Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have reached a level of certainty worthy of a “discovery” with regards to the existence of the Higgs boson. The particle is now believed to have a mass of 125-126 GeV. The confidence level is high according to the scientists involved; 4.9 sigma, which is a 1-in-2 million chance.
The evidence is piling up… everything points in the direction that the Higgs is there.
Prof Stefan Soldner-Rembold, University of Manchester
The ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN presented their latest results in the search for the long-sought Higgs boson. Both experiments have strong indications for the presence of a new particle, which could be the Higgs boson. Further analysis is needed to see if this particle is the Higgs we expect, or something more exotic. A full analysis should be available by the end of July.
Once the details of this new particle are sorted out, we will all be asking about supersymmetry. Will supersymmetry be the next big discovery in physics?
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So, what iomplications does this have on the world if it is the higgs?
The Higgs is one of the missing peices of the standard model of particle physics, or should I now say that is was one of the missing peices. Anyway, a delatiled study of the decays observed will let us know if we have the Higgs as expected or something more exotic.
The standard model of particle physics is rather ad hoc and has many unattractive features. The Higgs mechanism is a rather ugly feature that is not based on any deep mathematics. In contrast, gauge theories in general, which form the backbone of the stanard are based sound mathematical principles. Why the standard model is based on SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) is not understood, but gauge symmetry remains an interesting statment founded in differential geometry. Gauge symmetry is key in understanding the forces of nature.
The Higgs field is coupled to massless quark and lepton fields via a Yukawa coupling. As far as I know, there is no real deep mathematics behind this, nothing as fundamental as gauge symmetry. Of course note that the Higgs-Kibble mechanism allows the spontaneous breaking of gauge theory and gives rise to masses to some of the gauge fields.
An interesting idea by Y Ne’eman and S Sternberg is that the Higgs appears as the zeroth order component of a Quillen superconnetion. To me this could be something leading to a deeper understanding of the Higgs. This is something I should explore in more detail.
Also remember that the Higgs mass is connected to supersymmetry, that is if nature realises supersymmetry. Understanding the Higgs could be part of the discovery of supersymmetry.