The Cellar

The Cellar (http://cellar.org/index.php)
-   Technology (http://cellar.org/forumdisplay.php?f=7)
-   -   Higgs Boson Discovered (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=27618)

ZenGum 07-04-2012 06:57 AM

Higgs Boson Discovered
 
Quote:

There's a 5-in-10 million chance that this is a fluke. That was enough for physicists to declare that the Higgs boson – the world's most-wanted particle – has been discovered. Rapturous applause, whistles and cheers filled the auditorium at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

Almost 50 years after its existence was first predicted, the breakthrough means that the standard model of particle physics, which explains all known particles and the forces that act upon them, is now complete.

A Higgs boson with a mass of around 125 to 126 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) was seen separately by the twin CMS and ATLAS detectors at the Large Hadron Collider, each with a confidence level of 5 sigma, or standard deviations, the heads of the experiments announced today at CERN.

Even by particle physicists' strict standards, that's statistically significant enough to count as a particle discovery.
This is why yo mamma so fat.

ZenGum 07-04-2012 07:44 AM

Although to be strictly accurate, I should have said New Boson discovered; probably Higgs.

Quote:

The physicists were a little reticent to call the discovery a "Higgs boson", preferring to call it the discovery of a "new boson".

That's because they don't yet know its properties – and so can't confirm how similar it is to the Higgs of the standard model. "It's the beginning of a long journey to investigate all the properties of this particle," says Heuer.

One property that needs to be investigated is the particle's spin: the standard model says it should have a value of zero; a more exotic boson would give a value of two. Oliver Buchmueller of CMS says the LHC should be able to determine the new boson's spin by the end of 2012.

DanaC 07-04-2012 08:14 AM

Physicists write shit headlines.

Lamplighter 07-04-2012 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanaC (Post 818423)
Physicists write shit headlines.

Celebrations as Higgs bosom is finally discovered

Why would parents name their baby girl "Higgs" ?
But nevertheless, it's something that happens to every teenybopper (eventually).

Griff 07-04-2012 08:31 AM

Ah, the welcome flowering of womanhood!

DanaC 07-04-2012 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lamplighter (Post 818425)
Celebrations as Higgs bosom is finally discovered

Why would parents name their baby girl "Higgs" ?
But nevertheless, it's something that happens to every teenybopper (eventually).


Har!



Though I was thinking more of the imperative to caveat everything so thoroughly :p

wolf 07-04-2012 12:43 PM

Well, this should thorough change the face of the next season of The Big Bang Theory.

chrisinhouston 07-04-2012 01:50 PM

Seems funny that they nicknamed it "The God Particle" when Peter Higgs who it was named after was an atheist! :eyebrow:

chrisinhouston 07-04-2012 01:50 PM

And what I want to know is will it improve my cell phone reception?

ZenGum 07-05-2012 07:27 AM

If I ever get my hands on the moron who came up with that "god particle" BS, I'll high five him in the face.

With a brick.

Cyber Wolf 07-05-2012 05:10 PM

Now that they've got that all figured out, these exceptional minds need to get started on the Hoverboard.

DanaC 07-05-2012 05:13 PM

Fuck the hoverboard, where's my flying car? And I mean a proper flying car that levitates in place when needed.

jimhelm 07-05-2012 05:49 PM

you mean like this one?

DanaC 07-05-2012 06:32 PM

Yeah....just like that one.


Cock.

Lamplighter 07-06-2012 09:02 AM

There's always a spoil-sport in the crowd. This one is named Harvey Newman at Cal Tech...

Discovery News
Fri Jul 6, 2012 07:55 AM ET

What If the New Particle Isn't the Higgs Boson?
There are subtle indications that the particle may not, in fact, be the Higgs.

Quote:

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they've discovered
a new "Higgs-like" particle: a bundle of energy that has most of the trappings
of the long-sought Higgs boson. They're not naming the newcomer outright,
because there are subtle indications that the particle may not, in fact,
be the plain old Higgs itself, but rather a close doppelganger.<snip>

The Standard Model is incomplete, Newman said, because it doesn't account
for the particles that make up 84 percent of the matter in the universe:
the invisible substance known as dark matter. It also fails to incorporate gravity.<snip>
The leading theory that places the Standard Model within a more powerful,
all-encompassing framework is called supersymmetry, or SUSY.<snip>

When generated in a particle collider like the LHC, each Higgs-like boson
would be expected to decay into a unique set of lighter particles.
It appears that the newfound particle at the LHC decayed in a way
that the run-of-the-mill Standard Model Higgs would not have, the physicists said
— although more data is needed before they'll know for certain what kind of Higgs they've got.
But if the particle is, in fact, a more exotic Higgs, then it could be a SUSY Higgs,
or at least a non-Standard Model Higgs. And this would be the first
discovery of physics beyond the Standard Model.

DanaC 07-06-2012 09:08 AM

The clue there is in the description 'Higgs-like'. I've heard a number of scientists talking about this, including some of those working at the LHC and they're not saying this is Higgs Bosun. They're saying it is a bosun, and is apparently Higgs-like in that it behaves in ways they would expect such to behave. But that it might be another kind of particle in which case that would be just as interesting.

Lamplighter 09-13-2012 11:20 PM

BusinessDay
9/13/12
THE INSIDER: Governmentium — the heaviest known element
Quote:

"The CSIR in collaboration with the Large Hadron Collider
has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.
The new element is Governmentium (Gv).

It has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and
198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons,
which are surrounded by vast quantities of lefton-like particles called peons.
Since Governmentium has no electrons or protons, it is inert.
However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.
A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that normally takes
less than a second to require four days to four years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of two to six years.
It does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which
a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.
In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time,
since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons,
forming isodopes.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe
Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.

This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.
When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium,
an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium
since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.
All of the money is consumed in the exchange, and no other by-products are produced."
This discovery has been scientifically confirmed in Switzerland...

Newser
Kevin Spak
9/10/12

CERN Wants Even Bigger Large Hadron Collider


Quote:

The Large Hadron Collider just isn't large enough for CERN.

The Geneva-based team that found the Higgs boson has set its sights
on bigger and better things—emphasis on the bigger—and is now proposing
replacing the current collider, which runs through 17 miles of tunnel,
with a new one that's a full 50 miles long, the Daily Mail reports.

This new collider would study a host of new physics mysteries,
including how gravity works on a particle level.
"We have a wild new frontier of physics to explore," one physics professor
involved in the decision said. "We can do some of that work by upgrading the LHC,
but in the end it will need a more powerful machine."

The bad news: the new collider likely wouldn't be finished until 2025.

Happy Monkey 09-14-2012 11:50 AM

If it takes 20 years to build, you have to start building it at least 20 years before you run out of things to do with the current one.

tw 09-14-2012 04:37 PM

If a Higgs bosom exists, does that mean Higgs is a she?

Lamplighter 09-14-2012 08:27 PM

You're confusing it with a Higgs bison

footfootfoot 09-14-2012 09:36 PM

Huge bosoms? Where do I sign up?

tw 09-14-2012 11:06 PM

Bosoms are what makes top quarks top heavy. When scientists discuss bosoms, they also discuss spin. Does that mean Higg's is a blond?

jimhelm 09-15-2012 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey (Post 830279)
If it takes 20 years to build, you have to start building it at least 20 years before you run out of things to do with the current one.

make a note:

Once we invent the time machine, go back in time to 1992, and tell ourselves to start NOW! then it should be ready by now.

what? It worked for Bill and Ted!

Sundae 09-18-2012 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lamplighter (Post 818425)
Why would parents name their baby girl "Higgs" ?

Fans of Aliens. Wanted to be able to say, "Somebody wake up Higgs" on a regular basis.

Damn. That was Hicks.

Lamplighter 10-08-2013 07:55 AM

1 Attachment(s)
You saw it here... :cheerldr:

Attachment 45619

Physicists Peter Higgs, right, and Francois Englert attend a news conference at CERN,
near Geneva, on July 4, 2012. Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

Quote:

Two European scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for describing the Higgs boson,
a theoretical particle that may explain where mass comes from and advances
man’s understanding of how the world is constructed.

Peter Higgs, 84, a retired professor of theoretical physics at the University of Edinburgh,
and Francois Englert, 80, a retired professor at the Free University of Brussels,
will share the 8 million-krona ($1.25 million) prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
said today in Stockholm.

xoxoxoBruce 10-08-2013 10:15 AM

Higgs and his lover Englert, share the $1.25 million... after they dumped Boson's body in some dark cold moor. :unsure:

lumberjim 10-08-2013 04:59 PM

Jazz hands!

BigV 10-09-2013 12:43 PM

I wish ZenGum would start participating here again.

Sundae 10-09-2013 01:20 PM

Was he Higgs' lover as well?
He must be proud as all bejesus.

BigV 10-09-2013 02:18 PM

don't know, don't care.

I saw this thread recently returned to the top of the active group of threads, and noticed his name as author. That reminded me that I miss his input, that we're all poorer for his absence.

Sundae 10-09-2013 02:27 PM

Soz, was only joking because when I read that Higgs was Englert's lover I believed it for a second.

I miss the Zen.
He was damned smart, but in an Aussie way. So laid back you'd think his (albeit excellent) photos and travelogues meant he 'd dropped out.
I think the same about our other Aussies. I've had the privilege of sharing some convos with them that reveal more than I think they say on the board, or certainly not easily found. They're not as chilled as they come across, and certainly more acccomplished.

Except Ali of course. Who just has babies.
(C'mon, I had to say it about someone and I know the most about how damned smart you are.)

xoxoxoBruce 10-09-2013 02:28 PM

If it's not one thing, it's your mother.

Undertoad 10-09-2013 03:02 PM

I was thinking that maybe he wanted to leave and invented his mom as a way to get that done.

lumberjim 10-09-2013 03:33 PM

Weird.

Pico and ME 10-09-2013 05:29 PM

I don't know. I believed in the conflict with which he was dealing. Zen may have grown up struggling against a mother who always had to be the smartest one in the room. And, perhaps, she competed intellectually with Zen. He didn't want to have to deal with that here. Perhaps it just something he has never been able to grow out of. Makes it unpleasant either way.

Lamplighter 01-15-2015 12:25 AM

PBS: Nova 1/13/15 THE BIG BANG MACHINE

Many years ago when I was much younger than I am now,
I saw on tv what I believed was the best science program ever made.
It was an early (1975 ?) NOVA program about the young scientist,
his equipment, and his recordings of when he first discovered
the pulsating signal of a black hole.

Tonight, I watched the second best NOVA program about the discovery of the Higgs boson.
For me, this 1-hour tv program was a true celebration of science.
I know that word "celebration" is used a lot, and that is why
I hope everyone will take the time to watch this one.
It is what a career in science is all about.

This NOVA program is available on the pbs.org/wgbh/nova website and this is the link:

xoxoxoBruce 01-15-2015 03:36 PM

NOVA never disappoints. Many of the subjects don't affect our daily struggle in a way we're aware of, and they don't sell many newspapers, so they only get press in scientific or trade journals. Very few would read all the publications required to get the whole picture. Every subject is presented in a clear, interesting manner.
I swear if the voice of Peter Thomas(NOVA's narrator), told me I was a chicken, I'd try to lay an egg. :haha:

As for the Higgs boson show, I think your celebration of science description is appropriate. It's a story of science triumphs over skeptics, politics, and numerous scientific challenges, to catch a glimpse of what had been theoretical for 50 years. Perfect story line with good guys, bad guys, and triumph.

However, there is a considerable phalanx of people saying so what? Do I still have to go to work tomorrow? Will Higgs boson fix my car, heal my body, feed the world? Wouldn't that $13.25 Billion and effort of hundreds, be better spent improving the lives of third world people? Does science trump humanity?

I don't have an answer.

tw 01-16-2015 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 919321)
NOVA never disappoints.

We all work to only service the few who advance mankind. According to popular myth, quantum mechanics has done nothing useful for any of us. Total nonsense. That gigibyte disk drive is due to a breakthrough in quantum physics. Same applies other useless technologies includnig Shannon's Communication Theory, laser, computer chess games or beating Jepordy champions, glass fibers, LED, satellite, uProcessor, PCM, liquid crystals, lithium battery, etc. In each case it obviously had no purpose; was only a cute toy.

We knew the future of everyone not yet born then was the transistor. Today, that same future is in Quantum physics. Almost nothing discovered in fundamental research has a purpose - until that fundamental research moves to application research. Those above examples are perfect examples of money wasted (according to spread sheet analysis). So much later each became essential to everyone's daily life.

We could not possibly know what a Higg Bosum will make possible. That is the nature of fundamental research - that defines the future of everyone's lives.

The show ends in a world wide conference where the tens of thousands, essential to our future, are the same people we all work to support. So that mankind can advance.

Alongside Nova was another 'must see' show. Frontline discussed what everyone here should know about Putin.

Lamplighter 03-24-2015 03:04 PM

They found the Higgs boson particle. Now, for a set of new questions…

Is the Higgs responsible for dark energy ?
Are there supersymmetic particles that decay in a Higgs ?
Will they find another hypothesized particle called the “neutralino” ?
Is it the neutralino that makes up “dark matter” ?

Earth’s Most Powerful Physics Machine Gets Back in Action
Science
- Marcus Woo - 03.24.15
Quote:

In the fall of 2008, CERN’s high-energy physicists ran into a problem.
A faulty electronic connection at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland
—the biggest, baddest, most powerful particle accelerator ever built
caused a couple of magnets to overheat and melt,
triggering an explosion of pressurized helium gas….

“It was pretty depressing when we broke the accelerator,”
says Aaron Dominguez, a physicist at the University of Nebraska.
“That was not a good day.”… :mecry:

Eventually, engineers fixed the LHC, and in 2012,
physicists used it to do what the accelerator was always supposed to:
Find the elusive subatomic particle called the Higgs boson. …

But to prevent another accident, CERN’s engineers had run the LHC
at only half its designed capability. Now, after a two-year hiatus in which
engineers upgraded the accelerator to prevent such magnetic meltdowns,
the LHC is set to smash protons together harder than ever—the way it was intended. …

The plan was to turn on the beam this week, firing clusters of protons
—each containing more than a hundred billion particles— at almost the speed of light.

But on March 21, engineers found a short circuit, which could delay the restart as much as a few weeks. :facepalm:

<snip>

tw 03-25-2015 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lamplighter (Post 924535)
Earth’s Most Powerful Physics Machine Gets Back in Action Marcus Woo - 03.24.15

The article does not mention what has changed. I believe modifications have upped it power by a factor of 3. And new tools have been added to the loop.

Lamplighter 03-25-2015 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tw (Post 924580)
The article does not mention what has changed...

About 27,000 copper wires were added in this "For want of a nail, a collider was lost..." syndrome.

Quote:

Engineers fixed the damage, replacing magnets along nearly 2,000 feet of the accelerator ring. During the recent shutdown, they made a slew of upgrades, but the most important one was just to make sure nothing blows up again. It took a year and a half for 300 people to reinforce the 10,000 connections between magnets with 27,000 pieces of copper. Now, if electric current starts to build up, the beefed-up connections will give all that energy someplace to go. The engineers also replaced 18 magnets that had worn out, upgraded electronics to make them more resistant to radiation, and added a new coating to the inside of the vacuum tube carrying the protons that should prevent stray electrons from forming a cloud that would interfere with the beam.

Lamplighter 03-26-2015 04:24 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Dark matter: I know it's there ... because I can't see it.

Attachment 50803

Dark matter 'ghosts' through galactic smash-ups
BBC - 3/26/15
Quote:

By observing multiple collisions between huge clusters of galaxies,
scientists have witnessed dark matter coasting straight through the turmoil.

Dark matter is the mysterious, invisible stuff that makes up 85% of the matter in the cosmos
- and these results rule out several theoretical models put forward to explain it.
This is because it barely interacts with anything at all, including the dark matter in the oncoming galaxies.

"In all of these collisions that we've seen, it just seems to go straight through.
And now we've seen loads more of them, we would have been able to detect any deceleration
of this dark matter, if it had interacted in the ways that most theories predict," Dr Massey said.

So although some theories remain, many can now be ruled out.
This includes the idea that dark matter is some sort of "dark" version of ordinary matter, made of "dark atoms".

It must be more outlandish than that, Dr Massey said.
"Basically, we're saying: Back to the drawing board!
Let's come up with some more ideas."

tw 03-27-2015 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lamplighter (Post 924581)
About 27,000 copper wires were added in this

Upgrades were not for averting failure. Things done to avert failure were only done because it was convenient and learned after the first run.

I believe the LHC was upgraded from 4 tera electron volts to 14 tera electron volts. IOW to eventually do what the Supercollider in TX was suppose to do over a decade ago - before Congressmen thought an International Space Station (that does almost no science) was a better investment.

LHC is upgraded to answer a larger question - supersymmetry.

When I was going up, transistor clearly was the future. Today, Quantum Physics is the future for every kid. Back then, America was doing transistor work to become worldwide dominant 20 years later. Today, Quantum Physics is being done where and by whom? Who then will have a growing standard of living?


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:57 PM.

Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.