First evidence of a phenomenon detected in Large Hadron Collider experiment

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, scientists have been digging deep into this strange particle for new clues about the true nature of matter and the universe. Now, CERN researchers say they have observed an exciting and vital behavior in particle decay that extends beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

Important discovery for the fundamentals of physics

The Higgs boson refers to an elementary particle produced by quantum excitation of the Higgs field. According to the Standard Model, this particle called the “God particle” (discovered 11 years ago) is extremely unstable and decays into other particles soon after it is produced. The Higgs boson is also an important component of the Standard Model because scientists think the mass of many fundamental particles depends on it.

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) have been used to “carefully” probe the internal properties of this fundamental particle. Researchers are interested in discovering how this particle arose and then decayed into other particles.

During the Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference in Belgrade recently, CERN scientists announced that they had detected a rare process that shows a Higgs particle decaying into a Z boson and a photon. The Z boson is the “electrically neutral” carrier of the weak force, while the photon carries electromagnetic energy. By the way, anecdotal information: The Z boson is the “electrically neutral” carrier of the weak force, while the photon is a particle that carries electromagnetic energy.

The Standard Model predicts that about 0.15 percent of Higgs bosons must decay into a Z boson and a photon, with the Higgs boson having a mass of about 125 billion electronvolts. However, new experimental data from ATLAS and CMS show that the rate of decay is much higher than predicted by the Standard Model, with decay occurring in about 6.6 percent of cases.

While the study has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal and has yet to come up with evidence that the conclusion can be taken as conclusive, the data could move the scientific world beyond the Standard Model in particle physics theory to entirely new fields and particles.

Higgs Boson

The Higgs Boson, or Higgs Particle, was first proposed in the 1960s. The existence of the Higgs boson, one of the most fundamental suggestions and questions of particle physics, was first revealed during experiments at CERN in the early 2010s. Since then, the Higgs boson has been used to explain why fundamental particles have mass. Everything from electrons to space itself is included in this “mass” discourse.

For this reason, the Higgs Boson is also referred to as the “God Particle”. The scientific world has been struggling for a long time to understand the properties of the Higgs boson and how it decays to reveal other particles. It is very difficult to detect this because the existence of the Higgs and the emergence of other particles take place in a very short time. This can be compared to pigeon feathers falling from the sky. You may not have seen the pigeon, but the feathers you see actually prove the pigeon’s existence. Scientists are also observing these “feathers” on the collider. All available data are based on studies conducted between 2015 and 2018. The Large Hadron Collider is currently in its third run, so information about the Higgs boson is expected to increase over the next few years.