oust the media's nickname for his most famous contribution to physics. Officially, it is known as the Higgs boson , but to journalists and headline writers it is the God particle. I wrote briefly about the history of the discovery and its implications for the nature of mass when I announced the competition on 29 May . But back to that name. Physicists hate it when people call the Higgs boson the God particle. Even though the nickname was dreamed up by a Nobel prizewinning physicist with a tremendous track record in the field, Leon Lederman , I can't think of anything that galvanises physicists so completely. We had stacks of entries. I like to think that's because we tapped into the pent-up fury of legions who were equally despairing of the nickname. People who wanted to see such nonsense banished from the journalists' lexicon but just hadn't been given the proper outlet. People who would fight to replace it with a name that is worthy and just. I'm sure that's what happened. What else could it be?

After the entries had been dispatched for judging, I leafed through the list to pick out my own favourites. It dawned on me that the judging job was worth far more than one crate of beer. Lots of you followed a long tradition in physics and made sure the particle's new nickname ended with "on". It would be in good company, with the electron, proton, neutron, photon and gluon. Nattydread69 suggested the "Non-Existon", which might turn out to be prescient. Emptyjames wanted to call it "The Mysteron", and I can see why: even if the Higgs is found, physicists still need to work out why it couples more strongly to some particles than others. Tbombadil liked "Mastodon". Doogsby rustled up the "The Lardon". Any one of these would have made undergraduate physics lectures easier to show up at. Lalulilo said the new name should have an international flavour, and suggested "Esperon", meaning "hope" in Esperanto. Platonik gets a spot in my personal top five with "Rockon". It's a shame that Rockon raises a few unpleasant childhood memories, though .

Arimbaud nodded to Chris Morris's Brasseye with "Shatner's Bosoon", while Endnote didn't worry about wordplay and stuck with the original "Shatner's Bassoon". Some of you clearly wanted a more approachable name and offered up Steven, Colin, Dave, Pete, Nigel, Boz and Bosie. One poster suggested "Mr Bum Bum" as a suitable name for our theoretical subatomic particle. You know who you are. Slobloch liked "Lardycake". MERidley, "The God Killer". ArmitageS opted for "The Pavarotti Particle" and Jennyanydots went all Prince on us with "The particle formerly known as the God particle". I liked Yrddraiggoch's (The Welsh Dragon's) "The Bajingo", but only because the entry was justified on the grounds of being "a very awesomely silly word." Ditto Trhenc's "H3-Bengka Boson" was sold as being "techno-fabulous with a hint of the exotic".

DNAtheist got another place in my personal top five with the "Disconcertingly Unfalsifiable Hyperbeing Particle", or "Duh Particle". It's close to genius in my view.

Question: What is the divine nickname for the elusive Higgs boson?
Answer: The God Particle