Physicists Await Imminent Announcement on Higgs Boson 'God Particle'
On Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. EST scientists will make an announcement concerning the existence of the Higgs boson, a particle which has been labeled the “God Particle.”
The European Center for Nuclear Research will make the announcement regarding the progress of the experiments that are designed to search and prove the particle’s existence.
The Higgs boson is a theoretical particle that allows everything to have mass, or in other words which allows things to exist. If Higgs boson is discovered or evidence is found to supplement the current theory it could forever change the way existence is viewed.
The experiment will be conducted with the help of the Large Hadron Collider or L.H.C., which is located outside of Geneva. L.H.C sends atomic particles at near the speed of light and then crashes them into one another releasing energy and other particles that are theorized to have been present at the time of the creation of the universe and thus was dubbed the “God particle.”
Higgs boson is the last remaining particle that has yet to be seen in any particle physics experiments. It would be the unifying part needed for the “Standard Model” of physics.
Lisa Randall, a Harvard particle theorist, in an interview with The New York Times states that it is a mechanism that will determine the actual Higgs boson. “Higgs mechanism, which is ultimately responsible for elementary particles’ masses” is what scientists will be looking for.
She continued that Higgs mechanisms “are associated with a Higgs field. As particles pass through this field they interact with the ‘charges,’ and this interaction makes them act as if they had mass. Heavier particles do so more, and lighter particles do so less. The Higgs mechanism is essential to the masses of elementary particles.”
The theory was proposed in 1964, independently and almost simultaneously, by three groups of physicists including Peter Higgs. The reason that it is named after Higgs is due to the mechanism that he helped explain which made the process possible.
Jay W. Richards, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, spoke with The Christian Post regarding the progress report that is expected Tuesday morning. He told CP: “For particle physicists this is big news…yet this discovery is less theologically significant.”
Richards explained the possible findings of the progress report are not without importance, we “are searching for an entity that we already knows exists,” yet have not been able to find.