Higgs Boson: Physicists' Hunt for the Most Wanted Particle

Born on the Fourth of July – that’s how history will remember the Higgs boson-like (until it can be said with 100 percent accuracy) particle that physicists today announced in Geneva. It’s a red letter day for science, physics in particular which has been losing its charm to biology in recent decades.

First of all the big news: two groups of researchers at CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Geneva, announced that they have almost found the missing particle that explains the fabric of the universe. First proposed in the 1960s, Higgs boson is considered to be the last missing piece in the prevailing theory of the universe’s tiniest building blocks, the Standard Model. The Model explains all the properties of the particles but doesn't explain how they have mass.

In plain speak, Higgs can be said to be the DNA of the physical world. Just as DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the rule base which runs the biological world, Higgs will explain the physical world, its structure and nature.  It is ‘the’ particle which gives mass to all other particles in the universe.

For a detailed scientific explanation, you can read the Wired Science story here, and a blow-by-blow account of the announcement in New Scientist. For a lovely set of images here’s what Designweek has to offer.

While the Higgs is undoubtedly the most important discovery in 16 years, after the top quark was discovered in 1995, what was endearingly fascinating about today’s announcement was that Peter Higgs was invited to the conference, the physicist who first proposed this theory and after whom the most-wanted particle is named. “I am astounded at the amazing speed with which these results have emerged,” said Prof Higgs. “I never expected this to happen in my lifetime and shall be asking my family to put some champagne in the fridge.”

In fact, the two groups, ATLAS and CMS, had hinted at this in their 13 December, 2011 announcement. When I spoke to Vivek Sharma, a physicist at the University of California,San Diego, and one of the CMS leaders, then, he had said, “Science requires much higher standards of proof than we have shown so far.  Yet we are confident, that with more data, we will be in a position to provide it by next year this time (perhaps even next summer). IF what we have a whiff of, is the real thing.”

Well, summer is here and so is the announcement.

Now, what’s next?

Even as you read this, proton beams are circulating the Large Hadron Collider, collisions are happening and fresh data is being generated. Sudeshna Banerjee, a CMS collaborator from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, says if there are 10 ways of searching this particle, then only two, but the most sensitive ones, have been undertaken so far. More analysis will emerge in the next few weeks or months.

Even though physicists have a comprehensive plan of work for the next five years, it could go in different directions.

What if the particle turns out to be indeed the Higgs boson of the Standard Model?

At this point all we can objectively claim is that the new particle we have found is “consistent” with some kind of a Higgs boson; not THE Higgs boson of the Standard model, says Sharma, who is currently at CERN. “What we are seeing could also be consistent with other exotic Higgs like particle.”

We need to take much more data and do detailed studies to test that hypothesis. LHC has just extended the LHC running this year by additional three months to go after this, he says.

What if in the next few months data shows it is some other particle, not the Higgs boson of the Standard Model?

Then there will be NO DOUBT that LHC will find other new particles and phenomena. It could be more than one Higgs boson or it could be very massive Photon like particle or extra-dimensions of space.

We KNOW already that SM is an incomplete picture of nature and new phenomena must lie at the energy scale of around 1 TeV, he says. “The most boring thing for me would be if it turns out to be the Standard model Higgs boson,” Sharma adds.

Well, boring indeed as the Higgs explains only four percent of the universe. Scientists say they have no clue about what makes up the remaining 96 percent of the universe. This was pointed out by Perlmetter et al in a shocking set of measurements a few years ago for which they were awarded 2011 physics Nobel Prize.

“Physicists now talk of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ in the universe...which basically means that they have no real clue. Clues require experimental observations and this is why several, multi-million dollar space based astro-particle physics projects have been launched in the last few years,” says Sharma.

In the next few months scientists will unravel the specific properties of this particle and see if it matches the description in the Standard Model.

India has a team of 50 scientists from seven institutes, including BARC, Saha Institute, Panjab and Jammu Universities participating in CERN experiments. Mukherjee, who is often disappointed at the lack of awareness among university students in India, is hoping that this momentous occasion will energize the field.

Particle physics poses questions regarding the universe which require EXTREME bleeding-edge technologies. Usually such technologies do not exist and have to be invented. “So while the discovery of the Higgs may not make your readers richer, the spin-offs arising from such discoveries do,” says Sharma.

UPDATE: Sharma says he used the word  "boring" in a relative sense: "What would be boring with *just* establishing the Standard Model Higgs is that it would close a long drawn chapter in its investigation without it giving clues as to exactly which new directions to probe for new physics. Every crime scene investigator appreciates helpful clues to solve mysteries."

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.