Tag Archives: Higgs mechanism
Is the Higgs boson doing its job?
At the heart of particle physics lies the Standard Model, a theory that has stood for nearly half a century as the best description of the subatomic realm. It tells us what particles exist, how they interact, and why the … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged ATLAS detector, Benjamin Lee, Chris Quigg, deep learning, deep neural networks, electrons, Higgs boson, Higgs field, Higgs mechanism, Hugh Thacker, Large Hadron Collider, longitudinal polarisation, muons, neutrino oscillation, neutrinos, photons, same-sign WW scattering, Standard Model of particle physics, technicolor theory, transverse polarisation, vector boson scattering, W bosons, weak nuclear force, Z bosons
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Peter Higgs, self-promoter
I was randomly rewatching The Big Bang Theory on Netflix today when I spotted this gem: Okay, maybe less a gem and more a shiny stone, but still. The screenshot, taken from the third episode of the sixth season, shows … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Science
Tagged C.R. Hagen, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Englert, Francois Englert, Gerald Guralnik, Gerardus t Hooft, Greenpeace, Higgs, Higgs boson, Higgs mechanism, Large Hadron Collider, particle physics, Peter Higgs, Philip Warren Anderson, Robert Brout, Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory, Tom Kibble, Wolf Prize
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Tom Kibble (1932-2016)
Kibble was one of the six theorists who, in 1964, came up with the ABEGHHK’tH mechanism to explain how gauge bosons acquired mass. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ABEGHHK'tH mechanism, electroweak symmetry breaking, electroweak theory, Francois Englert, gauge bosons, Gerald Guralnik, Higgs mechanism, Kibble-Zurek mechanism, Peter Higgs, Richard Hagen, theoretical particle physics, Tom Kibble
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Would you just calm down about the Bose in the boson?
July, 2012 – A Higgs boson-like entity is spotted at the Large Hadron Collider. Indians decry the lack of celebration of S.N. Bose, the Bengali physicist whom bosons are named for. January, 2013 – The particle found at the LHC is confirmed … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Francois Englert, Higgs mechanism, Nobel Prize, Peter Higgs, Satyendra Nath Bose
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The travails of science communication
There’s an interesting phenomenon in the world of science communication, at least so far as I’ve noticed. Every once in a while, there comes along a concept that is gaining in research traction worldwide but is quite tricky to explain … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Big Physics, funding, Higgs mechanism, journalism, public discourse, quantum entanglement, science communication, scientific research
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Signs of a slowdown
The way ahead for particle physics seems dully lit after CERN’s fourth-of-July firecracker. The Higgs announcement got everyone in the physics community excited – and spurred a frenzied submission of pre-prints all rushing to explain the particle’s properties. However, that … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged future, Higgs mechanism, LHC, particle physics, supersymmetry, symmetry-breaking
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The philosophies in physics
As a big week for physics comes up–a July 4 update by CERN on the search for the Higgs boson followed by ICHEP ’12 at Melbourne–I feel really anxious as a small-time proto-journalist and particle-physics-enthusiast. If CERN announces the discovery … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged classical mechanics, deterministic causality, eigenstate, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Higgs mechanism, philosophy of physics, probability, quantum field theory, Quantum mechanics, Standard Model, universe
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