Comments on: Fermilab zooms in on the Higgs boson

By: David Harris

David Harris — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:55:29 +0000

@Bruce: You are right that the Higgs does not add mass to the photon. It has, as far as we know, zero mass. (The 10^-48 g is presumably an upper limit from an experiment somewhere. It is essentially impossible to “prove” a zero mass, just to get a limit closer and closer to zero.)

Einstein’s concept of mass-energy conversion comes into play here and is the secret to most of this. In a collider, the particles have a certain amount of rest mass. This is small for an electron, positron, or proton. But when they are accelerated, the total mass-energy can be large. Much of this energy can be converted into particles, which can be of a higher mass than the original particles.

So the Higgs would help provide the mass for those massive particles, but not provide mass for photons.

As an extra point, photons are not used as the source of energy in particle collider experiments (although there are some proposals floating around for photon colliders).

By: Kurt

Kurt — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:31:33 +0000

You are correct: A Higgs particle does not add mass to a photon. Nevertheless, photons have energy. If their energy is high enough, photons can produce electron and positrons as energy can transform into mass according to Einstein’s equation E=mc^2.

By: Bruce Barron

Bruce Barron — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:34:19 +0000

In psrticle accelerators particle unite so to speak and actually can give rise to a particle with a greater mass then the combining particles.
In the case of photons they give rise to electrons and positrons that have much more mass than an electron[a photon has an amount of matter measured to 10 to the minus 48 grams which is much less than the mass of an electron.
So where does the mass come from?
A Higgs particle is not suppose to add mass to a photon.

By: michael fox

michael fox — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:10:24 +0000

Kevin:

In paticle physics SUSY is short for ” supersymmetry ”

which is a symmetry that relates elementary particles of on

of one spin to another particle that differs by half unit

a unit of spin and are known as superpartners. In other

words, for every boson there exists a corresponding

fermion.Evidence of supersymmtry might indicate the existnce

of a Grand Unification Theory ( Gut ) of the strong, weak,

and electromagnetic fields, the hierarchy problem, and the

controversial strings of superstring theory.

” Wickipedia “.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:14:53 +0000

As a recent follower of this subject, I’m beginning to find it interesting from an anthropological stand point, the debate between the different theoretical schools of thought in particle physics, exactly what these mass/energy constraints actually mean in this street brawl. Can someone please explain to me who SUSY is and what would happen to one street gang if we lost her number? How can you tell who’s winning or losing the fight?
The struggle continues….

By: The LHC is coming « All Manner of Thing

The LHC is coming « All Manner of Thing — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:03:15 +0000

[...] widely expected that it will discover the Higgs boson, or something very much like it (unless the Tevatron finds it first!). The Higgs is an essential component of the Standard Model of particle physics [...]

By: Yuri Danoyan

Yuri Danoyan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:54:34 +0000

Russian scientist V.V.Belokurov and D.V.Shirkov in the book http://ru.dleex.com/read/?5565 “Theory of Particles interactions”p.102 illustreted Higgs mechanism trivial: 2+2=1+3.I didn’t see before and after so simple explanation Higgs effect. Discovery of Higgs my be confirm this approach?

By: Kurt Riesselmann

Kurt Riesselmann — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:42:50 +0000

In response to Blake’s comment: The CDF and DZero result reported yesterday is for the high-Higgs-mass scenario (155 to 200 GeV/c^2, see graph above). The two collaborations are working on the corresponding analysis of the “low-mass end” of the Higgs mass range, which would also cover the range that you point out (115 to 135). This analysis is not yet complete.

One should be careful with regard to the significance of the 115-135 GeV/c^2 window for the Higgs mass that you refer to. That range has only a significance of 1 sigma, or 68 percent. That’s not very reliable. If you look at the CDF and DZero graph above, you can see that the two experiments can rule out the entire range from 155 to 185 GeV/c^2 AT THE 68-PERCENT LEVEL (1 sigma). But nobody would take such a claim seriously. To rule out a specific Higgs mass value, scientists require that the result exceeds a 95-percent confidence level. At that level, CDF and DZero exclude only 170 GeV/c^2.

With enough data, the CDF and DZero experiments might become sensitive enough to exclude a Higgs mass of around 115 GeV/c^2. The tough range will be from 120 to 130 GeV/c^2. But both groups of experimenters are still refining their analysis techniques. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

By: Luboš Motl

Luboš Motl — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:39:47 +0000

This is extremely funny. They ruled out one particular number and it happens to be exactly the number predicted by Alain Connes. Back luck. Alain Connes should start to watch out asteroids, too.

http://motls.blogspot.com/2008/08/tevatron-falsifies-connes-model-of.html

By: Blake

Blake — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:09:09 +0000

This is fascinating, even more so in light of the new result showing the bounds on the Higgs mass is between 115 to 135 GeV at 1-sigma http://dorigo.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/new-bounds-for-the-higgs/

Does this mean that the Tevatron will have very little chance of discovering the Higgs if it indeed lies within this range because the decay channels preferred in this range are so rare? The black curves in the above plot would appear to suggest so….. no?