Higgs Boson Discovered?!

[a_unique_person]

Despite the fact that I hate the headline ("God particle" ) I am very, very interested to see what this is all about. Looks like a big announcement coming on Wednesday...

Scientists find evidence of 'God particle'


Anyone here got an inside scoop on this?

From what I have read, it was originally called the 'goddam' particle, but it wasn't seen to be a polite way to refer to it. Hence the slight change.

 

[Dragoonster]

Apparently, this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Lederman

And yes, he won a Nobel.

Thanks. Sorry for my bombast. Sorry to Lederman if he was just being him at the time. But at least in America, or at least in Yahoo news articles and other non-science sites I've seen, the "Higg's Boson" is only mentioned (if at all) deeply within an article of the headline "God Particle..."

And this really irks me. Waaaaaay to much fractionousness just from the term itself. Scientists should not, for example, call Evolution "The Jesus Genetics" or somesuch.

a_unique_person]From what I have read, it was originally called the 'goddam' particle, but it wasn't seen to be a polite way to refer to it. Hence the slight change.

Didn't know that! Thanks.

Still though, don't see why if Goddamn Particle was impolite it should've been renamed God Particle. Kind of a 180-degree change, rather than slight. Or maybe you're joshing me (?)

eta: Or joshing someone, sorry, I mistakenly thought you'd replied to me instead of Mattus

 

[Brown]

Anyone here got an inside scoop on this?

Perhaps the greatest psychics in the universe saw it coming (as demonstrated by the Post Your 2012 Predictions Here thread):

2. Discovery of the Higgs boson will be confirmed, but there will be a discovery of a new problem with the Standard Model.
2a. Nearly all media outlets will insist on calling the Higgs particle "The God Particle," and a group of scientists will politely ask that this naming convention be discontinued. The scientists will be personally insulted by various religious groups because of this.

The headlines over the past few days have largely used "The God Particle" in the headlines or the opening paragraphs; but some reports have mentioned (as others have observed) that the terminology was intended as a playful blasphemy rather than a term of reverence.

 

[BenBurch]

Apparently, this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Lederman

And yes, he won a Nobel.

My ex-boss, too.

 

[Darat]

It is hardly surprising that the scientists haven't found the Higgs boson, isn't it meant to be something to do with gravity? Yet they try to detect it in a vacuum!

 

[BenBurch]

It is hardly surprising that the scientists haven't found the Higgs boson, isn't it meant to be something to do with gravity? Yet they try to detect it in a vacuum!

Vacuums and Gravity both suck, though, so perhaps it is supposed to work by sympathetic magic?

 

[Cuddles]

The latter has already been done, and there is already some positive evidence (something like 3 sigma for each of the two experiments).

What I've heard is that this is going to be combined results that take it to 4 sigma. So probably not enough to say they've definitely found it but getting a lot closer and, importantly, more consistent across the different experiments.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Currently they're in a superposition where they both have and have not found evidence. Publication collapses the wave function, you see...

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm delighted that the announcement, if it's made, will be made in my fair city. I wish I could say that everyone here was in an excited state (sorry), but it would be a lie.

Oh, whoever organized a conference in Melbourne in July has never had a look at our Weather Bureau website.

I think I'd prefer July over December. It's easy enough to put a coat on. Heat waves, OTOH, not so easy to take.

 

[edd]

So when they discover the Higgs boson and it has a mass of 125GeV or thereabouts, do they have to start looking for the boson that gives the Higgs boson a mass?

It's Higgs bosons all the way down!

 

[quarky]

I suppose there will be a Satan particle as well?

 

[Belz...]

You called ?

 

[Roboramma]

I suppose there will be a Satan particle as well?

Quarks are already quite well understood.

 

[Dragoonster]

So when they discover the Higgs boson and it has a mass of 125GeV or thereabouts, do they have to start looking for the boson that gives the Higgs boson a mass?

It's Higgs bosons all the way down!

Don't you know what "God Particle" means? The Higg's boson is the end-all, be-all.

"GOD" particle. At least, that's how the media will continue to portray it, in order to garner views/clicks.


Heh, "they". I guess you're referring to scientists? They've already found the God Particle. What else is there?

[sorry, I'm using your post to be very sarcastic; and bitter]

 

[sol invictus]

I think it's important to keep a sense of persepective about this, and understand the distinction between the media hype, which CERN don't correct, and the physics. Take a look at A Zeptospace Odyssey: A Journey into the Physics of the LHC on Amazon. It’s by Gian Francesco Giudice, a physicist at CERN with a hundred-plus papers to his name. There's a search-inside on Amazon. If you search on Higgs sector you can read pages 173 through 175. He starts by saying: “The most inappropriate name ever given to the Higgs boson is 'The God particle'. The name gives the impression that the Higgs boson is the central particle of the Standard Model, governing its structure. But this is very far from the truth.” He also says the Higgs mechanism is “the toilet” of the standard model, and is “frightfully ad-hoc”. On page 174 he says: “It is sometimes said that the discovery of the Higgs boson will explain the mystery of the origin of mass. This statement requires a good deal of qualification.” To cut to the chase he says “In summary, the Higgs mechanism accounts for about 1 per cent of the mass of ordinary matter, and for only 0.2 per cent of the mass of the universe. This is not nearly enough to justify the claim of explaining the origin of mass.”

That latter claim is true - the Higgs is not the origin of most mass. But it does play an absolutely essential role, one that's quite distinct from that of any other particle in the standard model - it mediates the breaking of electroweak symmetry. The trouble is, explaining that is much more difficult than just saying "it's the origin of mass", and most people don't bother to try.

As for the Higgs mechanism being "the toilet" of the SM, I totally disagree. I think it's quite elegant and beautiful, actually. But those are of course just qualitative feelings. The facts are that the Higgs particle is an essential part of the SM, without which it is logically and mathematically inconsistent.

 

[Beerina]

Apparently, this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Lederman

And yes, he won a Nobel.

In his defense, in honor of how hard to find it it is, he wanted to rename it The Goddamn Particle.

 

[theprestige]

Other than distaste for dumbing down abstruse concepts for a general audience, and the usual atheist squeamishness about any reference to "god" anywhere even as a figure of speech or colloqualism, what's the objection to calling it the "god particle"?

As sol points out (and with respect), "the Higgs particle is an essential part of the SM, without which it is logically and mathematically inconsistent."

 

[quarky]

So,

The 'dog particle'?

 

[Olowkow]

...what's the objection to calling it the "god particle"?

Why not the اللهparticle?

May as well let Allah in on sharing the discovery as well. I can just imagine theists all a twitter thinking "god" has been proven.

 

[quarky]

Hence, dog.