Glimpse of 'god particle'
L-R: A typical "candidate event" in the Higgs-hunting CMS experiment. Red lines represent high-energy proton beams while yellow lines show the tracks of particles produced in the collision. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are expected to see the "first glimpse" of the Higgs boson - the so-called "God particle" .
On Tuesday 13 December 2011, Scientists at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announced the promising signs of existence of Higgs boson. The experiment was done at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland. If the Higgs boson is discovered, it will be one of the greatest triumphs of human intellect as it will explain the origin of mass after the big bang. For the last two years, nearly 8000 scientists and scientific staff are working inside an underground tunnel of 27 kilometers along the border of France and Switzerland to find the Higgs boson. They are hoping to get it within a few days. If Higgs boson is discovered it will explain the creation of galaxy with stars and planets. Higgs boson is a particular type of boson. Boson is a fundamental particle named after Satyendra Nath Bose- a physics teacher of Dhaka University. S. N. Bose worked on particle statistics during 1922 at Curzon hall while he was a teacher at the Department of Physics of Dhaka University. He worked in collaboration with Albert Einstein on gaslike properties of electromagnetic radiation which is known as Bose- Einstein Statistics. The developed theory is called Bose-Einstein condensate. It opened the door for new ideas for quantum microsystems. The 2001 Nobel Prize went on for Bose-Einstein condensation. Bosons are identified as Higgs boson after Peter Higgs, an Edinburgh University physicist. Higgs boson is crucial to understanding the origin of mass. As per Standard Model, the universe is made from 12 basic building blocks called fundamental particles and governed by four fundamental forces. The prediction of Higgs boson is predicted by standard Model. Some fundamental particles have mass, but some have no masses. Scientists believe that universe was created through a big bang out of nothing. The question is how the mass was originated? Shortly after the big bang, it is thought that many particles have no masses. They became heavy later on due to Higgs boson. A theoretical invisible energy stretches everything in the universe. It clings to fundamental particles and making them heavy. So, in theory, particle can weigh nothing. But as soon as Higgs field stretched on, they became heavy, got the masses. That's why Higgs boson is called the 'god particle', as it creates the mass and the present universe.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments