Sunday, May 11, 2008

"God particle"/Higgs boson--knowledge of the universe

And another model of the stuff that comprises the universe...in this case the elementary particle that gives mass to particles that have no mass and mass to all elementary particles. Actually it is just a part of the established "standard model of physics" but it is crucial to discover its existence or not. Its discovery would confirm the "standard model of physics" and concluding that it doesn't exist will alter physics...if there is no Higgs boson, science will be left totally unable to explain mass. "Without the Higgs, all fundamental particles would be massless, and the universe would be very different. The weak nuclear forces wouldn't be weak at all, for instance, so the elemental composition of the cosmos would be radically different, stars would shine differently, and we probably wouldn't exist." said Dave Rainwater of FermiLab. Popular physicist Leon Lederman has called it the "God particle" and actively being pursued at Fermilab's Tevatron and the nearly completed Large Hadron Collider [LHC] will collide protons at seven times the energy levels of the Tevatron and is expected to begin operations in June 2008--maybe. It has had some setbacks. "Supersymmetry is a relationship between the particles of matter and the forces of the universe. Mathematically, it's beautiful. Not one piece of direct experimental data really supports it yet. Finding a Higgs in the place we expect would be a piece of evidence. Not finding it would be a big problem for the advocates of this idea.", said John Womersley of FermiLab. All of this is an excellent example of a working model and challenges the limits of mankind's knowledge of the universe.


The God Particle

by

Leon Lederman

ISBN 0395558492
at

1 comment:

  1. MercuryMay 11, 2008 at 7:04 PM

    JTankers:

    Please correct the two arXiv dead links, provide a specific link to the "ingenta" reference, resubmit, and I will publish your comments.

    Furthermore, I don't wish this thread to be a podium exclusively for issues concerning the LHC but rather as a philosophical venture exploring the possibility that a current physics model is challenged and that there may well be limitation of mankind's knowledge of the universe. And finally, would you supply the source that states that the LHC will not be operational until August or September. That piece of information has escaped my attention for I thought that June was the scheduled date.

    Thanks.

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