LHC researchers Still Can’t Find Higgs Boson, Settle for New "Chi" Particle
By Jason Mick (blog – picked up by TechDaily) December 22, 2011
The LHC does what every good particle smasher does -- find a new type of subatomic particle
The Large Hadron Collider has finally began to fulfill its potential. After a string of early malfunctions, the world's largest collider has set records for the highest energy particle collisions. Now, even as the smashing continues, the hard part begins -- combing through the mountains of data looking for interesting discoveries.
At the top of their wish list is the legendary Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God Particle", by the more colorful media establishment. The Higgs boson is a theoretically predicted particle that would confirm the standard model of particle physics, explaining why some particles have mass and others don't. Alternatively if the supersymmetry model holds true, up to five Higgs boson variants could be observed, disproving some of the standard model's theory.
I. LHC Finds a New Particle -- but not the Higgs Boson, Yet
Well, some of the data collected thus far has been scoured through, and disappointingly no evidence of the Higgs boson emerged. Instead researchers discovered a new kind of Chi (X) particle.
The Chi (X) particle is composed of a bottom quark (also known as a "beauty" quark) and its anti-particle equivalent, the anti-bottom quark.
Quarks are tiny subatomic particles, which make up the constituents of atoms -- like electrons, protons, and neutrons. Any particle made up of quarks is called a hadron. Their are two kinds of hadrons -- those made up of three quarks (baryons) and those made up a quark/anti-quark pair (meson). Since the new Chi particle is composed of a quark/anti-quark combination, it belongs to the meson subclass of the greater hadron family.
Mesons have integer spins, meaning that they are bosons (like the Higgs boson!). Boson particles obey Bose-Einstein statistics.
Chi mesons have a isospin of 0 (which dictates their strong interactions) and a positive G-parity on that isospin. Together this is represented in shorthand as 0+. The previously discovered chi particles had positive (P) parity and C-parity, and angular momentum values ranging from 0 to 2. The previously known Chi mesons are -- χb0(2P) (0+0++), χb1(2P) (0+1++), χb3(2P) (0+2++). The new particle is a "higher energy" Chi particle, in that it has a higher angular momentum number of 3. It's been dubbed χb(3P) -- (0+3++). Given the mass of the bottom quark -- over four times the mass of a proton -- it is unlikely that the LHC would have enough energy to create higher energy Chi particles.
II. LHC Passes a Time-Honored Accelerator Rite of Passage
Andy Chisholm, a PhD student from Birmingham, England, who worked on the project told BBC News that the location of the new Chi particle was a lucky find. He comments, "Analysing the billions of particle collisions at the LHC is fascinating. There are potentially all kinds of interesting things buried in the data, and we were lucky to look in the right place at the right time."
Finding its first particle is sort of a right of passage in the particle collider world. Past accelerators like FermiLab's Tevatron labored for years or more before finding their first particle, then went on to find many more particles over a fruitful run.
University of Birmingham physicist, Professor Paul Newman comments on this right of passage, stating, "This is the first time such a new particle has been found at the LHC. Its discovery is a testament to the very successful running of the collider in 2011 and to the superb understanding of our detector which has been achieved by the Atlas collaboration already."
Thus far at least 175 mesons have been discovered.
With each new meson discovered physicists creep a bit closer to understanding the strong force. This understanding helps them better known what to look for when trying to find the kind/kinds of Higgs boson(s) predicted by the standard and supersymmetry theories of particle physics. In that sense the discover of the new Chi quark may not be a "pay dirt" hit so to speak, but it's also not entirely a wash in the Higgs boson chase.
It also provides a bit of validation and good publicity, desperately needed to help the public appreciate the value of the accelerator -- which cost approximately $4.4B USD to build, and another billion or so to operate. Keeping the 17 mile, 28 km (circumference) accelerator productive will help it avoid a fate similar to America's Tevatron. If they can do that, physicists can continue their merry hunt for the Higgs boson and a better understanding of how our universe works on the most fundamental level.
Sources: Arxiv [Printserver; CERN] at http://arxi.orglabs/1112.5154 , BBC News at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16301908
Unedited from:
http://www.dailytech.com/LHC+Researchers+Still+Cant+Find+Higgs+Boson+Settle+for+New+Chi+Particle/article23584.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Comments by the Blog Author
I was tooling along calmly through this article, trying to groove on the subatomic physics of the research, when suddenly a chill ran up my spine and I stopped cold. Here’s what made me gasp and take a deep breath:
"Thus far at least 175 mesons have been discovered."
Whoa! We pump enormous energy into particles, speed them up near the speed of light, and smash them. In doing so, we pump energy into the smashed shards of matter. There are 175 different theoretical shards of one type of matter, the "meson." All 175 of these are short-lived particles.
What is this going to tell us about the large amount of "missing’ mass in the "standard model" of subatomic physics? What have we learned from these short-lived, perhaps synthetic and manmade particles? Not much. But if we find a different shard and describe it, more funding will be forthcoming.
Let’s compare this expensive contraption, the Large Hadron Collider, to some genuine and obviously fructive science, the periodic table of the elements. The periodic table was the source of the February 24, 2011 entry of this blog, itself the most viewed of all the postings to date.
At the end of that posting, I wrote this afterward:
"Charles Janet (1849-1932) devised a periodic chart which flows easily and without breaks through the increasing shell levels. Janet also conceived of an element "zero" consisting of two neutrons (with no electrons nor protons) as well as negative matter in a negative periodic table, in other words, he correctly theorized the existence of anti-matter. Janet died in 1932, just before the discovery of the neutron, the positron [itself the first known anti-matter particle] and heavy hydrogen (which is a hydrogen elemental atom with a second neutron). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Janet – the special periodic chart at this link shows the elements in clear, increasing shell order. Janet's correct speculations, though he was neither a physicist nor a chemist, show the intuitive power and probable truth to his model of the periodic table of the elements. His correct speculation of the existence of antimatter commands high respect."
So a clever and inventive examination of the periodic table – by a non-chemist and non-physicist – correctly predicted the existence of antimatter. Where is this kind of power and accuracy in modern physics?
We don’t have a physics model that will reveal to us (not just physicists, but all of us who know how to think scientifically) what the Higgs Boson is or why it is unnecessary. How many large Hadron colliders do we have to build to find it?
I speculate that the answer is "an infinite number." We are charging up a blind alley. The LHC will teach us less about physics than the energized and short-lived hyper-radioactive heavy elements have taught us about chemistry. It’s an inefficient, white elephant of a piece of equipment, smashing matter into shards (175 mesons!) that don’t reassemble into a coherent overall model.
I offer the physics community a better idea. Note the way photons boil off a strip of metal in an incandescent light. Note the way photons are emitted from florescent gas when electricity flows through that gas –- this is because the electricity raises the outer shell levels of some of the atoms, which return to a normal shell level and either create or reveal a photon in the process of "going down" to a lower shell level.
"How does this happen?" The photon is the smallest known particle. It’s so small we can’t even measure its mass. Let’s look into that. Let’s find out a lot more about this very fundamental, very stable particle (it can travel through space unchanged for at least 13 billion years). Let’s see what a STABLE small particle will offer us in terms of modeling subatomic physics. We can look at this process backwards, as well – the photoelectric effect, for which Einstein earned a Nobel Prize in 1921. How is it that a "massless" photon can eject an entire electron?
Answers to these simple questions come first in physics. Let’s grossly expand our understanding of a small, stable subatomic particle, the photon, until we know what it does, how it does it, whether it forms crystals, and how much it weighs. Then, and only then, if we need it, build a LHC. Or perhaps, instead, we should build a cheaper, cleverer machine that will tell us more about physics.
In the meantime, I condemn the CERN collider as a white elephant.
By Jason Mick (blog – picked up by TechDaily) December 22, 2011
The LHC does what every good particle smasher does -- find a new type of subatomic particle
The Large Hadron Collider has finally began to fulfill its potential. After a string of early malfunctions, the world's largest collider has set records for the highest energy particle collisions. Now, even as the smashing continues, the hard part begins -- combing through the mountains of data looking for interesting discoveries.
At the top of their wish list is the legendary Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God Particle", by the more colorful media establishment. The Higgs boson is a theoretically predicted particle that would confirm the standard model of particle physics, explaining why some particles have mass and others don't. Alternatively if the supersymmetry model holds true, up to five Higgs boson variants could be observed, disproving some of the standard model's theory.
I. LHC Finds a New Particle -- but not the Higgs Boson, Yet
Well, some of the data collected thus far has been scoured through, and disappointingly no evidence of the Higgs boson emerged. Instead researchers discovered a new kind of Chi (X) particle.
The Chi (X) particle is composed of a bottom quark (also known as a "beauty" quark) and its anti-particle equivalent, the anti-bottom quark.
Quarks are tiny subatomic particles, which make up the constituents of atoms -- like electrons, protons, and neutrons. Any particle made up of quarks is called a hadron. Their are two kinds of hadrons -- those made up of three quarks (baryons) and those made up a quark/anti-quark pair (meson). Since the new Chi particle is composed of a quark/anti-quark combination, it belongs to the meson subclass of the greater hadron family.
Mesons have integer spins, meaning that they are bosons (like the Higgs boson!). Boson particles obey Bose-Einstein statistics.
Chi mesons have a isospin of 0 (which dictates their strong interactions) and a positive G-parity on that isospin. Together this is represented in shorthand as 0+. The previously discovered chi particles had positive (P) parity and C-parity, and angular momentum values ranging from 0 to 2. The previously known Chi mesons are -- χb0(2P) (0+0++), χb1(2P) (0+1++), χb3(2P) (0+2++). The new particle is a "higher energy" Chi particle, in that it has a higher angular momentum number of 3. It's been dubbed χb(3P) -- (0+3++). Given the mass of the bottom quark -- over four times the mass of a proton -- it is unlikely that the LHC would have enough energy to create higher energy Chi particles.
II. LHC Passes a Time-Honored Accelerator Rite of Passage
Andy Chisholm, a PhD student from Birmingham, England, who worked on the project told BBC News that the location of the new Chi particle was a lucky find. He comments, "Analysing the billions of particle collisions at the LHC is fascinating. There are potentially all kinds of interesting things buried in the data, and we were lucky to look in the right place at the right time."
Finding its first particle is sort of a right of passage in the particle collider world. Past accelerators like FermiLab's Tevatron labored for years or more before finding their first particle, then went on to find many more particles over a fruitful run.
University of Birmingham physicist, Professor Paul Newman comments on this right of passage, stating, "This is the first time such a new particle has been found at the LHC. Its discovery is a testament to the very successful running of the collider in 2011 and to the superb understanding of our detector which has been achieved by the Atlas collaboration already."
Thus far at least 175 mesons have been discovered.
With each new meson discovered physicists creep a bit closer to understanding the strong force. This understanding helps them better known what to look for when trying to find the kind/kinds of Higgs boson(s) predicted by the standard and supersymmetry theories of particle physics. In that sense the discover of the new Chi quark may not be a "pay dirt" hit so to speak, but it's also not entirely a wash in the Higgs boson chase.
It also provides a bit of validation and good publicity, desperately needed to help the public appreciate the value of the accelerator -- which cost approximately $4.4B USD to build, and another billion or so to operate. Keeping the 17 mile, 28 km (circumference) accelerator productive will help it avoid a fate similar to America's Tevatron. If they can do that, physicists can continue their merry hunt for the Higgs boson and a better understanding of how our universe works on the most fundamental level.
Sources: Arxiv [Printserver; CERN] at http://arxi.orglabs/1112.5154 , BBC News at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16301908
Unedited from:
http://www.dailytech.com/LHC+Researchers+Still+Cant+Find+Higgs+Boson+Settle+for+New+Chi+Particle/article23584.htm
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Comments by the Blog Author
I was tooling along calmly through this article, trying to groove on the subatomic physics of the research, when suddenly a chill ran up my spine and I stopped cold. Here’s what made me gasp and take a deep breath:
"Thus far at least 175 mesons have been discovered."
Whoa! We pump enormous energy into particles, speed them up near the speed of light, and smash them. In doing so, we pump energy into the smashed shards of matter. There are 175 different theoretical shards of one type of matter, the "meson." All 175 of these are short-lived particles.
What is this going to tell us about the large amount of "missing’ mass in the "standard model" of subatomic physics? What have we learned from these short-lived, perhaps synthetic and manmade particles? Not much. But if we find a different shard and describe it, more funding will be forthcoming.
Let’s compare this expensive contraption, the Large Hadron Collider, to some genuine and obviously fructive science, the periodic table of the elements. The periodic table was the source of the February 24, 2011 entry of this blog, itself the most viewed of all the postings to date.
At the end of that posting, I wrote this afterward:
So a clever and inventive examination of the periodic table – by a non-chemist and non-physicist – correctly predicted the existence of antimatter. Where is this kind of power and accuracy in modern physics?
We don’t have a physics model that will reveal to us (not just physicists, but all of us who know how to think scientifically) what the Higgs Boson is or why it is unnecessary. How many large Hadron colliders do we have to build to find it?
I speculate that the answer is "an infinite number." We are charging up a blind alley. The LHC will teach us less about physics than the energized and short-lived hyper-radioactive heavy elements have taught us about chemistry. It’s an inefficient, white elephant of a piece of equipment, smashing matter into shards (175 mesons!) that don’t reassemble into a coherent overall model.
I offer the physics community a better idea. Note the way photons boil off a strip of metal in an incandescent light. Note the way photons are emitted from florescent gas when electricity flows through that gas –- this is because the electricity raises the outer shell levels of some of the atoms, which return to a normal shell level and either create or reveal a photon in the process of "going down" to a lower shell level.
"How does this happen?" The photon is the smallest known particle. It’s so small we can’t even measure its mass. Let’s look into that. Let’s find out a lot more about this very fundamental, very stable particle (it can travel through space unchanged for at least 13 billion years). Let’s see what a STABLE small particle will offer us in terms of modeling subatomic physics. We can look at this process backwards, as well – the photoelectric effect, for which Einstein earned a Nobel Prize in 1921. How is it that a "massless" photon can eject an entire electron?
Answers to these simple questions come first in physics. Let’s grossly expand our understanding of a small, stable subatomic particle, the photon, until we know what it does, how it does it, whether it forms crystals, and how much it weighs. Then, and only then, if we need it, build a LHC. Or perhaps, instead, we should build a cheaper, cleverer machine that will tell us more about physics.
In the meantime, I condemn the CERN collider as a white elephant.
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