God Particle

Signs of missing ‘God particle’ : what it means to science ?

INTRODUCTION Scientists at the physics research centre of the European organization of  nuclear research ‘CERN’, situated in geneva ,have reported the observation of the signs of the Higgs boson or the ‘god particle’, the particle which is believed to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe. Though scientists have made it clear that they are yet to t o find the conclusive proof for the existence of the particle , the mere possibility of  the existence of the particle in the real world have created a new topic of  discussion in the scientific world. The present article describes what is god particle, why it is called god god particle, what will be the effect effect of its discovery on the further development development of our already existing existing ideas of physics physics and how disastrous could be the effect on the development of the principles

One possible signature of a Higgs boson from a simulated proton-proton collision. It decays almost immediately into two jets of hadrons and two electrons, visible as lines.

Why do we require Higgs boson particle?

Universe in itself is the biggest mystery .No matter how much we boost about our development in the field of science we are still to find a theory that can explain everything about the universe .by everything in universe I mean the particles and the forces of interaction between them. Even the greatest physicist that the mankind has ever seen Albert Einstein feels that solving the mystery of universe is the toughest task for the physicists. As said by Einstein ”can we visualize universe which is finite yet unbound?....... The supreme task of the physicists is to arrive at these universal laws from which cosmos can be built up by pure deduction…”  Thus even after so many years of research we are yet to find the theory of everything .But not been able to find the theory of everything doesn’t mean that we have not made progress in revealing the mysteries of universe .In todays date we have many theories and model which can give the answers to most of the questions that we have. But none of them is the theory of everything .But the closest one that we have is THE STANDARD MODEL. As we all have learnt in school there are four fundamental forces namely the gravitational force , electromagnetic force, weak and strong nuclear forces. THE STANDARD MODEL explains the interaction between this fundamental forces existing in the universe. Now this best model available to us at the present date has a very big loophole or the drawback and the drawback is this that THE STANDARD MODEL fails to explain why the matter has mass. So just like a Hindi feature film here enters our hero the Higgs boson or the god particle .In order to overcome this drawback of THE STANDARD MODEL scientists have assumed the existence of the Higgs particle. So here we are at the main gist of the article what exactly is this god particle and how it is helpful What is Higgs boson particle? Higgs boson or the god particle as we know is believed to be the particle that gives mass to everything in the universe. It is most simplest explanation that can be given for the god particle .Now let us try to understand this particle in detail.  There are several types of different particles existing in the universe. We all know that everything in the universe is made up of what we call it as atom. Atoms are made up of positively charged nucleus at the centre surrounded by the negatively charged electrons revolving around the nucleus in different orbits. The nucleus consists of the positively charged particle proton and the chargeless neutron . Groups of atoms together form molecules and big groups of them can form the things that we see around us like trees , water etc. Thus till now we have come across three particles and they are electron, proton and the neutron. This three particles have

some mass that means they weigh something. But on the other hand we also have some particles that do not have mass and the best example of it is the photons.  This photons are basically the particles which form the light. They are nothing but the small packets of energy and most of the radiations like the X-Rays, gamma rays etc. are assumed to be made up of photon. Thus this photons are different from the particles like electron and proton as photons do not have mass .But they carry light energy from the sun, for example, to the Earth. Or they can carry radio messages from the radio station to our house. So photons are like messengers; as such, they are sometimes called “messenger particles”. so the photons are the messengers or the carriers of the electromagnetic field. This messenger particles are called as BOSONS. Now we know that the messenger particle or the boson of the electromagnetic force is nothing but the photon .So just like electromagnetic force other fundamental forces also have there own bosons. This bosons carry their messages. Gravity has the “graviton” The strong nuclear force has the “Gluon” And the weak nuclear force has the “W” boson. Now coming back to the particle of our interest Higgs boson particle ,as the name suggest it is a boson that means it is a messenger particle .but the next question that comes into the mind is it is the messenger of what?

( The working of the Higgs field could be imagined by taking the example of the magnetic field. Here the magnetic field due to the magnet interact with the iron filings and attracts them. In a similar manner the Higgs field also interact with the particles but its interaction provides mass to the particles)  The answer to the above question lies in the theory proposed by the physicist Peter Higgs. According to him just like gravitational fiels and the magnetic field there exists another field in the universe which he named on his name as Higgs field. He proposed that just like magnetic field interacts with the some of the substances by pulling them in one direction for e.g.iron, the Higgs field also interacts with the particles in the universe but the only difference is this that the interaction of the Higgs field with the particle does not pull the particles but it provides the mass to the particles. This means that it is the Higgs field that makes a particle heavy. Also the theory proposed by Peter Higgs states that if there exist a Higgs field then there should be something called as the Higgs boson particle that would carry the information of the Higgs field. The Higgs boson is the messenger particle of the Higgs Field, which is (theoretically) what gives particles their mass .

How does the boson particle answer our questions Now the most important question that the Higgs boson particle answered is that how do the particles have mass .it is due to the interaction of the particle with the Higgs field through the help of the messenger particle of the Higgs field ,the Higgs Boson particle. The other question is that how do some of the particles like proton have mass while other particle like the photon do not have mass. The answer to this question is this that the particles which do not have mass do not interact with the Higgs field just like the non magnetic substances do not show any attraction or repulsion in the magnetic field.

Summary of interactions between particles described by the Standard Model

Why the name god particle? A guy named Leon Lederman wrote a book called “ The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What   Is the Question?” which was actually about the Higgs boson .In the book he mentioned the Higgs boson  particle as the god particle. The use of these terms was largely to increase media interest.

While use of this term may have contributed to increased media interest but many scientists dislike it, since it overstates the particle's importance, not least since its discovery would still leave unanswered questions about the ultimate origin of the universe

How will the discovery of the god particle affect our scientific development?

Well now this is the most important question that everyone in the world is asking . the discovery of the Higgs boson particle will just confirm that our understanding of the universe is correct and we are on the right track in finding out the mysteries of the universe. The existence of the particle will remove that uncertainty that we have regarding the correctness of our existing ideas and theories of physics. But on the another hand what if we fail to find the Higgs boson particle ?  Then once again we will be thrown back in the dark , into the time where we started science and we will have to start right from the beginning and develop the ideas and the theories that would answer the questions correctly about the universe and this time without the help of the Higgs boson particle.

References http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ http://www.straightdope.com/ http://www.aquantumofknowledge.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page