Hello…smash…smash…‘God Particle’…‘The Champagne Bottle Boson’…Are you home?

The previous article on Advaita and E= mc², ended with a question on what happened before Big Bang, though the question still remains unanswered, scientists are in hot pursuit to find out what happened after Big Bang and how many particles ‘received’ mass. 

Scientists at CERN physics centre near Geneva are smashing protons after protons with extremely high energy particle beams inside 27-Km long circular tunnel, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has become the cynosure of physicists and particle physicists in particular. The objective is to find Higgs Boson, the princesse lointaine of particle physics.

One possible signature of a Higgs boson from a simulated proton-proton collision. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson 

Scientists have to smash something to find something…hmm…

I am damn sure many would be asking 'Why this Kolaveri' about God Particle, why this ado about God Particle?

Well, let’s take help of "Five Ws" (and one H) or six honest serving-men of Rudyard Kipling (What, Why, When, How and Who) and keep ourselves abreast with this imaginary particle that is known by various names, like God Particle (this is a popular term and a term that scientists hate to love) or Higgs Boson (this term is what scientists love) and as per the renaming competition the alternate name that emerged was Champagne Bottle Boson, since the bottom of a champagne bottle is in the shape of the Higgs potential

I will address some pertinent questions-

What is God Particle, Higgs Boson? 

Higgs Boson is a hypothetical elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. It belongs to a class of subatomic particles known as bosons. Named after British physicist Peter Higgs, is posited to have been the agent that gave mass and energy to matter after the Big Bang creation of the universe 13.7 billion years ago. 

Why it is so important to find it?

The Higgs boson is regarded as the Holy Grail, the cornerstone to understanding how the universe came into being.

Existence of Higgs Boson would further validate the SM as essentially correct, as it is the only elementary particle predicted by the SM that has not yet been observed in particle physics experiments and would also explain why elementary particles have mass.

Physicists theorize that before the Big Bang, there was only one, unified fundamental force, and every particle was massless and the after the bang, within milliseconds or even within smaller time frame, the universe cooled, these forces split and as universe started to cool an invisible force known as the Higgs field formed.

This Higgs field, permeated the entire universe and was made up of zillions of tiny particles called as Higgs Boson. This Higgs Boson is believed to be the carrier of Higgs field and as other particles pass though it, they ‘receive’ mass through their interactions with Higgs Boson. So it is necessarily, the Higgs Boson that lends mass to the earlier massless particles that existed before Big Bang, as without this mass, such particles would vroom through the universe at the speed of light making it impossible to bind these fast and massless particles so as to form atoms that form this entire universe.

The absence of Higgs Boson would mean that our mission to understand fundamental nature of matter and what happened after big bang continues a little bit more….

When and Who postulated Higgs Boson?

The existence of the Higgs boson was first postulated in 1964 by Edinburgh University physicist Peter Higgs and that the very reason why this imaginary particle gets its name Higgs Boson.

It would be interesting to know from where and who coined the term God Particle. In his very popular and very aptly titled book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer,What is the Question? Leon Lederman first came up with this term called God Particle. Lederman said he gave the Higgs boson the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive," but jokingly added that a second reason was because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing."

Needless to say ever ravenous for new names media guys lapped up this new term and moniker struck the chord with people and is stuck to Higgs Boson.

 

How will scientists find it?

Scientists at CERN physics centre near Geneva will smash protons with extremely high energy particle beams inside 27-Km long circular tunnel, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This energy is at such a scale that it hasn’t yet been achieved, certainly not so after the formation of the universe. Thus quintessentially, scientists will be mimicking conditions akin to the moment just after Big Bang. After each impact, the mammoth detectors of LHC will collect data for evidences showing the existence of boson particle. However this particle would be very difficult to trace since it decays almost immediately into two jets of hadrons and two jets of electrons

ATLAS detector

 

CMS detector at CERN

Source for Atlas and CMS (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2073037/Higgs-boson-God-particle-Atom-smasher-reveals-key-universe.html)

The recent reports from two distinctly different experiments (without technical mumbo-jumbo, about how different these experiments are, all I can say is one experiment is conducted in the United States and other in Europe!!!) are indicative of the existence of Higgs Boson, however, they are still far from being conclusive.

Is this Higgs Boson, currently imaginary particle, the Primordial energy, the Ultimate, Advaita that we  talked about? I think Time (4^th dimension) wombs the answer… 

But CMS scientist Bruce Kennedy, of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, said: ‘If the Higgs is found, it will only be the start. ‘We will have to understand its properties and if it fits in correctly with our theoretical explanations'.  

This never ending quest of ‘What before’ and ‘What After’ will continue, for this quest has kept mankind afloat for eons and would continue to do so…