Physicists all over the world are celebrating another victory – the search for elementary particles has reached its bottom, and scientists have at last found the smallest particle, the Higgs boson.
The Higgs boson
Its existence had been spoken of before, for the whole Standard Model is based on its existence, on the action of its field. In 1964 Peter Higgs suggested that besides the fields and particles already known there is one more, which balances the symmetry of the Standard Model – an all-pervading field that has no effect on electromagnetic waves but slows down other particles. In honour of the theorist it was decided to name the elementary particle of this field the Higgs boson.
Lost beyond the boundary of our perception, invisible to the unaided eye, the Higgs boson intrigued physicists up to the present day. Until the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) caught the elusive particle in its 27-kilometre ring.
The experiment was a great success
The grandiose project, providing for the largest experiment on earth, required the combined efforts of scientists from more than 100 countries of the world and annual injections of billions. In 2009 alone 6 billion euros were spent. Recalculated per inhabitant of the European Union this was a drop in the ocean – 10 euros a head; just think how much they would have received if Europeans had simply put that much money on deposit with legal entities.
But the LHC serves no momentary interests, it is an investment in the future. First of all the LHC cooperates with scientific centres all over the Earth, in research as well as in production. For such a science-intensive and technically complex project could not have been carried out without the support of the strongest and most talented specialists. Practically every country helped with its best materials and minds.
Russia, for example, sent 700 specialists, who work on the production of calorimeters, tracking detectors, precision-mechanics articles and heavy installations. Thus, owing only to orders for the manufacture of parts for the collider, about 120 million dollars was invested in Russian science. And that is not counting the experience that our scientists will gain, working side by side with colleagues from all over the world.
So a tiny particle – the Higgs boson, the God particle – has united physicists and advanced our science still further in understanding the secrets of the universe.
Published: 27.07.12
The Higgs boson
Its existence had been spoken of before, for the whole Standard Model is based on its existence, on the action of its field. In 1964 Peter Higgs suggested that besides the fields and particles already known there is one more, which balances the symmetry of the Standard Model – an all-pervading field that has no effect on electromagnetic waves but slows down other particles. In honour of the theorist it was decided to name the elementary particle of this field the Higgs boson.
Lost beyond the boundary of our perception, invisible to the unaided eye, the Higgs boson intrigued physicists up to the present day. Until the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) caught the elusive particle in its 27-kilometre ring.
The experiment was a great success
The grandiose project, providing for the largest experiment on earth, required the combined efforts of scientists from more than 100 countries of the world and annual injections of billions. In 2009 alone 6 billion euros were spent. Recalculated per inhabitant of the European Union this was a drop in the ocean – 10 euros a head; just think how much they would have received if Europeans had simply put that much money on deposit with legal entities.
But the LHC serves no momentary interests, it is an investment in the future. First of all the LHC cooperates with scientific centres all over the Earth, in research as well as in production. For such a science-intensive and technically complex project could not have been carried out without the support of the strongest and most talented specialists. Practically every country helped with its best materials and minds.
Russia, for example, sent 700 specialists, who work on the production of calorimeters, tracking detectors, precision-mechanics articles and heavy installations. Thus, owing only to orders for the manufacture of parts for the collider, about 120 million dollars was invested in Russian science. And that is not counting the experience that our scientists will gain, working side by side with colleagues from all over the world.
So a tiny particle – the Higgs boson, the God particle – has united physicists and advanced our science still further in understanding the secrets of the universe.
Published: 27.07.12