Lets Talk Higgs

Ok, Ladies, Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, its time for the BIG ONE.

  I've been saying for ages that I would eventually post a blog about the Higgs Boson, and THIS IS IT.

 To start though, I should probably talk about magnetism. Why? Because magnetism is a very good mechanism for explaining what the Higgs boson is and what it does. This is because both magnetism and the Higgs operate through FIELDS. Fields are defined in physics as a physical quantity associated with a point in spacetime (those unfamiliar with space-time would do well to read the earlier post about general relativity) and can possess the properties of particles, and are able to interact with them. A particle creates a field (an electron would create an electromagnetic field, for example) and the field can in itself interact with another particle. in this way, one can think of all fields permeating all of space-time. The higgs field is no different to an electron in this. But whereby the electromagnetic field mechanism creates the forces of magnetism and electric charge, the higgs field enables the existence of mass in fundemental particles (quarks and electrons are two such examples)

  The Higgs exists in concept due to the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and is a requirement if the theory is to be proved to be correct. This theory predicts everything but the mass of the higgs boson (the boson itself being the particle caused by exciting the higgs field above its lowest energy value [called its ground state]), as it suggests it will have no charge or spin.

   At the latest official announcement, CERN had narrowed down the mass range in which the higgs boson can exist (a good metaphor for this is thinking of a game of battleships, with only the smallest ship remaining, you narrow down areas where it would no longer fit in order to help you find its location) to within 1Gev (Giga electron volt) and hence it is now up to a 3.5 sigma level of certainty.

  There is still some way to go though, as the Higgs will not have officially have been discovered until they are able to determine its existence to a level of 5sigma!! The current level of sigma is expected to go up by the March announcements (even though no experiments have been ran over the winter break) due to the further analysis of current data.

 Some physicists hope to have found the Higgs by the Start of 2013.



  If you're unsure on anything, feel free to ask


 Happy Stargazing!!