So is it the Higgs Boson or not
Discussion
Apparently it's still not certain whether what they've found at CERN is THE Higgs boson, or just the lightest in a family of boson like particles
Today's press release from CERN
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/03/new-...
As an aside I wonder if my son has seen this - he's visiting CERN today on a college trip
Today's press release from CERN
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/03/new-...
As an aside I wonder if my son has seen this - he's visiting CERN today on a college trip
Further explanation of the Moriond announcement in New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23265-myster...
PLUS an update that linkls to the latest CERN release, saying that it IS a Higgs.
But the scientists still say that while it is "a" Higgs, that further properties of the observed particle neeed to be measured for it to be classified as "the" Higgs as defined by the Standard Model. They are still hoping for discrepancies which will show where the Standard Model fails, as so far it has predicted all the particles and behaviours that have been found in the sub-atomic world.
While that Model stands, we are a long way from uniting Quantum Theory that built the SM with Gravity, or getting anywhere near explaining Dark matter, Dark Energy and the State of the Universe!
The microcosm and th macrocosm are still wide apart, and we need something out of order with the Standard Model to point us to where the solution might be.
John
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23265-myster...
PLUS an update that linkls to the latest CERN release, saying that it IS a Higgs.
But the scientists still say that while it is "a" Higgs, that further properties of the observed particle neeed to be measured for it to be classified as "the" Higgs as defined by the Standard Model. They are still hoping for discrepancies which will show where the Standard Model fails, as so far it has predicted all the particles and behaviours that have been found in the sub-atomic world.
While that Model stands, we are a long way from uniting Quantum Theory that built the SM with Gravity, or getting anywhere near explaining Dark matter, Dark Energy and the State of the Universe!
The microcosm and th macrocosm are still wide apart, and we need something out of order with the Standard Model to point us to where the solution might be.
John
Dark matter is the label which is applied to the mysterious stuff that appears to be holding the universe together - so for we don't know what it is nor have we been able to detect it other than via the gravitational field it appears to produce. Anti-matter is simply normal matter, but made up of particles with the opposite charge to those found in normal matter e.g. positrons are the same as electrons but with a positive charge, anti-protons are the same as protons but with a negative charge.
MartG said:
Dark matter is the label which is applied to the mysterious stuff that appears to be holding the universe together - so for we don't know what it is nor have we been able to detect it other than via the gravitational field it appears to produce. Anti-matter is simply normal matter, but made up of particles with the opposite charge to those found in normal matter e.g. positrons are the same as electrons but with a positive charge, anti-protons are the same as protons but with a negative charge.
Thanks MartG. 
So with that in mind, does anti-nmatter react in a very bad way with normal matter as depicted by the movies/novels (I'm thinking of Angels and Demons here, the Dan Brown novel).
AshVX220 said:
Thanks MartG.
So with that in mind, does anti-nmatter react in a very bad way with normal matter as depicted by the movies/novels (I'm thinking of Angels and Demons here, the Dan Brown novel).
Total conversion to energy. E = MC^2. C^2 is a big number. Could be described as bad under certain circumstances.So with that in mind, does anti-nmatter react in a very bad way with normal matter as depicted by the movies/novels (I'm thinking of Angels and Demons here, the Dan Brown novel).
Thanks to all who offered answers before I could get back to you!
Dark matter is a theoretical idea, needed to account for the fact that all galaxies rotate faster than they could without flying apart if all that they contain is the matter we can see – stars, glowing gases and dust. Almost incredibly, there needs to be nearly five times more Dark Matter than normal matter to correct the equation. So incredibly that there really has to be another reason, because so far ‘Dark Matter’ has proved completely undetectable, as well as unpredictable according to the Standard Model of sub atomic particles.
Anti-matter is rather more different to normal mater than just having an opposite charge. If that were the case then the coming together of an electron and a positron would cause a discharge of energy as the charges cancelled., leaving two neutral particles! In fact a positron is an antielectron and their coming together completely converts their mass to energy (e=mc^2). In the same way, a proton is composed of two up quarks and a down quark, while an antiproton is made up of antiquarks, two up and one down. Up and down are arbitrary terms for properties with no real world meaning – the other four types of quark are strange charm, top and bottom!
John
Dark matter is a theoretical idea, needed to account for the fact that all galaxies rotate faster than they could without flying apart if all that they contain is the matter we can see – stars, glowing gases and dust. Almost incredibly, there needs to be nearly five times more Dark Matter than normal matter to correct the equation. So incredibly that there really has to be another reason, because so far ‘Dark Matter’ has proved completely undetectable, as well as unpredictable according to the Standard Model of sub atomic particles.
Anti-matter is rather more different to normal mater than just having an opposite charge. If that were the case then the coming together of an electron and a positron would cause a discharge of energy as the charges cancelled., leaving two neutral particles! In fact a positron is an antielectron and their coming together completely converts their mass to energy (e=mc^2). In the same way, a proton is composed of two up quarks and a down quark, while an antiproton is made up of antiquarks, two up and one down. Up and down are arbitrary terms for properties with no real world meaning – the other four types of quark are strange charm, top and bottom!
John
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