Higgs boson: Difference between revisions
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** The fact that the '''Higgs boson is a scalar''' is important. | ** The fact that the '''Higgs boson is a scalar''' is important. | ||
** For follow-up at interview for feature: “We still don’t know if the particle we observed is the [[Standard Model]] Higgs boson.” | ** For follow-up at interview for feature: “We still don’t know if the particle we observed is the [[Standard Model]] Higgs boson.” | ||
* Discussion with [https://phonebook.cern.ch/phonebook/#personDetails/?id=738244 Pier Monni] on 20 February 2020 at 20:00 CET (over Vidyo) | |||
** Stick with analogy of only the electromagnetic force (don’t bring in gravity): EM field can be observed by observing particles interacting (electron/proton) or not (neutron) with it. Or you can produce the excitation (photon) using photomultipliers etc. But while you ''can'' switch off the Em field, you cannot switch off the Higgs field. So, you cannot observe differences in interaction and have to produce the excitation. | |||
** Stick with this: EM field is like wind – has a magnitude and a direction, hence a vector. Higgs field is like temperature – only has magnitude. Excitation of EM field (photon) has a spin, Higgs boson does not. | |||
** Can talk about BEH mechanism involving only BEH + GHK and not bring in Weinberg, because he added the Yukawa coupling but did not change the mechanism itself. | |||
[[Category:CERN]] | |||
Revision as of 19:51, 20 February 2020
A Higgs boson was discovered by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN. The discovery was announced on 4 July 2012.
LHC@10 campaign
Video about the Higgs boson
- Discussion with Pier Monni on 14 February 2020 at 18:00 CET (over Vidyo)
- All elementary particles were indeed massless just after the Big Bang.
- (Simplifying things here) The reason the electromagnetic and gravitational forces can be felt at the macro level is because they are mediated by massless particles (well, the “graviton” is only hypothetical at the moment). The strong force is also mediated by massless particles but “confinement” keeps the effects localised to a nucleon.
- With the discovery of a scalar in 2012, we knew that the field responsible for electroweak-symmetry breaking existed, but we could not yet say anything about how fermions got mass.
- The fact that the Higgs field is scalar is tied to the omnipotence of the field (unlike electromagnetism or gravity, that die out after some distance).
- The fact that the Higgs boson is a scalar is important.
- For follow-up at interview for feature: “We still don’t know if the particle we observed is the Standard Model Higgs boson.”
- Discussion with Pier Monni on 20 February 2020 at 20:00 CET (over Vidyo)
- Stick with analogy of only the electromagnetic force (don’t bring in gravity): EM field can be observed by observing particles interacting (electron/proton) or not (neutron) with it. Or you can produce the excitation (photon) using photomultipliers etc. But while you can switch off the Em field, you cannot switch off the Higgs field. So, you cannot observe differences in interaction and have to produce the excitation.
- Stick with this: EM field is like wind – has a magnitude and a direction, hence a vector. Higgs field is like temperature – only has magnitude. Excitation of EM field (photon) has a spin, Higgs boson does not.
- Can talk about BEH mechanism involving only BEH + GHK and not bring in Weinberg, because he added the Yukawa coupling but did not change the mechanism itself.
