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Subscribe to RSSParticle physicist Daniel Whiteson explains the Higgs boson in a cartoon created by PHD Comics' Jorge Cham.
The prime target for the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider is discovery and study of the Higgs boson — but what the heck is the Higgs, and what's it supposed to do? PHD Comics' Jorge Cham explains the quest in an animated cartoon that draws upon the expertise of Daniel Whiteson, a particle physicist from the University of California at Irvine who's working at Europe's CERN research center.
The Higgs boson, sometimes referred to as the "God Particle," is thought to be the force-carrier for a field that endows subatomic particles with varying values of mass. British physicist Peter Higgs and others theorized that it must exist to fill out a gap in physics' Standard Model of particle physics, but it hasn't yet been detected. Scientists expect it to turn up at the LHC, or else they might have to go back to the drawing boards and rework the Standard Model.
Almost two decades ago, Britain's science minister challenged experts to come up with an everyday explanation for the way the Higgs worked, and physicist David Miller came up with a comparison to Margaret Thatcher making her way through a crowded cocktail party. Whiteson and Cham use the analogy of marbles rolling across a floor, which works, too. Check out the big-format animated version on the PHD Comics Web site or on Vimeo.
If physicists at the LHC get their way, the discussion of the Higgs boson could get a lot less theoretical by the end of this year, thanks to the increase in power levels and data return from the LHC and its particle detectors. However, Nature's Geoff Brumfiel reports today that the readings from hundreds of trillions of collisions are piling up so fast that the computers are having a hard time keeping up with the analysis. He writes that all those collisions are growing into a "thick fog" that threatens to obscure the signature of the elusive Higgs. Researchers are using clever computational techniques to separate the wheat from the chaff, data-wise, and are prepared to dial back the collision rate if necessary.
If it sounds as if the physicists have it rough, just imagine how the particles must feel. That's exactly what animator Karen Cheung, Oxford physicist Alan Barr and their colleagues did in a cartoon that was created for the Oxford Sparks Web portal. Enjoy!
Oxford Sparks presents a visit to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva.
More about the Higgs and the LHC:
- Higgs vs. hype: A mini-guide
- Can physicists crack the big puzzle?
- Flash graphic: Inside the Big Bang Machine
- Flash graphic: Michio Kaku on LHC nightmares and dreams
- Msnbc.com's special report on the Large Hadron Collider
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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well presented Oxford. Who doesn't enjoy a good cartoon. Kudos for making particle physics enjoyable.(kinda reminds me of Michio Kaku)
Rob,,, Check out the Khan Academy, they really do a good job on a lot of subjects
http://www.khanacademy.org/
I hope they have some kind of safeguards to identify strange or odd blips in their massive amounts of data ....
Some strange blip , might make them think that they found the elusive particle ....
But I guess that hasn't occurred yet ....
If they do find the particle and because of the super high odds of finding one ....
How hard would it be to prove it , when asked to show evidence of another .... ??
This is not something I would like to spend a lifetime doing ....
But I do wish them luck ....
Thanks Alan ....
Ben,, Didn't Tom Hanks find it already?
As far as I can tell, the theory of the Higgs boson treats mass as a separate and distinct phenomena from gravity. Personally, I do not see how this can possibly be. To me, the concept of mass must inherently be integral to the concept of gravity in matter. This is the main problem which I am having with the theory of the Higgs boson. If I am somehow misunderstanding the theory of the Higgs boson in this regard, then please by all means correct me, anyone out there. - Rick Carter
It's thought to be the force-carrier for a field that endows subatomic particles with varying values of mass, Higgs boson is integral to mass
I don't get it either, I just hope they have fun
The Higgs field is a quantum field with a non-zero value that fills all of space, and explains why fundamental particles such as quarks and electrons have mass. The Higgs boson is an excitation of the Higgs field above its ground state, hence the name "God Particle"
Does that help?
Um.. if you're having fun, I feel good too :)
Once you figure out the "God Particle" you'll have discovered what makes mass...
The " Oh My God Particle" is much easier to understand
It's a learning experience for me,,, It's kinda fun. I never knew anything about it before
And yes there is an "Oh My God Particle" --- It's a ultra high energy cosmic ray
Doug,, Believe me, I'm not a math guy, hell I have trouble figuring out how balance a check book... But kids are being taught Quantum Physics in high school today.
We need to catch up to our children these days instead of waiting for them to catch up to us
Jim, I'm all for having kids learn stuff, or anyone who wants to, of course. My own brain seems to be shrinking though, maybe I need to eat more fish...
Fish good --- Google better.... Hurry before we in the older generation get replaced by the new Ipad
"The evolutionary end of Parents"
In this theory, does the gravitational field of matter emanate from the Higgs field generated by the Higgs boson? As far as I can tell, gravity and mass must be directly related. - RC
You are over thinking it Rick, yes gravity & mass is directly related to each other, the Higgs field is related to the "God Particle" Higgs boson is part or a creation of that field... That makes mass essentially, a sub atomic action or "excitation" or spark if you will
I really don't think I am "over thinking" it. My dilemma is basically this. In my opinion, any valid theory for mass must also account for the corresponding existence of gravity fields as well. If anything, I think they are 'under thinking' the problem myself. - RC
There is a misperception that gravity is only generated by mass. Not surprisingly, since matter and energy are equivalent, gravity is also generated by energy (including momentum and pressure). The energy of the interaction between the Higgs boson and a "matter" particle will generate a gravitational field equivalent to the mass equivalent of the energy.
(Generally speaking, I personally see mass as being generated by the interaction of quantum bound energy and quantum bound space in matter, since I personally believe matter is composed of both quantum bound energy and quantum bound space, and that when matter is converted to quantum free energy, matter is also proportionally converted to quantum free space, and that this is actually the basis for the spatial expansion (or inflation) of our Universe, which began with the "Big Bang", which was a colossal matter / antimatter reaction brought on by an incomplete inversion of the Universal Superparticle. To me, if there is any so called "God Particle", it is this original Universal Superparticle from which the entire Universe sprang.) - RC
I do over think things, so I'm aware of it when others do.. You are missing the point, Higgs boson is what makes mass... I just started learning about this stuff tonight
Who knows what is next? You could still be right, science may not have reached that point yet because of the limits of technology... How do you measure or weigh anything smaller than a sub atomic particle? Mass & Gravity can be measured & weighed from what I recall from my high school science class back in '65
Thanks Neb, that helps.. Gravity is not always generated by mass. Hope that helps Rick
As in (2) in the political party analogy. So that you don't really need a Higgs boson particle (Margaret Thatcher); if some energy is introduced into the Higgs field, the resulting wave will still occur - a wave which creates gravity ??
(Just to briefly touch on some larger related issues, we can actually know that we live in a closed system, finite, curved space Universe, because we can look out in any direction from here on Earth, and if we look out and back far enough in both space and time, we are always looking out and back to the very same point in space and time, which in turn is the origin of the Universe (also known as the "Big Bang"). There was no free space in our Universe prior to the original explosion known as the "Big Bang". All of the free space in our Universe is a direct consequence of the conversion of mass to energy. (I personally believe that the so called 'missing antimatter' of our Universe was actually blown down into the bottom of a universal "black hole" in the course of the "Big Bang".) In addition, I believe that much of the so called missing mass of our Universe is to be found in quantum free space itself, and I tend to think that quantum free space can vary in density based upon the influence of gravitational fields. And I also believe that the acceleration force in the outer fringes of our Universe (which they currently attribute to so called "Dark Energy"), is actually our old familiar force known as gravity, because the inertial expansion of our Universe has overtaken the spatial expansion of our Universe, and this is causing these outer portions of our Universe to accelerate back together again under our old familiar force known as gravity.) - Rick Carter
Rick,,, I've got some serious brain strain going on here... Watch the two videos in the article, it does a real good job of explaining Higgs & the theories & should help answer your questions
Catch you later, lights out for me tonight
Sorry, my cosmological view of the Universe invariably impinges (to some degree) upon my theories regarding quantum mechanics. I just wanted to share where I was coming from on a larger scale. Sorry for any brain strain. I will call it a night now too, so have a nice night! - RC
Actually Rick, we do not know that we live in a finite curved space. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity allows a positively curved space, a negative curved space, or a flat space dependent on the average density of the universe. Current observations indicate that space is flat to a very high degree, although that does not necessarily mean it is flat. One of the arguments for inflationary Big Bang theory is that space MAY be curved (neg or pos) but inflation increased its size so much that it just appears flat. No one knows for sure.
The lack of anti-matter in the universe is currently attributed to an asymmetry in certain obscure particle interactions that slightly favor normal matter over antimatter.
The amount of energy in the ground level of the vacuum is not big enough for the "missing" mass. That is why dark matter (based on observations of stars rotating in other galaxies) has been postulated to account for about 23% of the mass of the universe.
Dark energy does not cause "the acceleration force in the outer fringes of our Universe". Dark matter is theorized to be causing ALL space in the universe to expand. Einstein's General Relatively accounts for this with the appropraiate choice of the "Cosmological Constant". He originally added the constant to his field equations because he believed he needed a repulsive factor associated with the vacuum that would counteract the contraction of the universe caused by gravity. In his day, the universe was believed to be in steady state. Now days, the feeling is that the initial expansion of the universe from the big bang has been slowed by gravity up until about 7 billion yeras ago. At that point, the average density of the universe (which is decreasing with the expansion of the universe) became diluted enough that dark energy (which is trying to expand space) overcame the effects of contraction from gravity causing the universe to expand at an increasing rather than decreasing rate. One final thing. Although the cosmological constant has been used in modeling a universe with dark energy, it does not say what it is (if it even exists). That is still a big unknown.
In an unrelated development, researchers in the behavioral sciences have recently discovered the elusive G-spot (or, more accurately, the OMG-spot) in women, the excitation of which would tend to subvert the effects of gravity in both genders. . .
Where are the anti-science trolls? Must be sleeping in this morning.
Anyhoo...this research is interesting. I can't wait to hear about their results at a level a non-particle physicist can understand.
The anti-science trolls mainly come out of their caves for stories about evolution. They take the "God particle" as proof they are right.
i'm waiting for sheldon and leonard to weigh in. it's still beyond my mental reach when they discuss particle physics on ''big bang theory'' but so much more fun!
No one seems to be bothered by the "self-fulfilling-prophecy" aspect of this "search." A slavish belief in the validity of a predicted outcome has led many a scientist to a fleetingly-pleasant complacency that ultimately hamstrung scientific progress. The danger of looking specifically for a particular suite of phenomena is that, by simple chance, you will find them if you look hard enough, especially if you set up your experiment to produce that particular outcome. They may eventually find an experimental outcome that matches what they have designated to be the criteria for "proving" the existence of the Higgs. The danger is that they will have not considered any other explanation for that outcome. It's like profiling a criminal as a middle-aged Italian who writes poetry and has a love of Nascar. The police start looking for that man and when they find him, they start to construe all of the evidence as indicating he is guilty. If the evidence isn't there, then they just keep looking and looking, disregarding all other possibilities as "unreasonable" because they are vested in their profile, just as theoretical physicists are vested in their equations - simply because they have "worked in the past (well, most of the time!)" The man may be arrested, just as the curren theories are enshrined, but eventually time brings the real criminal to light - and the theorists are seen as fools. It's better to let the data lead inductively to the theory rather than forcing the experiment to deductively serve the theory. I am not accusing all of the involved researchers of doing this, but there is certainly a strong effort being place upon them to conform to this inversion of the scientific method.
Sounds good philosophically, but in the real world of today, data and observations about the things in question can only be obtained with a great deal of 'forcing,' such as using these huge colliders, and powerful telescopes and microscopes in other sciences. Any theorizing from more readily observable phenomena has been done by scientists of past centuries, and confirmed more and more over time. The analogy with the police isn't working for me, since no crime has been committed by these bosons and no retribution is being pursued. We're not talking about objects which can choose their own behavior, obedient or disobedient.
I don't agree with your point at all in the case of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson was originally proposed as a solution to an issue with gauge invariance of the electroweak force. The electroweak force was a unification ot he electromagnetic force and weak nuclear force. The same idea was used to add the strong nuclear force (although that is not totally accepted yet). They were able to predict the three bosons that carry the weak nuclear force. The bosons were later discovered in particle accelerators and the researchers won a Nobel prize. The gauge invariance of the electroweak force had a problem though. The masses of the bosons need to be zero in a gauge theory (but they were quite massive). Peter Higgs came up with a mathematical solution (the Higgs Boson) that gave the previously massless particles - mass. Nobody believes the gauge theories are wrong. Something is needed to break the gauge symmetry and give at least some particles mass. If not the Higgs, then there has to be something similar. More to the point, the discovery of the Higgs would be a huge achievement. Every shred of the evidence will be critiqued and peer reviewed. Nobody is going to claim to find the Higgs without being positive they found it.
to run the collider as many times as this report suggests just to find something that they may or may not find and something which can not be seen and has not phyisical form and something that can only be made use of by one proffession id and when thet may or may not find it is not only a waste of energy and time but it is also a waste of money that those countries taking part in this project can not affored to expend when all is seems that they are investting in is a dream which is all about something which may or may not exist as it has never been proved that the higgs bowson may or may not exist as it only ever existed in the mind of a mathematican as something that could possible found or possible not found "as i have said all it ever existed as was a ( dream ) in the mind of one man and that is what it is, is a DREAM"
Most scientists chasing the tail of the Higgs are cartoonish to be sure--what a waste of time.
Gee, what about all those cartoonish scientists who formulated the electromagnetic and quantum theory that allow you to use computers and the internet to spout your anti-science drivel?
Everything is a waste of money I guess.....oh, except of course Bush's trillion dollar wars. Studying the nature of the universe is just an extension of studying light and gravity by Newton, relativity by Einstein, QED by Feynman, etc for Bohr, Rutherford,Curie....on and on. These were people studying the unknown......they changed our way of life. As a physician I use many of their dicoveries. We all do. GPS wouldn't work without relativity.So.....this is the farthest thing from a waste of time and money. Unless you want to call a 600 dollar toilet seat at the Pentagon a frugal purchase. Naysaying the LHC and the work of the scientists there is ridiculous.....unless you have a huge list of all the wasteful things going on in the world........LHC would be at the bottom of that list. (As a thrice wounded former Marine combat veteran I am trying my best not to call the critics of the LHC work dumbasses....oh darn....it happened anyway)
One physicist ask another, "What's a matter?" The other answers, "Nothing's the mattter, what's the matter with you?"
It is often stated in quantum physics that it is consciousness that gives energy a location in the time/space continuum. Therefore that old saying is true: If there's no mind, then there's no matter"
Thanks for sharing the info. Its such a wonderful information.
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