DTN News - SPECIAL REPORT: Best Evidence Yet Found For 'God Particle'*US physicists say they have come close to proving existence of Higgs boson days before European findings are out
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Al Jazeera / AFP(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 7, 2012: The final findings from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in the midwestern US state of Illinois will be followed by the announcement of more definitive results from a potent European atom-smasher on Wednesday."Our data strongly point toward the existence of the Higgs boson, but it will take results from the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to establish a discovery," said Fermilab spokesman Rob Roser.
The results come from 10 years of data from the Tevatron, a powerful atom-smasher that began its collider work in 1985 and closed down last year.
"During its life, the Tevatron must have produced thousands of Higgs particles, if they actually exist, and it's up to us to try to find them in the data we have collected," said Luciano Ristori, a physicist at Fermilab and Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics, or INFN.
"We have developed sophisticated simulation and analysis programs to identify Higgs-like patterns. Still, it is easier to look for a friend's face in a sports stadium filled with 100,000 people than to search for a Higgs-like event among trillions of collisions."
Difficult to pin down
The Higgs boson, named after Scottish physicist Peter Higgs, was first described in the 1960s and has been notoriously difficult to pin down.
"The Higgs boson is special," Fermilab theoretical physicist Joe Lykken told reporters, adding that the tough-to-find elementary particle "gets at why the universe is here in the first place."
Lykken said it can be thought of almost like an energy field that gives mass to objects. But it decays almost immediately into other particles.
Furthermore, just one in a trillion collisions in an atom-smasher experiment will produce a Higgs boson.
"This is much worse than a needle in a haystack," Lykken said, adding that he and many other physicists are eagerly anticipating the European results.
"We think we are getting very, very close to where we want to be, and by the end of the week we may be much closer."
The Tevatron results show that the Higgs particle, if it exists, has a mass between 115 and 135 gigaelectronvolts (GeV/c2), or about 130 times the mass of the proton.
Based on two experiments, known as CDF and DZero which include nearly 1,000 physicists from more than a dozen different countries, the team found that there is only a one-in-550 chance that the signal is a mere statistical fluke.
However, the statistical significance of the signal measures 2.9 sigma, and is not strong enough to meet the five sigma threshold required to say whether or not the particle has been discovered.
"We achieved a critical step in the search for the Higgs boson," said Dmitri Denisov, DZero spokesman and physicist at Fermilab.
"While 5-sigma significance is required for a discovery, it seems unlikely that the Tevatron collisions mimicked a Higgs signal. Nobody expected the Tevatron to get this far when it was built in the 1980s."
A more powerful machine at the European Center for Nuclear Research in December 2011 announced "tantalizing hints" that the sought-after particle was hiding inside a narrow range of mass.
CERN's Large Hadron Collider -- the world's largest atom-smasher, located along the French-Swiss border -- showed a likely range for the Higgs boson between 115 to 127 gigaelectronvolts.
US-based experiments echoed those findings in March 2012, though in a slightly larger range.
Now, the scientific community is eagerly anticipating the European results, expected at 0700 GMT on Wednesday from the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.
"It is a real cliffhanger," said DZero spokesman Gregorio Bernardi, physicist at the Laboratory of Nuclear and High Energy Physics at the University of Paris VI and VII. "We are very excited about it."
Related News;
Toronto Star - 4 minutes ago
There's been a lot of talk lately about updating our “20th-century” image, but is it a solution in... AP Photo/CERN An image proided by CERN shows the release of energy after the collision of two protons. Scientists at the world's biggest atom smasher ...
Daily Mail - 35 minutes ago
By Suzanne Moore Worlds collide sometimes. Well atoms do. Smashing them together at tremendous speed, physicists at CERN are getting to what matters. Actually, the Atlas experiment is about how matter attains mass and the elusive Higgs particle appears ...
Times of India - 1 hour ago
RAMGARH: Students are curious about the revolutionary discovery of new subatomic particle Higgs boson which has given hints about the formation of stars, planets and even life. This prompted Ramgarh-based school to hold a seminar on the subject by ...
Nigerian Tribune - 2 hours ago
This 2011 image provide by CERN shows a real CMS proton-proton collision in which four high energy electrons (green lines and red towers) are observed in a 2011 event. The event shows characteristics expected from the decay of a Higgs boson but is also ...
The Age - 2 hours ago
A proton-proton collision measured in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience in the search for the Higgs boson. Photo: AFP/CERN Well, that God particle's learnt a thing or two this week. There it was, the poor old Higgs boson, floating along in its ...
New York Times - 5 hours ago
Q. What exactly is a Higgs boson, and why all this fuss? A. Essentially, it's an eentsy-teensy-weensy particle — we're talking small here — that contains the answers to how the universe came about, including whether God was involved.
The Daily Yomiuri - 7 hours ago
A new subatomic particle believed to be the "Higgs boson," hunted for more than 40 years by particle physicists around world, has been discovered at long last. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, on the Swiss-French border near ...
Inquirer.net - 10 hours ago
A few days ago, my 11-year-old granddaughter, Julia, who is in Grade 6 at Miriam, a Catholic school, came up to me asking: “Lolo, why did God create the world?” It was a question her teacher in Christian Living Education had given to the class to think ...
Edmonton Journal - 12 hours ago
Re: "Higgs' discovery hailed; Teams confirm finding likely missing piece," the Journal, July 5. The Higgs boson subatomic particle is no longer the last great mystery of physics. The grandfather - or God, I should say - of all models has been ...
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com (blog) - 15 hours ago
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-PresseA picture with a zoom effect show a graphic traces of proton-proton collisions events measured by European Organization for Nuclear Research in the Compact Muon Solenoid experience on ...
Scottish Daily Record - 15 hours ago
THE Edinburgh professor behind the greatest scientific discovery in half a century celebrated with a glass of sparkling wine and a can of beer on an easyJet flight. Professor Peter Higgs, 83, is being tipped for a Nobel prize after experts found what ...
Hindustan Times - 16 hours ago
Professor Peter Higgs, the British physicist whose theories led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson, has admitted that he has “no idea” what practical implications the breakthrough could have. Higgs refused to be drawn on whether the discovery proved ...
Asahi Shimbun - 18 hours ago
By TAKASHI KAMIGURI/ Staff Writer As Europe basks in the glory of Large Hadron Collider results that may end a decades-long search for the particle that gives matter its mass, Japanese firms are quietly celebrating their crucial part in the ...
Chicago Tribune - 20 hours ago
Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Hawking's rival says Higgs wager win is icing on cake LONDON (Reuters) - The US scientist who won a $100 wager with Stephen Hawking over whether the Higgs boson would ever be found said on Friday ...
WalesOnline - 20 hours ago
by Ceri Gould, Western Mail Scientists have discovered a subatomic particle that is consistent with the Higgs boson particle that gives matter mass, Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, announced this week. They haven't, I'm sorry to ...
Mail & Guardian Online - 21 hours ago
The search for the arcane, theoretical particle known as the Higgs boson has occupied thousands of researchers for more than two decades. All about the Higgs: a presentation at the Australian Science Media Centre. (Mal Fairclough, Reuters) The ...
Daily News & Analysis - 21 hours ago
I was at a religious event in the family this week when I heard about the fact that the folks at CERN announced the potential discovery of something that the media decided to call the 'God particle.' I have one response to that but before I state my ...
Toronto Star - 21 hours ago
Your editorial stated: “Today, the water cooler chatter is all about theoretical and particle physicists, of all unlikely pop icons. And Peter Higgs, an 83-year-old Scots scientist, in particular.” In all the hoopla about the discovery of the “God ...
Sydney Morning Herald - Jul 6, 2012
Origin of the universe revealed Boson find leaves Hawking out of pocket Q&A: Your questions answered It's good news for physicists, but a big headache for the Nobel committee. Six physicists published the theory within four months of each other in 1964 ...
Daily Beast - Jul 6, 2012
The media-adopted name for the Higgs Boson, believed to be discovered this week, couldn't be more misleading. Lawrence M. Krauss explains how the particle could finally dispense with the idea of a supernatural creator. Plus, cosmologist Sean Carroll on ...
Herald Scotland - Jul 6, 2012
THE retired professor who gave his name to the elusive "God particle" said it was "very nice to be right". Teams at the £2.6 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva said on Tuesday they had found a new particle "consistent" with the Higgs boson ...
China Daily - Jul 6, 2012
The British scientist who gave his name to what is likely to be the Higgs boson particle spoke of his delight at the discovery on Friday, saying it was "nice to be right sometimes". Professor Peter Higgs was making his first detailed public comments ...
Newsday - Jul 6, 2012
Opinion Newsday Print Aa Editorial Editorial: Higgs boson: quite a weighty matter Originally published: July 6, 2012 4:39 PM Updated: July 6, 2012 8:11 PM A mere subatomic particle, the Higgs boson will not cure cancer, reverse global warming, ...
National Post - Jul 6, 2012
The National Post reimagines a week in the life of a newsmaker. Today, Tristin Hopper looks at the week of Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director general of CERN: Monday A quadrillion proton collisions, but still, ye evade our watch. You task me, Higgs boson, ...
New York Times - Jul 6, 2012
Scientists in Geneva announced this week that they had found a new subatomic particle that they were 99.999999 percent sure was the elusive Higgs boson, nicknamed the “God particle.” Even though we had no earthly idea what that meant, ...
Times of India - Jul 6, 2012
EDINBURGH: The British scientist who gave his name to the Higgs boson particle spoke on Friday of his delight after researchers affirmed its existence, saying it was "nice to be right sometimes". Professor Peter Higgs was making his first detailed ...
The Sun - Jul 6, 2012
By LESLEY ROY THE scientist who predicted the Higgs boson discovery celebrated the news with a can of beer. Professor Peter Higgs came up with the theory of the so-called God particle. Experts this week revealed they believe they have found evidence ...
Globe and Mail - Jul 6, 2012
Physicists around the world celebrated on Wednesday after researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva announced that they believed they had found the long-sought Higgs boson, the final piece of the so-called Standard Model of particle physics.
Globe and Mail - Jul 6, 2012
There was lots of excitement this week surrounding what appears to be the discovery of the long-theorized Higgs boson. Some in the scientific community lined up overnight to be present in the auditorium when Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of the ...
The Province (blog) - Jul 6, 2012
British physicist Professor Peter Higgs says he can't think of any practical applications for the much-heralded Higgs boson “God particle” his theories led to the discovery of. Really?!? Then what has all this fuss been about?
