Physicists Say They Have Found A Higgs Boson

I don't have a direct link, and this is a little old, but it looks good: http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2012/07/04/new-baby-boson-is-b...

Look carefully at this graph: http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hig...

This graph shows how many pairs of photons were crated, classified by the energy.

There are a lot of ways to create a pair of photons, so there is a lot of background noise even if the Higgs Boson doesn't exist. This is roughly the dotted line (it's very difficult to see, because it's almost covered with the red line).

The black points are the actual measurements. They almost agree with the dotted line, except in the range of 125-130GeV where there is a bump. In that energy range there are more pairs of photons created than the expected quantity. The energy of the photons is essentially equal to the mass of the HB, but there are some dispersion because of the measurements errors and some quantum effects.

The red line is a simulation of how many pairs of photons would appear if the mass of the HB were 126.5GeV. They adjusted that parameter to get the best fit. This red line has a bump near 126.5GeV that is similar to the bump that the measurements have (black dots). The dotted line is very similar, so the red line cover it everywhere except in the bump range.

There is a lot of noise, so one possibility is that the bump is only a lucky streak, so they wait until they get a 5 sigma deviation, i.e. there is only 1/2000000 chance of getting a deviation as big as that form random fluctuations and noise. (The graph is old and shows only a 4.5 sigma deviation.)

The complete analysis is more complicated, but the general idea is that if there were no HB, they would get a different signal.

At least the Oh-My-God particle has definitely been found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh-My-God_particle

Renormalisation, however, does suggest that coupling constants[0] change with the energy level involved, which then leads to the nice idea that, given an appropriate theory, one could make all these runnings match at a certain energy and then get a grand unified theory (of the strong and electroweak force) which breaks down at lower energies and leads to our three different coupling constants of the gauge groups[1].

[0] Effectively the basic rate of things happening per particle/energy/volume of spacetime etc., originally assumed to be constant. [1] Effectively things happening faster for certain types of interactions (electromagnetic vs. weak vs. strong).

Not very similar. The problem with ether is that it fixed a preferred frame. So some objects were truly still and some objects were truly moving.

The Higgs field also permeates all objects, but the mathematical structure is different and it has no preferred frame, so there is no truly still object, all the movements are relative.

This is not a strange thing. The photons are the bosons of the electromagnetic field, that also permeates all objects and it has no preferred frame, so there is no truly still object, all the movements are relative.

And the gluons are the bosons of the strong force field with exactly the same properties.

Even the electrons have and associated field that that also permeates all objects and it has no preferred frame, so there is no truly still object, all the movements are relative. But electrons are fermions, no bosons, so some properties are different, but they have an associated field.

The same happens with the up and down quarks (and neutrinos). Each one has a associated field, with the same properties. (And the other particles too, but this is becoming too repetitive.)

The strange thing is not that the Higgs Bosons have an associated field. The strange thing is that the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs Fields is not zero.

In all the other cases (photons, electrons, ...) the vacuum expectation value is zero, so if you have an empty box, there are almost no particles there (some virtual particles appear, but in some sense they are only a few, (in another sense they are a lot, but it's better to think that they are only a few).) The important thing is that if any particle pass through the box, it will almost not bounce against any other particle (photons, electrons, ...) because it is empty.

But for the Higgs fields the vacuum expectation value is not zero! So even inside the empty box the value of the Higgs field is not zero, there is something like a background value. If any particle passes through the box, it will bounce many many many times against the background even if the box is empty. An easy way to interpret all this bouncing is to say that the particle has apparent mass.

But the Higgs field is not even, it has bumps, and those bumps are the Higgs Bosons. The empty box has only very few Higgs Bosons (or a lot in another technical sense). The normal particles can bounce against the background (vacuum expectation value) and we call it "mass" and they can also bounce against the bumps (bosons) and we call it "interactions".

The first laser was originally described as a "solution looking for a problem", in 1960.