LHC slowly closing in on existence of 'God particle'-17/8/11

LHC slowly closing in on existence of 'God particle'

ANI..(CONCEPT OF SUPERMAN/SUPERHUMAN OR AS WE SAY 'ATIMANAV' WAS ALWAYS THERE.GANDHIJI WAS ONE OF THEM..VT)



Scientists are hoping that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will finally nail Higgs boson — the “God particle” which theoretically endowed every other particle with mass, but has proved elusive to date. The discovery of Higgs boson is one of the chief goals of the LHC, the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth and perhaps the most complex scientific endeavour ever attempted.

At a meeting of the European Physical Society in Grenoble, France, physicists - including some from Caltech - announced that the latest data from the LHC might hint at the existence of the elusive particle.

But the data are not yet statistically significant enough to be called a definite signal, let alone a discovery of the Higgs particle, says Harvey Newman, professor of physics.

There are two possible explanations for these results, he says. The bump in the data could just be background events due to some unknown source or it could be the first signs of the Higgs.

“One could speculate that it’s an unusual statistical fluctuation,” he says. “But I don’t think so.” Physicists will continue to ramp up the LHC, boosting it to higher energies and increasing the number of collisions to improve the chances of producing Higgs bosons.

With several times more particle interactions, the physicists are continuing to close in on the Higgs, as well as other new particles and interactions. There’s a chance that by the end of next year, they may determine, once and for all, whether the Higgs exists.

Keywords: Large Hadron Collider