Download Is the Final Piece of the Natural Law Puzzle Almost Solved

The Higgs Field and Higgs Boson:
Final Pieces of the Natural Law Puzzle
About To Be Resolved
By Jeanette Schreiber
The largest global partnership of physicists in
history is working toward “the greatest experiment in the
history of particle physics”(Atom-Smasher.1),expected to
come on line in late summer of 2008.
One of the key
drivers of this great experiment is the search for the ‘God
particle’ – better known as the Higgs boson.
“When
physicists are forced to give a single-word answer to the
question of why we are building the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC), we usually reply ‘Higgs.’
The Higgs particle – the
last remaining undiscovered piece of our current theory of
matter – is the marquee attraction” (Quigg.2).
Confirming
the existence of the Higgs field and the Higgs boson, in
the next year or so, would provide the final proof of the
Standard Model – the particle physics theory of the laws of
nature and, most particularly, the laws of mass.
Theorizing the “Why” of Mass
As Newton defined mass in 1687,“The quantity of matter
is the measure of the same, arising from the density and
bulk conjointly”(Principia.IV).
This definition provides
the ‘what’ of mass but not the ‘why’ and, over the last
half-century, physicists have moved forward to focus on the
elemental reasons why particles – and therefore most things
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– have mass.
Understanding the reasons why particles have
mass and why specific types of particles have specific
quantities of mass, scientists will come full circle in
understanding the Standard Model and the interactions of
various forces and particles in our universe.
The challenge of understanding mass has two different
components: first, we must learn how mass arises at all and
then why specific particles have specific mass.
A key part
of physicist’s tentative theories about mass is a kind of
field that permeates all of space, called the Higgs field,
named after Peter Higgs who first proposed spontaneous
symmetry-breaking as part of the Standard Model.
The
second component deals with the question of why different
species of elementary particles have specific mass.
Scientists know that different particles have “intrinsic
masses that span at least 11 orders of magnitude“(Kane.1)
but do not know why.
According to the scientists at
Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois,
“The Higgs field is a quantum field...all
elementary particles arise as quanta of a
corresponding quantum field. The Higgs boson
is the mediating particle of the proposed
silent Higgs field...and gets its mass like
all other particles: by interacting with
(swimming in) the Higgs field”
(Fermilab.fnal.gov).
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Because the Higgs field is a “silent field” that imparts
mass, it cannot be directly probed.
However, as the
“mediator”, the Higgs boson – if identified – will also
prove the existence of the Higgs field thus supporting the
theory explaining how particles get mass.
We can calculate, based on the energy and momentum of
a particle, that specific particles have specific masses
using a form of the formula where, “energy = kinetic energy
+ mass*speed of light2” (Fermilab.fnl.gov).
However, we do
not know why specific particles have specific masses –
i.e., why neutrinos are lighter than electrons, for
example.
Complex quantum physics provides a structure for
establishing the mass of specific particles and subparticles using a Lagrangian – “a mathematical function
which represents how the various particles interact”
(Kane.1). Scientists understand that the Standard Model
“requires only one Higgs field to generate all the
elementary particle masses” but many physicists believe
that there is a more complete model that describes a much
more complex set of particles.
Higgs particle interactions
with other particles will provide additional information
about its relative impact on the mass of different
particles and, potentially, expand the model’s description.
Theories that extend the Standard Model and seem most
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likely to be correct are known as Supersymmetric Standard
Models (SSMs.) A key component of the SSMs is the
superpartner associated with each standard particle with
similar properties. SSMs expand the complexity of the Higgs
field (requiring at least two) and five kinds of Higgs
bosons.
This added complexity is necessary to support
development of specific mass in specific types of particles
and sub-particles fully describing the Standard Model
theory extensions.
Testing the Theory
Scientists have been using powerful particle
accelerators since the late 1950’s but have not been
successful in identifying the Higgs boson to date.
Fermilab – “recognized worldwide as a laboratory where
advances in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology
converge” (fnal.gov) – in Batavia, Illinois is currently
looking for the Higgs boson using the Tevatron Collider at
the National Accelerator Laboratory.
Late this summer,
CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research) will come on
line with the Large Hydron Collider (LHC) at the European
Laboratory for particle physics near Geneva, Switzerland.
As physicists continue to work on isolating the Higgs boson
through the current efforts at Fermilab and the even more
powerful resources of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider once
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active, they are challenged by the apparently massive scale
of this particle.
The large mass of the Higgs boson
requires very high energy and high intensity beams to
create the fission necessary to isolate the Higgs boson
particle.
In the past, neither Fermilab nor CERN have been
able to generate the energy necessary to identify the Higgs
boson, although they both contend they have come close.
If
Fermilab does not find the Higgs boson earlier, most
scientists believe that the LHC will identify it soon after
coming fully on line in late 2008 or early 2009.
Once this is accomplished, scientists may confirm the
existence of the unique particle called the Higgs boson.
“If confident they have succeeded, they will provide
further confirmation that the theories of the Higgs boson
and, consequently, the Higgs field are fact” (Kane.4). In
addition, because of the SSM theories postulating that
there are “different sets of Higgs fields implying
different sets of Higgs bosons with various
properties”(Elusive Particle.3), tests centered on
distinguishing these differences will extend the support
for the final proof of extensions of the Standard Model
theory – Supersymmetric Standard Models.
Late 2008 or early 2009 stands as the horizon for
finally confirming the natural law theories, associated
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with the Standard Model and its extensions, proposed and
tested by myriads of physicists over the last fifty-plus
years.
The most challenging proof – that of the Higgs
boson(s) and the Higgs field(s) – potentially offer the
answers to why particles have mass and why specific
particles have specific masses.
These questions will
likely be answered at that time and will provide a primary
platform for additional study of particle physics and
cosmology in our solar system and beyond.
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Works Cited
Blanford, Glenn. Fermilab. Inquiring Minds – Questions
about Physics. Particle Mass Measurement.
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/inquiring/questions/particlemassmsm
t.html
Ingham, Richard. “Atom-Smasher Gears Up to Find ‘God
Particle’”. Discovery Channel. March 24, 2008.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/03/24/atom-particlecern-print.html
Kane, Gordon. “The Mysteries of Mass”. Scientific American.
June 27, 2005.
Minkel, J.R. “Searching for an Elusive Particle, Physicists
Take a Shot in the Dark”. Scientific American. April 29,
2008.
Newton, Isaac. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica. 1687. Translated by Andrew Motte. 1729.
Quigg, Chris. “The Coming Revolutions in Particle Physics”.
Scientific American. January 17, 2008.
Riesselmann. Kurt. Inquiring Minds – Questions about
Physics. Higgs Boson.
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/inquiring/questions/higgsboson.html
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