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You are here: Home / Science & Technology / They Found The One

They Found The One

by | 93 Comments

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This is pretty amazing:

The city that never sleeps was mostly asleep. The bars were closed. But at 4:45 A.M., inside a library on Columbia University’s Manhattan campus, Michael Tuts was getting ready to pop the champagne.

The physicist had good reason to celebrate. The massive team of scientists of which he is a part—3,000 researchers working on the ATLAS experiment at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider—had just announced the discovery of a new particle. The particle looks an awful lot like the long-sought, and long-hypothetical, Higgs boson, most famous for explaining why elementary particles, such as quarks, have mass. A competing, comparably sized experiment, known as CMS, had arrived at a very similar finding at the collider facility.

***

Unlike some past announcements centered on the Higgs in the past few years, which have produced as much ambiguity and confusion as anything else, this one did not disappoint. ATLAS physicists said that their most recent data reveal the presence of an unknown particle with a mass of about 126.5 GeV, or 126.5 billion electron-volts. An electron-volt is a physicist’s unit of mass or energy; for comparison, the proton has a mass of about 1 GeV. The CMS collaboration found evidence for a new particle with a mass of 125.3 GeV.

Crucially, both teams’ findings appear exceptionally robust. In physics terms, evidence for a new particle requires a “3-sigma” measurement, corresponding to a 1-in-740 chance that a random fluke could explain the observations, and a claim of discovery requires a 5-sigma effect, or a 1-in–3.5 million shot that the observations are due to chance. In December representatives of the two experiments had announced what one called “intriguing, tantalizing hints” of something brewing in the collider data. But those hints fell short of the 3-sigma level. The new ATLAS finding met not just that level of significance but cleared the gold standard 5-sigma threshold, and CMS very nearly did as well, with a 4.9-sigma finding.

Here’s a quick explanation of what the Higgs Boson is. Pretty amazing breakthrough.

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  2. 2.

    slag

    WhereTF is Levenson? I’ve been anxiously awaiting his disquisition.

    But yes, very cool. Between this and curing cancer, today has been pretty good.

  3. 3.

    jwb

    I found tantalizing evidence that this post exists, but then it disappeared. Neat trick.

    ETA: And now the post seems to be here for good.

  5. 5.

    MattF

    Standard Model wins, pretty much. Also, the experiment didn’t destroy the Universe, so it’s all good.

  6. 6.

    Yutsano

    There are more things in Heaven and Earth than can be dreamt of in your philosophy indeed Horatio.

  11. 11.

    MattF

    @John Weiss: Considering that we have never had a direct observation of gravitational radiation, observation of a single quantum of gravitational radiation isn’t going to happen any time soon. IMO. See LIGO for current grav. rad. situation.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @slag:
    Took the words out of my fingers. I’ve been eagerly waiting for Tom’s take on this.

    Did he say something about “going on vacation” or some such ridiculousness a few days ago? If so, he needs to time his “vacations” for when there’s no news coming out of the LHC.

  14. 14.

    Cap'n Magic

    BoingBoing’s canonical list of Higgs Boson tweets. There be some doozies there.

    On the day we reserve to tell ourselves America is great – July 4 – Europe reminds us that we suck at science. #HiggsBoson

    — Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) July 4, 2012

    Overheard on the newsdesk: “I don’t care what the Higgs boson headline is, just make sure we spell Hadron correctly.”

    — Guardian style guide (@guardianstyle) July 4, 2012

  16. 16.

    PeakVT

    On the day we reserve to tell ourselves America is great – July 4 – Europe reminds us that we suck at science.

    FSM, that’s annoying. We don’t suck at science; we suck at taxing ourselves enough to make investments in megaprojects.

  17. 17.

    Davis X. Machina

    If everything there is, or ever was, was made at one go, only 6000 years ago, why has this Higgs-thingy been so bloody hard to find?

  18. 18.

    JWL

    Thank you very much for the link to Scientific American magazine. It’s unlikely I would have stumbled on it otherwise.

  21. 21.

    mapaghimagsik

    Why did the God Particle kill my cat?

    ps And did anyone watch that video and think. “Its about time they found phlogiston.”

  26. 26.

    BGinCHI

    When I saw the headline, I thought it referred to an honest Republican.

    But alas, even those are harder to find than an elemental particle.

  27. 27.

    srv

    We need to be careful about trusting any ‘scientists’ until their emails have been investigated.

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    @BGinCHI:

    When I saw the headline, I thought it referred to an honest Republican.

    For FSM’s sake, man! There are limits to even science!

  30. 30.

    Kristine

    Neat video over at the Guardian about what a Higgs Boson is and what it does.

    Apologies if it’s already been posted on another thread, but it’s a good elementary explanation using common household objects.

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    Three different links to three different explanations and they’re all videos.

    Perhaps they think that people who can read already know what a Higgs is.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Google ads thinks I would like to study to become a Science Teacher.

    Google ads doesn’t know me quite as well as they think they do.

  38. 38.

    JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left

    __
    __
    mapaghimagsik:

    And did anyone watch that video and think. “Its about time they found phlogiston.”

    Not exactly what I thought, but yeah, I did think there was something very aether-like (and thus vaguely cognitively dissonant) in Musser’s description of the Higgs condensate.

    .

  39. 39.

    mellowjohn

    @Joel: fermi lab has had its budget cut and cut and cut.
    from wikipedia: “The Fermilab budget has been continuously below inflation over the last several years, and Fermilab failed to attract more funding sources and this resulted in reducing staff levels (by 100 in 2005).[11] The new director of the lab and the new management are working hard to bring the International Linear Collider (ILC) to Fermilab. However, the decision by Congress to fund the ILC at only a quarter of the requested $60 million significantly reduces the chances that Fermilab or any other U.S. research facility will host the ILC. Due to Fermilab’s financial situation, on December 20, 2007, director Piermaria Oddone announced the planned layoffs of 10% of Fermilab’s staff.”

  40. 40.

    hitchhiker

    When physicists stand up and cheer, weep, and talk about opening the champagne they’ve been saving for 20 years, you know something giant has happened . . . easy to forget that we live in such a marvelous time.

  41. 41.

    JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left

    __
    __
    So I was making glazed donuts, but ran out of sugar. Rather than run to the store, I just knocked at the neighbor’s door, started talking about the Higgs Boson, and collected the glaze from their eyeballs.

    .

  42. 42.

    chrome agnomen

    now CERN can start looking for the romney truth boson, the most elusive particle known. it may not even exist outside wingnuttia.

  44. 44.

    JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left

    @chrome agnomen:

    now CERN can start looking for the romney truth boson …

    It will never be found. The Romney Truth Boson only exists in the black hole of a Cayman Islands bank account.

    .

  49. 49.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I thought that Eberts tweet about this was cute

    whenever I hear about this “Higgs Boson” I keep imagining tiny buffalo

    Made me smile anyway.

  52. 52.

    Cassidy

    So, after reading and trying to decipher scientist speak, including this thread, what are the practical applications of this. I’m not suggesting science is no good without practical uses. I really don’t get how this affects things. Are we going to make warp drives and get the Borg’s attention?

  54. 54.

    BGinCHI

    @Cassidy: As soon as we win the war on women and the poors we can have all those shiny things.

    It was in all the papers.

  59. 59.

    Cassidy

    @MikeJ: OKay. So are we talking “We discovered the Higgs-Boson and now we’re gonna come up with new energy storage technologies and make super sweet batteries and end our fossil fuel dependency” or “Cool. That’s neato”.

    Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking this one and I want to be as excited as the science people because new discoveries are always neat. I just don’t get it.

    Edit: @Baud: Fair enough.

  62. 62.

    JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left

    __
    __
    Baud:

    No practical applications in the foreseeable future.

    Are you saying that practical applications are unforeseeable?

    .

  63. 63.

    rikyrah

    while I am not against science, this is one of those things that sorta makes me go ‘be careful what you wish for’

  65. 65.

    JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left

    @S. cerevisiae:

    Is string theory now dead?

    No. String Theory is a theory that would underlie the Standard Model. Basically, it posits that the constituent particles and fields of the Standard Model — and possibly the physics of other universes — are composed of multi-dimensional strings.

    I suppose it’s possible, maybe probable, that some physicists will argue that the discovery of the Higgs Boson makes string theory moot, but the two theories really address two different levels of physical structure.

    .

  66. 66.

    Robert Sneddon

    The US can hold its head up in the science stakes if the “Seven minutes of terror” don’t pan out on the 7th of July when the Curiosity rover lands on Mars.

    The seven minutes in question are the delay between the actual very complicated landing sequence happening on automatic and the controllers back on Earth finding out whether it worked or whether it didn’t.

    http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=49

  67. 67.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @Cap’n Magic: Unfortunately Mr.DeGrasseTyson This is America, where the prevailing/Republican/Tea Party statement is

    The Bible says it, I believe it, That settles it!

    Lord break this country up send the Confederacy away.

  69. 69.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @Cassidy: This question is a great example of the difference between scientists and engineers. As a physicist, my answer is “Who cares?”

  70. 70.

    lacp

    The Higgs Bosun: Tax or Mandate?

    And, of course, this is especially good news for John McCain.

  71. 71.

    S. cerevisiae

    @JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left: Thanks for the clarification. I try to follow physics and I have read some Brian Greene and Stephen Hawking but it really stretches my brain. I’ve always been rooting for string theory, I just like the idea that everything is just vibrating strings. Maybe it’s because I like listening to guitar.

  74. 74.

    Gustopher

    The Higgs Condesate sounds like the Ether all over again. It fills the space around us, and makes the vacuum of space a physical medium….

  75. 75.

    scav

    Somehow some of the discussion here runs along the line of “Hurray! We found evidence of Space Aliens!” and Cassidy asking if they’ll show up and do his dishes this Friday and, if not, what good are they? Though, must admit, my default inaccurate image of Higgs Bosun is probably taken from off a naval ship at Trafalgar. If he survives Higgs might even make Lieut.

  76. 76.

    gnomedad

    @Gustopher:

    The Higgs Condesate sounds like the Ether all over again. It fills the space around us, and makes the vacuum of space a physical medium….

    It surrounds us; penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.

  77. 77.

    James E. Powell

    @Davis X. Machina:

    If everything there is, or ever was, was made at one go, only 6000 years ago, why has this Higgs-thingy been so bloody hard to find?

    “It’s a mystery” – Every nun I ever had in school

  78. 78.

    Cassidy

    @scav: I think I made my intentions pretty clear. If you’re too much of a jackass to read, that would be your problem.

  80. 80.

    scav

    @Cassidy: You may think your intentions were clear but I seem to have company in how they were interpreted on the other end of the communication. Not that I mind the little Cassidy-thinks-I’m-a-Jackass pin. I don’t play in the big enough leagues to get a Moore award.

    @Comrade Scrutinizer: And let’s not even attempt the bottomless pit of my spelling, which is halted mid-Atlantic with sharp deviations into the 1800s and firmly rooted in chaos besides.

  81. 81.

    Narcissus

    I’ve read several things about this and watched a couple of videos and still don’t get it. Can someone explain this to me like I’m not sheldon cooper

    thanks

  83. 83.

    Cap'n Magic

    @Mr Stagger Lee: I’m with you there-a vote that would allow those states who wish to seceede from the USA to do so-with all that entiails should should such a vote work-their own money, their own FAA, treaties with other nations with whim they trade, etc. etc.

  85. 85.

    Mike G

    The only science Repukes ever supported either involved blowing shit up, subsidizing their corporate cronies, or fundies searching for Noah’s Ark on Mt Ararat to ‘prove’ the bible is literally true.

  88. 88.

    Leeds man

    @Narcissus: The Standard Model is a nice way of classifying the particles which mediate and undergo the electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions. However, without additional input, it says all the mediating particles it describes are massless. The photon (EM) and gluon (strong) are massless, but the weak mediators are not.

    The Higgs mechanism is a mathematical trick (an additional field along with, and interacting with, the other particle fields) which can be formulated so as to give the correct observed masses to the particles mediating the weak interaction. As a bonus, it predicts the existence of a “left-over” particle – the Higgs boson.

  92. 92.

    moderateindy

    Higgs is basically about explaining what gives a body mass, and I think looking for it has been a huge waste of time, because it ignores the obvious answer; high fructose corn syrup and beer, oh yes, and Jeebus……silly scientists.

  93. 93.

    mclaren

    As usual, General Crackpot Fake Name is completely utterly totally wrong. Whatever comes out of the Higgs discovery, weapons won’t be it.

    Now comes the big challenge: determining the exact type of coupling the Higgs takes. Right now we know the Higgs exists, we know its approximate mass, but we don’t know the details — how it self-couples, and precisely how it interacts with other particles. To find out the details of the Higgs coupling we’ll need a lot more measurements at higher energies. Ideally we’ll need a different type of accelerator other than a cyclotron: a linear accelerator would be ideal.

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