Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Discovery of the Higgs Boson!


Back on July 4th of this year, physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN announced that they may have a found the much sought after particle called the Higgs Boson. One of the main reasons scientists built the LHC was to look for and hopefully find evidence of the Higgs. But what exactly is the Higgs boson and why is it so important?



To put it simply, the Higgs boson and the accompanying Higgs field are the reason why objects have mass, or in other words, why we take up space. For example, an astronaut in outerspace weighs nothing, as no large body is gravitationally attracting him. But the astronaut still has mass, he still takes up space. But what entity gives him mass, since it's not gravity that is responsible.  The theoretical answer to this is the Higgs field. Physicists think that a Higgs field pervades all of empty space, and Higgs bosons fill this field. When a particle enters the Higgs field, the Higgs bosons crowd around it, making it difficult for the particle to move and thus it feels heavy or massive. Think of it like a celebrity walking into a party. Everyone at the party crowds around the celebrity, making it hard for them to move through the room and thus they feel more massive. The Higgs field interacts with different types of particles in different ways, and the reason for this is not very well understood. But, if we have evidence that the Higgs boson does exist, then we can study it and hopefully answer this and many other questions associated with its discovery!

For a great explanation of the Higgs boson, check out this Ph. D. Comics movie!
Image Credit: Ph.D. Comics