Meh wrote:
That's some pretty scary stuff I've heard about that proton smasher and what it could potentially do. The whole idea of it makes me a bit uncomfortable. I don't see risking the . . .world...for the sake of a science experiment as being a good idea.
Well see the purpose of the Large Hadrom Collider is to find what is called the "God Particle" or Higgs boson, why Higgs boson, no idea.
This God Particle shouldnt exist with all the theories on how mass and physics and stuff. So if they find it, to my thinking, if this God Particle exists we would have scientifcally proven that God exists.
More in depth reasoning on how the particle exists.
The Higgs boson is a massive scalar elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model in particle physics. At present there are no known fundamental scalar particles in nature.
The Higgs boson is the only Standard Model particle that has not yet been observed. Experimental detection of the Higgs boson would help explain the origin of mass in the universe. More specifically, the Higgs boson would explain the difference between the massless photon, which mediates electromagnetism, and the massive W and Z bosons, which mediate the weak force. If the Higgs boson exists, it is an integral and pervasive component of the material world.
The Higgs mechanism, which gives mass to vector bosons, was theorized in 1964 by François Englert and Robert Brout ("boson scalaire" ) ;[3] in October of the same year by Peter Higgs,[4] working from the ideas of Philip Anderson; and independently by Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, and Tom Kibble,[5] who worked out the results by the spring of 1963 [6]. The three papers written on this discovery by Guralnik, Hagen, Kibble, Higgs, Brout, and Englert were each recognized as milestone papers during Physical Review Letters 50th anniversary celebration.[7] Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam were the first to apply the Higgs mechanism to the electroweak symmetry breaking. The electroweak theory predicts a neutral particle whose mass is not far from that of the W and Z bosons.
The Higgs boson particle is one quantum component of the theoretical Higgs field. In empty space, the Higgs field has an amplitude different from zero, i.e., a non-zero vacuum expectation value. The existence of this non-zero vacuum expectation plays a fundamental role: it gives mass to every elementary particle which has mass, including the Higgs boson itself. In particular, the acquisition of a non-zero vacuum expectation value spontaneously breaks electroweak gauge symmetry, which scientists often refer to as the Higgs mechanism. This is the simplest mechanism capable of giving mass to the gauge bosons while remaining compatible with gauge theories. In essence, this field is analogous to a pool of molasses that "sticks" to the otherwise massless fundamental particles which travel through the field, converting them into particles with mass which form, for example, the components of atoms.
In the Standard Model, the Higgs field consists of two neutral and two charged component fields. Both of the charged components and one of the neutral fields are Goldstone bosons, which act as the longitudinal third-polarization components of the massive W+, W–, and Z bosons. The quantum of the remaining neutral component corresponds to the massive Higgs boson. Since the Higgs field is a scalar field, the Higgs boson has no spin, hence no intrinsic angular momentum. The Higgs boson is also its own antiparticle and is CP-even.
The Standard Model does not predict the mass of the Higgs boson. If that mass is between 115 and 180 GeV/c2, then the Standard Model can be valid at energy scales all the way up to the Planck scale (1016 TeV). Many theorists expect new physics beyond the Standard Model to emerge at the TeV-scale, based on unsatisfactory properties of the Standard Model. The highest possible mass scale allowed for the Higgs boson (or some other electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism) is 1.4 TeV; beyond this point, the Standard Model becomes inconsistent without such a mechanism because unitarity is violated in certain scattering processes. Many models of supersymmetry predict that the lightest Higgs boson (of several) will have a mass only slightly above the current experimental limits, at around 120 GeV or less.
As of August 2009[update], the Higgs boson has yet to be observed experimentally, despite large efforts invested in accelerator experiments at CERN and Fermilab. The data gathered at the LEP collider at CERN allowed an experimental lower bound to be set for the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson of 114.4 GeV/c2 at 95% confidence level. The same experiment has produced a small number of events that could be interpreted as resulting from Higgs bosons with mass just above said cutoff - around 115 GeV - but the number of events was insufficient to draw definite conclusions.[8] The LEP was shut down in 2000 due to construction of its successor - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC, due to begin proper experimentation in 2009 after initial calibration, is expected to be able to confirm or reject the existence of the Higgs boson. Full operational mode has been delayed until mid-November 2009, because of serious fault between two superconducting bending problems discovered with a number of magnets during the calibration and startup phase.[9] [10]
At the Fermilab Tevatron, there are ongoing experiments searching for the Higgs boson. As of March 2009[update], combined data from CDF and D0 experiments at the Tevatron were sufficient to exclude the Higgs boson in the range between 160 GeV/c2 and 170 GeV/c2 at the 95% confidence level.[11] Continued data collection is aimed at raising this lower bound.
It may be possible to estimate the mass of the Higgs Boson indirectly. In the Standard Model, the Higgs has a number of indirect effects; most notably, Higgs loops result in tiny corrections to W and Z masses. Precision measurements of electro-weak parameters, such as the Fermi constant and masses of W/Z bosons, can be used to constrain the mass of the Higgs. As of 2006, measurements of electroweak observables allowed the exclusion of a Standard Model Higgs boson having a mass greater than 285 GeV/c2 at 95% CL, and estimated its mass to be 129+74−49 GeV/c2 (approximately 138 proton masses).[12] As of early 2009, Standard Model Higgs is excluded by electroweak measurements above 185 GeV at 95% CL. However, it should be noted that these indirect constraints make assumptions about post-SM physics (or, more specifically, lack thereof). One may still discover a Higgs above 185 GeV if it's accompanied by other particles between Standard Model and GUT scale.
Some have argued that there exists potential evidence of the Higgs Boson,[13][14] but to date no such evidence has convinced the physics community
It would help solidfy everything pretty much that we already knew or put everything in a new perspective.
They were worried about the atom bomb too, about something akin to the resonance cascade in HL1. They were'nt sure if that type of explosion would stop at that atom, or continue on.
Physics is fun, I like to read Stephen Hawking when I'm on cid or shrooms.
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