Nobel Prize in Physics for Higgs Boson

[freyar]

If you haven't heard yet, this year's Nobel in Physics was awarded to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs for theoretical work explaining how force-carrying particles get mass. They of course received a lot of attention a year ago when the Large Hadron Collider experiments Atlas and CMS announced the discovery of the related Standard Model Higgs boson particle. In the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs mechanism gives mass to the W and Z bosons and related features of the Higgs field give leptons (like the electron) and quarks (which make up protons, neutrons, etc) their mass.

The original work, though, was not about the Standard Model (which didn't exist at the time) but was related to theories on superconductors. A number of other theorists were involved in similar work; a brief history of the work (done 50 years ago) and scientists involved has already been blogged about here. Of course, the experimental discovery of the Standard Model Higgs boson took two collaborations of thousands of scientists.

 

[Kramodlog]

Does Higg's Bosom defy gravity to warrant a Noble Prize?

 

[Umbran]

The original work, though, was not about the Standard Model (which didn't exist at the time) but was related to theories on superconductors.

Yes, the short note - the original work was done in 1964. In a sense, they won the prize for work done five decades ago...

 

[freyar]

Yes, the short note - the original work was done in 1964. In a sense, they won the prize for work done five decades ago...

Absolutely, and that's what the Nobel citation is about. It just shows the odd nature of the Nobel Prize that work pretty much everyone else knew was worthy --- and which had played into a number of previous Nobels from decades ago --- required the discovery of a specific example 50 years later, even though there were experimental examples at the time the work was done. It's an insight into the psychology of the selection committee. Well, this was at least one previous omission that was rectified even if there are a number of other gaping ones left.

 

[PigKnight]

So could one manipulate Higgs boson particles to change the mass of an object?

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I must admit, I assumed that they had already won the Nobel for this work considering how fundamental it is to the LHC project.

 

[Umbran]

So could one manipulate Higgs boson particles to change the mass of an object?

In theory? Maybe, I guess.

In practice, we've only ever generated a handful of the things, and it required a machine of extreme size, complexity, and energy consumption. We have not ever manipulated a single Higgs boson - we've only created then and noted that they were there. We have known about other bosons (like the W and Z) for a long time, and have not successfully manipulated them either. We don't know how. So, in the foreseeable future, the answer is a pretty solid, "No."

 

[Kramodlog]

Such pessimism.

 

[Umbran]

It is the duty of those who know about science to paint a realistic picture of what it can and cannot do. The popular media does a really bad job of reporting and educating, so I pitch in where I can.

 

[Kramodlog]

And we wonder why we have kids who want to be rock stars instead of scienticians. /shakes head