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Artist Josef Kristofoletti's wall painting at the Atlas experiment site at CERN, outside Geneva, Switzerland. The painting shows how a Higgs boson may look. (File) Anja Niedringhaus/AP/Press Association Images

No definitive proof but 'intriguing hints' of existence of 'God particle'

Researchers from CERN presented their findings today amid much anticipation within the scientific community.

SCIENTISTS HUNTING FOR an elusive sub-atomic particle say they’ve found “intriguing hints” — but not definitive proof — that it exists, narrowing down the search for what is believed to be a basic building block of the universe.

The researchers added that they hope to reach a conclusion on whether the particle exists by next year.

The latest data show that the mass of the Higgs boson — popularly referred to as the “God particle” — probably falls within a particular range, in the lower end of the spectrum that can be produced by smashing protons together in the massive machine being used to track it down, researchers from two independent teams said today.

The two teams said their data indicates the particle itself may have a mass of between roughly 114 and 130 billion electron volts. One billion electron volts is roughly the mass of a proton. The most likely mass of the Higgs boson is around 124 to 126 billion electron volts, the teams said.

The revelations were heavily anticipated by thousands of researchers who hope that the particle, if it exists, can help explain many mysteries of the universe.

British physicist Peter Higgs and others theorised the particle’s existence more than 40 years ago to explain why subatomic particles — building blocks of the universe — have mass.

Protons collide

Both of the research teams work at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research near Geneva. CERN runs the $10-billion Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border, a 17-mile tunnel where high energy beams of protons are sent crashing into each other at incredible speeds.

Fabiola Gianotti, an Italian physicist who heads the team running the so-called ATLAS experiment, said “the hottest region” is in lower mass ranges of the collider. She said there are indications of the Higgs’ existence and that with enough data it could be unambiguously discovered or ruled out next year.

The results rule out several mass or energy ranges for the Higgs with a high degree of confidence, Gianotti said.

Afterward, Guido Tonelli, lead physicist for the team running what’s called the CMS experiment, outlined findings similar to those of the ATLAS team, saying the particle is most likely found “in the low mass region” among the spectrum of possible Higgs masses.

Rolf Heuer, director of the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, said “the window for the Higgsmass gets smaller and smaller.”

“But be careful — it’s intriguing hints,” he said. “We have not found it yet, we have not excluded it yet.”

The Higgs boson is hard to find not because it is especially tiny, but rather because it is hard to create, said physicist Howard Gordon of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, who works with the ATLAS experiment.

Tie up a loose end

Physicists smash protons together at very high energy, and only a minority of collisions will create a Higgs boson. The more energy involved, the higher the fraction of collisions that will make a Higgs.

Frank Wilczek, a Nobel laureate and physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said finding the Higgs boson would tie up a loose end of the so-called standard model of physics, which requires a Higgs-like particle exist.

Proving the Higgs exists would be “a vindication of the equations we’ve been using all these years,” he said. “Since the equations have worked so brilliantly now for decades, it’s really nice to dot the i’s and cross the t’s,” he said.

In addition, if the mass of the Higgs is within a certain range, that would support some other theories that go beyond and improve the standard model, he said. Those theories predict the existence of still other particles to be found. That would mean the Large Hadron Collider “will have another wave of brilliant discoveries in the future,” Wilczek said.

The mass range reported Tuesday is “perfect” to meet that requirement, he said.

“Because it fits together so beautifully with everything else we know … I’m certainly inclined to believe it,” he said. He called Tuesday’s presentations “awesome … just beautiful work.”

Earlier: CERN scientists set to announce outcome of ‘God particle’ experiment >

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29 Comments
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    Mute Luke Mac an Bháird
    Favourite Luke Mac an Bháird
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    Dec 13th 2011, 6:46 PM

    As if things couldn’t get any worse for the Catholic Church.

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    Mute Stephen McConnell
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:09 PM

    Whats it got to do with the Catholic Church?

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    Mute Luke Mac an Bháird
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:11 PM

    It was a joke regarding the existence of God. If that particle proves how the universe started, then by rights that kinda tells us that God isn’t real… use the auld brain will ya. It wouldn’t take the people in Geneva to figure out the link.

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    Mute Stephen McConnell
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:38 PM

    You may want to push up a wee bit on your physics and theology.

    The higgs boson doesn’t do anything to prove or disprove whether God exists or not. It’s doesn’t even prove the standard model. Information is your friend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

    Also, most theists would accept the standard theory. Maybe don’t base your assertions on Dan Brown books. He’s kinda a hack.

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    Mute Stephen McConnell
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:43 PM

    *brush up not *push up

    I hate when you spot spelling mistakes and it’s too late to fix them.

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    Mute Luke Mac an Bháird
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:44 PM

    You bored me when you started to give a history lesson. But thanks for the follow on twitter! I reciprocated. :D

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    Mute Stephen McConnell
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:45 PM

    Cheers.

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    Mute Patrick O'Brien
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    Dec 13th 2011, 6:57 PM

    Please please please stop calling it the god particle. It’s a ludicrous name. Higgs boson is just fine.

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    Mute Conor Oneill
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:47 PM

    We should stop teaching religious nonsense in schools. The real story is more amazing!

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    Mute Liam Byrne
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    Dec 13th 2011, 9:04 PM

    Perfect. :-)

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    Mute Seán Butler
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    Dec 13th 2011, 9:54 PM

    a particle physicist walks into a library and asks for a book on faster than light neutrinos. “feck off” said the librarian “you brought it back next week.”

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    Mute Lou Brennan
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    Dec 13th 2011, 7:14 PM

    Can’t wait for the God Particle part II. (Second Coming) Clooney to play Higgs.

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    Mute damien chaney
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    Dec 13th 2011, 6:58 PM

    Be wary of the albino man oh wait that was the de vinci code, it’s opus dei that you have to be careful around god particles

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    Mute Waffler
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    Dec 13th 2011, 11:04 PM

    of course the religious will now ask “who created the higgs boson”

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    Mute Barra Ó Scannail
    Favourite Barra Ó Scannail
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    Dec 14th 2011, 2:15 AM

    I don’t know why areligious people on this website are those most likely to bring up religion in scientific discussion.

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    Mute Waffler
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    Dec 14th 2011, 11:00 AM

    because for the last two thousand years the religious have been asking us to prove there is no God!!

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    Mute Tom McDermott
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:12 PM

    You lost me at “SCIENTISTS HUNTING”

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    Mute Paul Harvey
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    Dec 13th 2011, 8:37 PM

    My brain hurts !!!!

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Dec 13th 2011, 11:45 PM

    I’m no physicist, but why do men and women of science persist in assigning the term”god” to something they can’t explain, except through sums?

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    Mute Barra Ó Scannail
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    Dec 14th 2011, 2:18 AM

    The scientists HATE the term “god particle”.

    It’s the media which is perpetuating the nomenclature.

    Higgs Boson doesn’t sell papers or get website hits. GOD PARTICLE does, however.

    And the only reason Stephen Hawking keeps harping on about god is that a lot of his science (especially in A Brief History of Time) has been shown to be inaccurate, and in order to sell books these days, he needs to be controversial.

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    Mute Stephen Carmody
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    Dec 14th 2011, 5:27 AM

    Cant remember the name of the guy, but someone who was working with Higgs was publishing a book on the standard model and wanted to call the Higgs Boson the GodDamn particle but his publisher wouldnt let him.

    Its like Schroedingers cat all over again

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Dec 14th 2011, 4:16 PM

    Thanks for clarifying that, Barra. I wasn’t aware that it didn’t originate within the scientific community.

    I think Higgs Bosun (despite sounding slightly nautical), is a better term myself.

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    Mute Lou Brennan
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    Dec 13th 2011, 11:14 PM

    I’m currently working on a load of nonsense and Im looking for funding to achieve constants hints until the end of my life. I’m open to any financial sponsorship to help me build the very first Crayton Core Reverboriser ( just made it up but similar to a Hydron Collider and just as successful) that could be seen as a plausible enough machine to the general public. I think if this machine can get inside the physicists mind and split the dark matter in there we could unlock the secrets and power of bamboozlement that the rest of us have fallen for since life began.

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    Mute Damhsa Dmf
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    Dec 13th 2011, 11:35 PM

    Do you accept cash?

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    Mute Carfit Blakemotoring
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    Dec 13th 2011, 9:12 PM

    Sorry to disappoint but the Higgs boson does not exist its as much a fantasy as the holy grail. Not being a physicist, I still see that all these ‘particles’ are just the same ‘stuff’ at different energy levels. They can’t figure out how energy and mass interrelate without adding things like this to their mathematical models. It’s a modern version of the old testament storyteller. The subatomic answer to existence and the God answer have the same probabilities of being proven. So don’t get all high horse about any side, either way both will still be a question when your long dead and buried.

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    Mute Mark O'Neill
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    Dec 13th 2011, 9:37 PM

    Is that a joke? That is verbal diarrhoea.

    Since one side is predicting discoveries before they happen and the other is coming up with ridiculous stories to brush them off (dinosaurs dying in the flood anyone?), I think the probability is quite heavily weighted on one side.

    But I love the introduction: “Sorry to disappoint”. I imagine some physicists are going to read your comment and walk away with slumped shoulders.

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    Mute Barra Ó Scannail
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    Dec 14th 2011, 2:13 AM

    So scientists mathematically predicted that the Higgs Boson exists in the Standard Model of physics.

    The Standard Model is a beautifully eloquent equation which describes how all the forces interact (except gravity, that’s more string theory).

    In the Standard Model equation, the Higgs field was predicted, because without it, all particles would have zero mass and there would be no matter.

    So. Scientists thought that this particle must exist. Unfortunately, it’s exquisite my difficult to detect. So difficult, in fact, that they needed to build a €7 Billion machine 27 kilometres long to try and find it.

    They said – we predict the particle to be in this region (of gEV). And now it appears that the particle that was mathematically predicted has been observed where it was predicted it would be.

    Buy forget that. You’re probably right. Pixies it is. And magic. Magic pixies.

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    Mute Felim O'Neill
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    Dec 14th 2011, 2:22 AM

    When the US wanted to replace the Fermilab accelerator with a new generation of atom smasher, a member on a federal science budget commitee asked “is it the God particle you’re looking for?” The physicist humbly said no and gave a wishy washy pitch on why a new accelerator costing billions was necessary. They lost their funding. There is now a very large underground ring tunnel built in Texas for the next gen experiment, lying empty (actually for let). Last week the old US ring in Fermilabs, Illinois that confirmed the existance of Quarks and the Standard Model, closed its doors for good. Europe and CERN now takes over the reins. Had the physicist answered “yes”!to the question (and billions of dollars in the balance), the story would have turned out differently. The badge “God Particle” may have arisin from and endures since that fateful encounter.

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    Mute Gis Bayertz
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    Dec 13th 2011, 9:59 PM

    What a stupid name

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