You can almost taste the anticipation as Humans inch ever onwards on our most famous endeavour to date- The search for the Higgs Boson.
Taking the limelight in the science media for a couple of years now, what is it about “The Search” that makes it so popular with the public? Is it the expensive technology at CERN? The exotic underground particle collider? Or the mystery behind the particle which, although unobserved, underpins our most current theories of the universe?
Another explosion of interest has taken hold as CERN have announced a seminar this Wednesday to deliver the most recent news about the Higgs search. During this seminar, the preliminary results of the 2012 data analysis will be released by ATLAS and CMS. What exactly will these results reveal? That is exactly the question which has sparked this fresh excitement. With the results from 2011 looking promising, but still unreliable, this set will hopefully give us a better idea of whether we’re looking “in the right place”. Will we find the Higgs for definite? Probably not just yet, but the results so far are increasingly promising, perhaps we really will find the Higgs in 2012…
The search isn’t just being carried out at CERN. There are other colliders such as the Tevatron in the US which are engaging in the same data-collection runs as the LHC. The LHC just takes the spotlight as it’s the most powerful collider in the world. The results from CERN which hit the news around Christmas past were reinforced by the Tevatron but still not quite within experimental significance. (Real physics is never [yes/no], but [probably/probably not)]. Are we at the final hurdle? The results so far suggest we are likely to be close, but hopefully this Wednesday, the world will know whether the Higgs is as close as we hope.
If the particle is found, it will be extremely important evidence for the Standard Model, which underpins our most current understanding of the Universe. The equation for the Standard Model doesn’t just suggest the existence of the Higgs though, it requires it. Without a Higgs Boson, the Standard Model does not work. If we find no evidence for the particle then, we enter a new voyage of discovery as a new theory must be constructed to understand and predict the Universe and its inner workings. Either way, it will be one of the most important discoveries of modern physics.
Look out for the seminar on Wednesday, and check back to Musings for more news and analysis of the announcement.
Musings of a Scientist 