The Large Hadron Collider and Higgs Boson
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built at CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research) near Geneva in Switzerland to search for and therefore prove the existence of sub atomic particles such as the Higgs Boson. This is done by using electro magnets to fire beams of particles smaller than an atom (Hadrons) in opposite directions along a circular tunnel 27 KM long. By analysing the particles after they collide it is hoped we can attempt to recreate the conditions at the start of the universe, in the first few fractions of a second after the “Big Bang” and so have a better understanding of the basic laws of nature.
More information can be found here
The standard model is a theory that does a very good job of explaining of how the basic forces of the universe work on particles. However there are things that don’t work in this model, like gravity for instance. Three physicists – Peter Higgs, Robert Brout and François Englert – came up with a theory that might make the model work better. Their theory suggested that just after the creation of the universe in the “big bang” a force called the Higgs field gave mass to particles, the longer the contact with the field the greater the mass particles were given by another particle, the Higgs Boson. No one has ever seen a Higgs Boson or its effect yet. If it were possible to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson the standard model would work better. If not then it might be necessary to find new theories to explain how particles work together to create the world we live in.
This BBC news story is about the imminent discovery of the Higgs Boson (so the above information might be out of date by the time you are reading this). The following quotes are from the article and give some sense of the difficulty of the search.
Professor John Ellis, a former head of theoretical physics at Cern explained:
“What we have at the moment is something we call the Standard Model, that describes all fundamental particle physics. You can think of it as being an enormous giant Jigsaw puzzle, but there’s a piece missing right in the middle there. We have been looking for this for 30 years now, and finally, maybe, hidden under the back of the LHC sofa… we are finally finding it”.
While the Director of Research at Cern, Sergio Bertolucci, is more cautious:
“This hunt for the Higgs is like fishing in an ancient way… instead of using modern tools you are removing the water from the pond… it might look tedious but it is the only way, at the end of the day, when you have removed all the water from the pond to find the smallest fish.”