[Joinedup]

Higgs never studied at oxbridge... Therefore tsr can dismiss his particle as inferior and unimportant.
/usualsnobbery

[kilojoule]

[KyraBloke]

(Original post by Big-Daddy)
The particle itself has a huge mass and cannot possibly be present in every proton (as it has a mass 133 times that of a proton), but it is what gives mass to all elementary particles like quarks and electrons.

At least, that's my understanding of it.

hmm, ok. But, is this Higgs boson present in everything? I find it weird how it has a relative mass of 133

In a lump of sand, are they in there for example

[jazrizq]

I can't help but wonder if one day this discovery would be used against humanity - weapon of mass destruction, maybe...

[KyraBloke]

(Original post by jazrizq)
I can't help but wonder if one day this discovery would be used against humanity - weapon of mass destruction, maybe...

There's only one way to find out!

[Occams Chainsaw]

(Original post by KyraBloke)
hmm, ok. But, is this Higgs boson present in everything? I find it weird how it has a relative mass of 133

In a lump of sand, are they in there for example

no, since it decays pretty much immediately after its creation because it interacts with the particles around it which are relatively tiny, is my understanding. creating new particles like photons.

[KyraBloke]

(Original post by Occams Chainsaw)
no, since it decays pretty much immediately after its creation because it interacts with the particles around it which are relatively tiny, is my understanding. creating new particles like photons.

ahh ok. Are they continuously being formed + decayed?

[mmmpie]

(Original post by KyraBloke)
hmm, ok. But, is this Higgs boson present in everything? I find it weird how it has a relative mass of 133

In a lump of sand, are they in there for example

The Higgs field is present in everything. Think of the boson as overflow when the field has too much surplus energy in a small area.

[Occams Chainsaw]

(Original post by KyraBloke)
ahh ok. Are they continuously being formed + decayed?

(Original post by mmmpie)
The Higgs field is present in everything. Think of the boson as overflow when the field has too much surplus energy in a small area.

Like mmmpie said, think of it like an overflow of energy, much like the photon really. except a photon doesnt have mass. a boson isnt created until the higgs field is fueled with surplus energy, like the energy given off by smashing 2 protons together (how they are detecting them)

[Curzon]

(Original post by cfizzle)
It's a particle - it lends its energy to other things, which binds (or something) stuff together - humans, stars, etc... apparently without it, the big bang wouldn't have happened and the "universe would be a bowl of soup"

[. . .]

This is the reason I dropped physics. This stuff makes your head spin. Although it is very interesting it is so complicated.

[the bear]

(Original post by Occams Chainsaw)

giga is 1x10^6... in other words a million.

hmmm it used to be 1x10⁹

[Occams Chainsaw]

(Original post by the bear)
hmmm it used to be 1x10⁹

it still is.

1x10^9, a billion. sorry, i got confused.
thanks for the correction.

sorry everyone!

[3nTr0pY]

Here's a slightly more detailed explanation of the Higgs:

In quantum field theory, which deals with this sort of thing, the system is described by a Lagrangian which must remain constant. (The Lagrangian takes account of the kinetic and potential energies of the system and depends on the values the fermionic/bosonic fields). However, for it to remain constant, as a consequence of the theory, all fermions must have zero mass. But fermions are things like quarks, protons and neutrons - we know they must have mass! We have a problem.

So what some physicists did was introduce a new field, now called the Higgs field, which interacts with the original fields, changing the Lagrangian. If the right sort of field is chosen, the terms in the Lagrangian would keep the Lagrangian constant whilst creating the illusion that fermions have mass. If this Higgs field is then excited it can be shown that a (scalar) Higgs boson is produced.


So basically, physicists theories didn't work so they made up a new field to solve all their problems. And now it turns out that this field does indeed exist. I imagine that if it hadn't been found there would have been serious problems in the standard model and all sorts of new and exotic options would have been on the table. As it is, it is a triumph of theoretical physics, as well as experimental (and engineering).


I realise that my above explanation was pretty sketchy...anyone know any more?

[suneilr]

(Original post by 3nTr0pY)
In quantum field theory, which deals with this sort of thing, the system is described by a Lagrangian which must remain constant. So what some physicists did was introduce a new field, now called the Higgs field, which interacts with the original fields, changing the Lagrangian. If the right sort of field is chosen, the terms in the Lagrangian would keep the Lagrangian constant whilst creating the illusion that fermions have mass. If this Higgs field is then excited it can be shown that a (scalar) Higgs boson is produced.

The Lagrangian has to have local gauge invariance which means no explicit mass terms.

The Higgs field actually has a non-zero vacuum expectation value so there are always Higgs bosons present.