HIGGS BOSON

THE GOD PARTICLE

SUBMITTED TO : SUBMITTED BY:

DR. M. JAYASIMHADRI MOHUL KATYAL
2K20/A9/71
 INDEX:

A BREAKTHROUGH IN THE
STANDARD MODEL OF PARTICLE PHYSICS
THE PATH TO THE DISCOVERY
HIGGS BOSON
THE HIGGS FIELD
THE TETRAHEDRON COLLIDER EXPERIMENT
HIGGS BOSON AND THE EXPANSION OF THE
UNIVERSE
W AND Z BOSONS
COST FACTOR OF THE EXPERIMENT
FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS THROUGH THIS
DISCOVERY
 A BREAKTHROUGH IN THE
STANDARD MODEL OF PARTICLE
PHYSICS
Since prehistoric times, people have
been asking: What are we made of?
What are the basic constituents of the
world around us? And how do they
interact?
Gradually over the last century we have
built up what we now call the standard
model of particle physics, which
describes the particles we now believe
to be fundamental and their interactions.
The theory has proven amazingly
successful.
The standard model describes how
these curious entities interact by a field
extending through space.
 THE PATH TO THE
DISCOVERY
Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a handful of
other physicists were trying to understand the origin of a
basic physical feature: Mass. When physicists in the 1960s
modeled the behavior of these particles using equations
rooted in quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle.
If they imagined that the particles were all massless, then
each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly
symmetric pattern.  So here’s the idea put forward by
Higgs.
Imagine that all of space is uniformly filled with an invisible
substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a drag
force on particles when they accelerate through
it. Justifiably, you would interpret the resistance as the
particle’s mass
. The physics community had, for the most part, fully
bought into the idea that there was a Higgs field
permeating space. But it’s only with data that a link to
reality can be forged. How can we test for the Higgs field?
This is where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
comes in.  One of the main motivations for the LHC
was to search for evidence for the Higgs field it
was one of the principal aim at the very beginning
of its functioning at CERN.

The LHC is an accelerator which makes to collide

the proton beams. The math showed that if the
idea is right, if we are really immersed in an ocean
of Higgs field, then the violent particle collisions
should be able to jiggle the field, much as two
colliding submarines would jiggle the water around
them. And every so often, the jiggling should be
just right to flick off a speck of the field—a tiny
droplet of the Higgs ocean—which would appear
as the long-sought Higgs particle.
 In the early morning hours of July 4, 2012,  the
world came to quickly learn, the evidence that the
Higgs particle had been detected was strong
enough to cross the threshold of discovery. 
 HIGGS BOSON
Higgs boson or THE GOD There are some
PARTICLE is responsible for observations about
providing mass to all the the coupling of the
elementary particles (quark,
Higgs boson to
leptons) and to the mediator
particles which carry a force elementary particle,
among them. Higgs boson has i.e., Higgs particle
no electric charge. it is unstable couples to
it can decay in different ways elementary
and it’s spin is most probably particles
equal to zero. From the LHC it proportionally to
is observed that production of their mass. More
Higgs boson is the result of the
massive particle
collision between two beams of
protons of higher energy. means this particle
have stronger
interaction with the
Higgs boson.
 THE HIGGS FIELD
The Higgs field which is generated by the Higgs boson has an important and interesting
property that this field is exactly the same in strength everywhere in space. Whereas we
know that this is not the case with the magnetic and gravitational fields which vary from
place to place.
If the particles are moving in the uniform Higgs field these particles are accelerated i.e.
their velocities are changed this is because the Higgs field exerts a certain amount of
resistance or drag force. In fact this concept of resistance applied by the Higgs field, is
found to be the origin of inertial mass.
The process explaining the inertial mass through Higgs field is called ‘Higgs effect’.
 THE TETRAHEDRON COLLIDER EXPERIMENT

Discovery of Higgs boson as we know was the

one of the principle goal of LHC. It was completed
on 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS
collaborations presented evidence in the LHC
data for a particle consistent with a Higgs boson
which gives mass to the W, Z and other particles. 

The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of

superconducting magnets with a number of
accelerating structures to boost the energy of the
particles along the way.

Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle

beams travel at close to the speed of light before
they are made to collide. They are guided around
the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field
maintained by super conducting electromagnets.
The electromagnets are built from coils of special electric cable that operates in a
superconducting state, efficiently conducting electricity without resistance or loss of energy.
This requires chilling the magnets to ‑271.3°C , a temperature colder than the outer space.
For this reason, much of the accelerator is connected to a distribution system of liquid
helium, which cools the magnets, as well as to other supply services.
Thousands of magnets of different varieties and sizes are used to direct the beams around
the accelerator. Just prior to collision, a type of magnet is used to "squeeze" the particles
closer together to increase the chances of collisions. The particles are so tiny that the task of
making them collide is akin to firing two needles 10 kilo-metres apart with such precision that
they meet halfway.
 HIGGS BOSON AND THE
EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
Just after Big Bang the Higgs field was zero, but as the universe cooled and the temperature fell below a critical value, the
field grew spontaneously so that any particle interacting with it acquired a mass. The more a particle interacts with this
field, the heavier it is. Particles like the photon that do not interact with it and so are left with no mass at all. Like all
fundamental fields, the Higgs field has an associated particle with it called Higgs Boson.

Although quantum field theories are not directly related to the creation-and evolution, the Higgs field is sometimes
discussed within the context of Big Bang cosmology. Shortly after the supposed Big Bang, proponents speculate that as
the very high temperatures in the early universe decreased, a change in the Higgs field occurred, so that it was able to
interact with particles in such a way as to give them mass.

Big Bang cosmologists speculate that a Higgs-like scalar field, the inflaton, could have caused inflation. In older inflation
models, inflation occurred shortly after the Big Bang and lasted for a very brief time. Theorists have since concluded,
however, that when quantum mechanical fluctuations are taken into account, inflation in different regions of space would
end at different times. Because the different rates of inflating region the region which stop inflating region becomes an
island “universe” in a “sea” of still-inflating.

This process is thought to continue indefinitely, so that infinitely many of these island universes are formed, and our
universe is only one. Moreover, this process never ends—once inflation starts, it continues forever in the bulk of space.
Hence, it causes expansion of space.
 W BOSON
SUNSHINE AND STARDUST
The W boson carries the weak force. It changes the character of particles of matter—allowing the Sun to burn and new elements to
form
Discovered in 1983, the W boson is a fundamental particle. Together with the Z boson, it is responsible for the weak force, one of the
four fundamental forces that govern the behaviour of matter in our universe. Particles of matter interact by exchanging these bosons,
but only over short distances.
The W boson, which is electrical charges, changes the very make up of particles. It switches protons into neutrons, and vice versa,
through the weak force, triggering nuclear fusion and letting stars burn. This burning also creates heavier elements and, when a star
dies, those elements are tossed into space as the building blocks for planets and even people.
The weak force was combined with the electromagnetic force in theories of a unified electroweak force in the 1960s, in an effort to
make the basic physics mathematically consistent. But the theory called for the force-carrying particles to be massless, even though
scientists knew the theoretical W boson had to be heavy to account for its short range. Theorists accounted for the mass of the W by
introducing another unseen mechanism. This became known as the Higgs mechanism, which calls for the existence of a Higgs boson.
As at CERN, scientists announced the discovery of iggs Boson by Peter Higgs, among others, the W boson had a large part in its
discovery.
. According to the predictions of the Standard Model, which takes into account electroweak theory and the theory of the Higgs
mechanism, the W boson at that mass should point to the Higgs boson at a mass of less than 145 GeV. Both the ATLAS and CMS
collaborations place the mass of the new Higgs-like boson at about 125 GeV, well within range.
 Z BOSONS
The Z boson is a which - along with its electrically charged cousin, the W- Boson which carries the weak
force.
Discovered in 1983 by physicists at the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN, like its electrically charged
cousin, the W, the Z boson carries the weak force.
The Weak force is essentially as strong as the electromagnetic force, but it appears weak because its
influence is limited by the large mass of the Z and W bosons, it vanishes altogether beyond the radius of a
single proton by emitting an electrically charged W boson.
At the end of the 1970s, CERN converted what was then its biggest accelerator, the Super Proton
Synchrotron, to operate as a proton-antiproton collider, with the aim of producing W and Z bosons directly.
Both types of particle were observed there for the first time in 1983. 
Although more time and analysis is needed to determine if this is the particle predicted by the Standard
Model, the discovery of the elusive Z bosons set the stage for this important development.
These results culminated in the need to search for the final piece of the Standard Model– the Higgs Boson
in which we succeeded.
 COST FACTOR OF THE EXPERIMENT
Discovering the fundamental secrets of the universe doesn't come
cheap. The only way to discover subatomic particles like the Higgs
boson, an extraordinary amount of energy is needed because you have
to accelerate a proton to nearly the speed of light.
To get that acceleration, the scientists at CERN used the LHC in which
different experiments are run and the amount of electricity that powers it
is incredible - 120 Megawatts.
The Large Hadron Collider took about a decade to construct, for a total
of about $4.75 billion and the total operating budget of the LHC runs to
about $1 billion per year which is quite a lot of sum.
FUTURE BREAKTHROUGHS
THORUGH THIS DISCOVERY
 Recent experimental results, in particular from the LHC, have radically transformed the
status of particle physics and form the basis for future research directions. The discovery of
the Higgs boson has been a turning point, unveiling a particle with unprecedented
characteristics and shedding new light on a phenomenon that has surprising similarities
with the way certain materials behave as superconductors below a critical temperature.
 Believing that the Higgs boson discovery has completed our understanding of this
complex phenomenon is too simplistic. On the contrary, much remains to be understood
about this very special particle, including whether it is an elementary or composite object,
how it leads to the peculiar pattern of quark and lepton masses observed, what determines
the stability of the vacuum and what triggered the phase transition in the early Universe.
 Precision measurement of the Higgs boson self-interaction which, by confirming or
refuting the underlying theory — the Standard Model — will significantly advance our
understanding of the phase transition that occurred in the early Universe.