WSF: Videos on What the Higgs Boson Particle is and Why it "Matters"

Proof of a new Higgs Particle different from the Standard Model Higgs

that gives to matter its mass...

Hunting the Higgs - http://worldsciencefestival.com/events/higgs_boson_announcement/main

CERN: "We have observed a new particle consistent with the Higgs Boson"

The world’s most ambitious physics endeavor has delivered: Last night (EST), officials from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that two major experiments using the Large Hadron Collider, an enormous circular particle accelerator buried on the border between France and Switzerland, have found preliminary evidence of the long-sought Higgs boson, a subatomic particle at the center of one of the biggest mysteries in physics: What gives matter mass?“It’s hard not to get excited by these results,” said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci. “We stated last year that in 2012 we would either find a new Higgs-like particle or exclude the existence of the Standard Model Higgs. With all the necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we’re seeing in the data.”For those of you who missed the live feed of the announcement last night, you’ll be able to watch the replay here just as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, please peruse our collection of videos offering expert insight into the elusive Higgs.



Brian Greene on Why Finding the Higgs Boson Matters - http://bcove.me/v34o1pf6



What Are We Looking For?

Finding the Higgs boson was no easy task. CERN physicist Monica Dunford explains what scientists expect to see when they find the Higgs.

Watch Now

The Story of the Higgs Boson

In this clip from NOVA's Fabric of the Cosmos, the story of Peter Higgs' controversial realization is told by the man himself.

Watch Now

Why Do We Think the Higgs Particle Exists?

Brian Greene explains why the theoretical Higgs boson is so important to the Standard Model of Physics, the backbone of how we understand the world around us.

Watch Now

Searching for New Particles

The Large Hadron Collider is a miraculous piece of technology that has been charged with discovering new fundamental physics particles. But how can scientists design an experiment to detect new particles when they don’t know what these particles look like?

Watch Now

Five Years. One Experiment

The history of the Large Hadron Collider—the $6 billion, 17-mile tunnel beneath the Franco-Swiss border that is ostensibly the world’s largest science experiment.

Watch Now

The Standard Model and Supersymmetry

Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek explains how supersymmetry—or SUSY—could be the ideal “unified theory.”

Watch Now

Waiting for the Higgs

Brian Greene writes in The New York TImes about the history of the Higgs boson and what confirming its discovery could mean for physics as we know it.

More

What is ALICE?

Physicist Jennifer Klay explains how scientists use the Large Hadron Collider to recreate the conditions of the universe just after the Big Bang, and how the ALICE detector looks specifically at phases of matter.

Watch Now

Will the LHC Kill Us?

When the Large Hadron Collider first came online, there was much disinformation and fear about the tremendous energy levels required to run the experiments.

Watch Now

 

Images and materials courtesy of CERN

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Hi Everyone,

Back in August [of 2012] I promised to explain one particular feature of the Higgs, but then got distracted by a variety of projects. So, here's the point I wanted to make:

 

A common metaphor for explaining the Higgs field is to envision an "invisible molasses" filling all of space, which exerts a drag on particles as they "burrow" through it. And it is this drag that we commonly call the particle's mass. Some particles are "stickier" than others--they feel the effect of the molasses more strongly, and so those particles are more massive. Less sticky particles are lighter, and particles like the photon are completely "slippery"-- passing through the Higgs field without feeling any drag at all--and so have no mass.

 

This is a fine metaphor to have in mind. I have used it repeatedly as it paints a reasonable and intuitive picture of the Higgs idea. But I also like to point out where metaphors fail (most do at some point); here's one prominent way that the molasses metaphor is misleading.

 

The metaphor leads one to think that the Higgs field constantly exerts a drag force on any given particle, continually slowing its speed until it grinds to a halt. But that's not true. Particles wafting through space, on which no other forces are acting, just keep on going. The Higgs doesn't stop them.

 

Instead, the Higgs 'drag" only comes into play when a particle is accelerating (or decelerating). Just as it is hard to push a car to increase (or decrease) its speed because the car has a big mass, the more massive a particle the harder it is to CHANGE its speed. And according to the Higgs idea, this resistance to CHANGES in the particle's speed (or direction of motion) reflects the influence of the all pervasive Higgs field through which the particle is moving.

 

Real molasses doesn't behave this way, as its drag would NOT only be exerted when a particle was accelerating or decelerating--its drag would be exerted even when an object moves through it at constant velocity.

 

So, is there a better metaphor? No doubt there is. Wave refraction as a wave moves from one medium to another is a good place to start, but I won't try to develop that metaphor here.

 

Bottom line: If you find yourself thinking about the Higgs, feel free to use the molasses metaphor. But also keep in mind its limits.

 

--BG

 

PS In case you are interested, a few other more newsy things:

--The Fabric of the Cosmos NOVA series won Best Physical Sciences Program at the Jackson Hole Film Festival.

 

--Tonight, October 1, is the award ceremony for the Emmy's in News and Documentary (Fabric of the Cosmos is nominated for Outstanding Science and Technology Programming)

 

--My latest book, The Hidden Reality, is a finalist for the UK Royal Society's Winton Prize for Science Books (winner to be announced on November 26).

 

--Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 7PM I am doing a program at the New York Public library on "Truth vs Experience in Probing Reality." It is a conversation with Simon Critchley in the South Court Auditorium, Schwarzman Building. Tickets are officially gone, but I am told some are being held at the door, first come first served. (Event is free.)