Is it the Higgs Boson? - Sixty Symbols

[@RoflCraft96]

I gotta say, Proffessor Ed Copeland seems for me to be the most sympathic professor in my eyes. It would be an honor to thank him personally what he has done here on the Channel. But also it's quite sad that the messages haven't been read,... so yeah :P Keep your head up! You are Awesome! (Sorry if my grammar is horrible, that's because english is not my native language)

[@franckviera3860]

Completely agree with you :)

[@hamzaelouakili2438]

I am obliged to agree as well, very sympathetic indeed, wish you well prof. Copeland

[@Inertia888]

Well said

[@briansmobile1]

Congratulations to all those involved in this finding! How very exciting!

[@garybates6403]

Love Professor Ed; such a fantastic way of explaining things in an easy to understand matter.

[@s07561277]

The strange thing is. I was in high school when they discovered the Higgs Boson, and just a few weeks before, a friend and I were having a discussion on it and doing some reading into the topic, and we were both blown away when it was discovered shortly after we were researching it.

[@FloridaGirl1126]

2:29 I cried. He is so happy... :*)

[@jtool666]

I really enjoy watching Professor Copeland talk about physics. As you watch him you can feel how much he loves it and that comes across.

[@hanger1800]

I love Prof Ed!

[@katymaloney]

Such a happy day!!! I stayed up all night watching the conference! Also, THANK YOU Brady for not doing what most of the medias are doing, headlining "Higgs Boson confirmed!" or some crap like that! We appreciate the ambiguity of the title! And thanks for filming Prof. Copeland on this matter, I was hoping for it! (We even got the "kid in the candy store" face on replay, how awesome is that! :D You're a great teacher Mr. Copeland, thank you for your work, it is greatly appreciated!)

[@kapper13459]

I loled at the floppy disks to the right of his laptop.

[@technicalhoboskater]

I live near the CMS detector in Cessy (France) and today I did the tour in Meyrin (Switzerland) , and they were showing the seminar this morning on the TVs in reception. It was pretty awesome.

[@arholderik]

Watching a video on a MacBook Pro how somebody is watching a video on a MacBook Pro...freaky

[@thrundawolf187]

macseption

[@MrProjectmayhem]

Didn't understand any of it but it seems amazing well done.!!!

[@jannegrey]

So much ignorance, trolling and conspiracy theories in the comments it's really sad.

[@Inertia888]

+Jan Negrey, Anytime people make great discoveries and advancements the nay-sayers, deniers, fools, and those who want to insist on gripping onto the past will show up to put in their two cents. I just try to stay away from them, as hard as it can be at times. We are witnessing something amazing here. We know that it's worthwhile and we know that we are moving in a positive direction. Let's just stick together and let the trolls be trolls. ;))

[@cush6827]

US-Americans are everywhere...

[@sixtysymbols]

thanks for commenting

[@TheAAMoy]

troll alert

[@DavidChappell]

Things like this are what make me happy to be alive at this revolutionary stage of human existence.

[@MikeRoePhonicsMusic]

Brady, you're always on top of things!

[@Xeroxias]

Didn't you watch the video? This is fully satisfying any spiritual desires of everyone who was involved in finding the boson. It's beautiful and profound. Peter Higgs was crying. I don't think anyone could argue that these intellectuals have some vital part missing in their lives.

[@sixtysymbols]

glad you liked it!

[@akashashen]

Fine, let me put it this way for you: While oscillating between the Higgs field and the particle, it's a force carrier and induces drag, just as air doesn't add mass to an airplane (this analogy is meant in course of effect, not to declare air massless), but when it nolonger couples to another particle, it's interactions with the Higgs field causes it to couple with an increasing Higgs boson oscillations until it decays (like over-inflating a balloon).

[@lizziepooh]

When they panned to Peter Higgs in tears, I couldn't help but tear up myself! He must be sooo proud!

[@akashashen]

I wanted to make sure the twisting didn't appear as some hand wave. That fermion-added space cloak exists in three dimensions, but even mapping around a circle, that space cloak is proportional for any measurement of degrees around the mass. To simplify, draw a circle; then, using a compass, pick a setting and draw arcs centered from inside the circle into one region -- the further the center, the wider the arc. These depict the tensors (values in a volume) along the photon's travel path.

[@STevEKlm012]

I watched the entire seminar. It was so exciting to see the unveiling of the results.

[@Sully800]

Thank you Brady and Ed for the excellent report on this exciting news!

[@reinux]

i've watched this video like 5 times now. it's so triumphant. it makes me happy.

[@Xeroxias]

This is spectacular! The Higgs is probably one of the most important scientific goals of our time, and we may have just found it. What a profound moment for science.

[@akashashen]

When you use this model, you can readily understand that fermions can wrap themselves up in a cloak of space. So, when Mercury's light makes it around the Sun by a couple of degrees, that light hasn't actually bent through space, but when light goes around a black hole, the light experiences a very remarkable state of space-time warping, this cloak of space is so dense and twisted, it can literally turn the photon around, changing its state, and all state changes interact with the Higgs field.

[@akashashen]

The Higgs mechanism pre-dates Higgs himself, but it was Peter Higgs who worked out the math which would follow the then coalescing Standard Model. There were two conflicting concepts about the Higgs boson, but they focused not on whether it has mass during its oscillation, but when it becomes decoupled. When is a force carrier not a force carrier? When it is enacted upon without returning the same information. Sort of a tree falling in the woods concept.

[@cerin1]

I thought the same thing too at first. I'm not sure but I get the impression that the higgs field is excited when the protons collide and when the higgs field is excited it can create such a particle.

[@akashashen]

To simplify this cosmological problem (there are few ways to tackle it within a couple of accepted theories), consider the heavy ball on a sheet of rubber analogy of gravity warping space time. The Higgs exists as part of the sheet, not something on top of the sheet (like the energy you're thinking of). The bosons, whenever they pop up around the event horizon (and they can and likely do), then those bosons will behave like any other object on the sheet, but the sheet remains inaccessible.

[@crazybear38]

Really good point at the end there. Also just to note a field can be just a number as in this case because it's a scalar field. However another example are fields that have a number and a direction, for instance the electromagnetic field which is an example of a vector field. Not to be picky just wanted to widen the scope of fields.

[@akashashen]

That's a fair question. The photon is the force carrier of Electromagnetism, everything that a photon "does" is an interaction with electrons. Light doesn't bounce off electrons, but the electrons absorb the photon and respond to that absorption. When bound to atoms, these effects are straight forward: If the energy is below placing the electron into the next orbital position, it perturbs the atom (heat), equal, light and greater frees the electron (ionisation)

[@hardyischamp]

In a way, yes. but there are many proposed alternatives of standard models which have different theories about higgs.If we are able to understand higg's properties to a certain extend, it'll enable us to incorporate those models within the current one to make for a more complete model.

[@refa42]

Thank you scientists, engineers and Brady for doing great science and keeping us informed about it. What comes to these "god" comments, the saying "thank god (for something)" doesn't fit well in my first language and if it did, I would only use it when talking about diseases and natural disasters. When a deaf person listens to music, blind person drives a car, paralyzed moves an arm, I thank all the scientist that made it happen. Your list might be different, just don't make it too short.

[@JtHih]

I didn't understand a god damn thing the presenter was saying, but I watched the whole thing anyway and loved every second of it.

[@fifth_elephant]

Good video, I felt like I learned so much more from this video than any other video or article that I have read.

[@akashashen]

The technical answer is, "We don't know." There are some theories regarding, if you will, a shape (wave-form) that has a kind of drag through that field, like objects in the air or water. It's not proportional to the energy of the elementary particle when calculating sans-higgs field interaction.

[@akashashen]

One concept in appreciating how gravity effects light (bosons) is to consider the space around all matter (fermions) as directly proportional to the total interacting mass. While it is popular to describe space-time in tensor mathematics as being stretched, you could create similar effects as suggesting that there is simply more space to pass through, as if every object in the Universe adds to space by its very existence --

[@Javierm0n0]

LOL one of the best retorts i've seen in a while! I salute you my fellow.

[@akashashen]

Force carriers, bosons and photons, only interact where the force is involved. The interaction with the Higgs field is akin to drag, the way the energy is structured causes this drag-like effect as the bosons that couple to it are directly related to the lowest energy they can occupy between that particle and the Higgs field.

[@enyskept]

Wow, that was so well stated...I'll have to borrow this reasoning from you; it makes total sense...I love how you made the distinction between facts and opinions...

[@jpmthemonk]

Thanks for this! Suddenly, things made a lot more sense.

[@jomiar309]

Or, an explanation that I find a little easier: mass is highly concentrated energy, which means that there is a Law of Conservation of Energy, sometimes in "loose" energy, and sometimes concentrated or "stored" energy. Not totally accurate, but most people have understood the idea when I've used that metaphor.

[@bimblinghill]

As I understand it, both reasons are true. High-energy collisions occur naturally, but are spread about in places like the upper regions of our atmosphere. Also, the Higgs exists only for a brief instant before it decays. The outcome is that if you built a detector to observe a natural collision, you would be very lucky for one to happen in the right spot to observe a Higgs Boson before it decayed.

[@snarky77005]

The Higgs Boson is a very heavy particle of the classical model of physics first introduced by Peter Higgs in the 1960's. It is a particle that interacts with gravity and gives matter weight. It is a particle that is not very stable and quickly disintegrates into other particles. that is the reason that the particle cannot be observed only it's "footprints" can be observed.

[@leytbsdfrtbsfgbrtdfb]

Try to watch again. He said smashing protons together, which is impossible for it has the same charge, that's why you need to smash them in the speed of light, remember E=mc^2? Then that would produce energy that could excite the Higgs field.

[@tomtoonotavaiable]

The highs boson is only a particle that shows up when you ripple the underlaying higgs field.Like a photon when you ripple the EM field. A little like you have a class of water and you let fall in a stone. Then a drop of water comes out of the water. The mass the particels have comes from how much they interact with this higgs field. Like you can walk thru a snow field ,with shoes(high interaction/heavy) or ski (weak interaction) . Thats the way i understand it maybe wrong.

[@Graphene_314]

the higgs field gives the illusion of mass, some particles dont interact with it, like some particles dont interact with the electromag force. since the higgs boson interacts with so many particles and is so massive and unstable, it decays into a variety of particles almost instantly

[@amarmirza08]

I believe (and someone please correct me if I am wrong, I am no physicist) that the momentum of the particles (in addition to the mass) is what creates the energy (which in turn condenses) to create such a massive particle. As I understand it, the reason you need these huge accelerators is that you need to speed up the particles as fast as possible to create collisions of the maximum energy. That energy allows for more massive particles to condense out of the mess.

[@Tunatunatun]

Furthermore, Mass-energy equivalence looks like this. E^2 = m^2*c^4 + p^2*c^2, where E is energy, m is mass, p is momentum, and c is the speed of light (constant). For a massive and static particle, we get the famous E = mc^2. For a massless photon however, m=0, so E^2 = p^2*c^2 => E = pc. For a photon, momentum p = h*f, h is the planck constant and f is frequency. Therefore, a high frequency photon has more energy than a low frequency one, even if they travel at the same speed, c. (:

[@akashashen]

The Higgs field exists in/around every particle in the Universe. If you were to gloss over the work on asymptotic freedom, or simply have the knowledge that the quarks inside of baryons in general remain active, you'll understand there is a lot of space inside any individual nucleon, and it is in this space that the QED vacuum, the strong force and the Higgs field (which counts as part of the QED vacuum) interact with these particles. (close to character limit)

[@flowerofsilver]

Watching last night was incredible. I stayed up until 5:30 am!

[@akashashen]

What causes the proportion of interaction with the Higgs field is not related to particle size, but, and I don't want to simplify this uselessly, but its more akin to the shape of the particle interacting with the field, like some designs being more aerodynamic than others, which tends to lead to analogies of drag. A stealth bomber is larger than a paper airplane, but both can have the same drag.

[@ShiroKage009]

Things that you would have pointed at the same way when they were discovered:- Quantum Mechanics, General and Special relativity, how to induce an electric current, the structure of the DNA, the work of Gregor Mendel, the Hammond postulate, the entire metallo-organic chemistry, the work of Galleleio, the invention of Differential and Integral calculus and many other. All of those advancements did not get applied until decades, some of them centuries, after their discovery.

[@snarky77005]

If you read the Wikipedia article on "The Higgs Boson" it seems to confirm what I said. The Higg's boson has a mass and also "gives mass to other particles." Higgs and colleagues wrote a paper about it back in 1964. I'm not sure who originally came up with the idea.

[@akashashen]

When you overcome the strong force (color charge, not electical) to the point where the energy even exceeds the residual strong force (the part that allows for elements to undergo nuclear fusion), you can "smash" the baryons together, ripping asunder their lowest-energy state. The gluon (strong force particle) is often momentarily freed by this activity, where it will bring together the other freed energy, mostly quarks, and reform hadrons (quark-made particles). (character limit)

[@akashashen]

The Higgs particle is a boson, it has no mass. It decays when not interacting between a the particle it couples to the Higgs field the Higgs field itself. All particles to which the energy and structure can be defined can have an anti-particle. For example, you wouldn't normally say there's an anti-photon (which would sound like a particle of darkness), but anti-photons form in high-energy lepton collisions, as the two photons created have opposing wave properties.

[@jufulu7066]

The short answer is sorta.. A slightly longer answer. At the speeds that the initial particles (gold nuclei?) are traveling, they gain mass due to relativity effects. When they hit each other at these speeds, they are annihilated into other particles and a large amount of energy. If I understand what was said correctly, this collision stimulates the Higgs field into producing the Higgs boson. So, its not just the masses of the gold atoms, its also their velocities.

[@twilightknight123]

Because mass (and therefore gravity) attracts both other masses AND energy. That is why light from distant stars can be bent around our sun. Black holes just attract the light so much (which is both a particle and a wave and therefore has energy) that is can't escape. Hopefully I helped.

[@Beynon11]

Good stuff, good stuff.

[@InB4Desu]

Because the Higgs is a single (very) unstable particle that wants to instantly react with everything else that has mass. An atom is a collection of many particles each held (more or less stably) together by a myriad of other forces, not terribly prone to being disturbed.

[@arbiforumnow]

Awesome. Thank you for this window into this very exciting world of physics and important development! Very cool!

[@jepkofficial]

Gravitational fields 'choose' paths for any energy not just mass. That is why in the theory of Quantum Gravitation gravitons would be able to interact with each other as well as all other particles.

[@PykohYT]

I'm not a particle physicist, but I don't like how the Standard Model was a nice rectangle until we add the Higgs, and it will be even more unbalanced when we figure out the gravity force carrier, so it either needs 2 more force carriers besides the graviton and Higgs, or another row of Leptons or Quarks.

[@ronluzim]

thank you for your explanation! From Venezuela!!

[@akashashen]

It's not a graviton. If there is a force carrier for gravity, it will be a boson, but the Higgs field gives the particle it's mass, but it doesn't communicate to other particles. There isn't an inherent density of the Higgs field tensor around a black hole that is necessarily more significant then the one around you.

[@thekendrickhuynh]

Higgs bosons are massive, if I'm correct, they're much more massive than the elementary particles that we know of (protons, electrons, neutrons). The Higgs bosons decay into smaller particles, which may include the elementary particles, but these particles do not make up the Higgs. This is based upon my understanding, so please do not go by it. I do believe it makes sense and has backup from the Standard Model.

[@vkotis]

Amazing! Thankyou sixtysymbols!

[@MBAustin13]

I believe amarmirza is correct. As for not having been able to observe the Higgs boson, I'm not entirely sure but I think it's because the particles involved in force exchanges are less "real" than say the photons emitted by a lightbulb--they exist only to convey the force and can't be detected otherwise. These bosons can be created by other natural means, but because the Higg's mass is so huge, this almost never happens.

[@akashashen]

The Higgs boson doesn't possess mass through another means, as all mass comes from interactions with the Higgs field, making the Higgs boson, while coupled to a particle, massless; however, once it IS the particle, it is effect by the same mechanism it normally deploys. So, it can be coupled to a particle which normally has a small relative mass, but once decoupled, it becomes the particle, a particle which has a high Higgs field potential, hence becomes massive, not unlike the top quark.

[@pyrrho314]

this is so awesome! I'm ready for my antigravity car thank you.

[@Tunatunatun]

Energy is conserved through the whole process. Photons are massless, but they can carry enormous amounts of energy through their frequency. Radio waves and infrared light is less energetic than ultraviolet and x-rays, for example. Mass is just the energy with which every particle with mass interacts with the Higgs Field. When decaying, this energy can be turned into other particles with some energy, and/or in this case, some very energetic photons. E=mc^2 is all the explanation you need =)

[@alaudun2]

You explained it very well.

[@akashashen]

To maintain my argument of causality remaining dependent upon time, I point to every accurate predictive model of physics to date. To alter these, all you have to do is build a time machine. When you get around to that, you can make your case, but how you will make such a device with your alternative laws of physics is a truly daunting task, as, and I admit I'm making a WILD guess, I'd bet you live in this Universe.

[@johnclavis]

Thanks for yet another fun and informative video! You're great!

[@akashashen]

I don't know why this is marked as spam. Bosons are like photons, they don't carry mass. Mass involves particles that obey Fermi-Dirac equations, called fermions. The difference comes down to whether or not you can put two of the same thing, doing the same thing (possessing the same state) in the same place. Take two laser beams intersecting one another: They don't interfere or deflect each other.

[@LoveAndPeaceOccurs]

Thank You, Prof. Ed Copeland, for stating this complex event in a manner that makes sense, best overview I've heard yet of Higgs Boson. I now understand the reason they are not yet certain and also why some call it the "God" particle.

[@MBAustin13]

It all has to do with E=MC^2. These aren't two protons just bumping into each other, they're two protons smashing into each other at around 99.999% of the speed of light. That gives them a colossal amount of energy, so much energy that much of it "crystallizes" into various physical particles. This whole search has been about giving the protons the energy they need to create something with the mass of the Higgs. Since your multiplier is the square of the speed of light, that's a LOT of energy.

[@tristanroberts]

Working out what dark matter is, explaining dark energy, working out how to quantise gravity, solving the hierarchy problem. There's no shortage of unsolved problems even in particle physics let alone the rest of physics.

[@tardedZnerfZgun]

I have to give it to you, you did do fairly well.

[@Tunatunatun]

I'm sorry, I did that through a dimensional analysis in which c=1. Without it, P = h/w. For a wave traveling at a speed c, c = w/T. T = 1/f. Then, c = w*f. I chose c=1 for a easier-to-explain dimensional analysis by implying E is proportional to p. But yes, a correct dimensional analysis should be c = w*f. w = c/f Then p = h/w = h/(c/f) = hf/c. Then E = p*c. You're right, I needed the constant to be mathematically accurate. My point is, still: for a photon, E is proportional to p.

[@Tunatunatun]

Dude! I was looking for that 'ಠ' the other day and I couldn't find it, you just got more awesome.

[@AmarildoK]

Because it has properties of waves and also praticles, that's why they say it is particle/wave

[@DanieleGiorgino]

From the wikipedia article on the graviton: For example, a detector with the mass of Jupiter and 100% efficiency, placed in close orbit around a neutron star, would only be expected to observe one graviton every 10 years, even under the most favorable conditions. It would be impossible to discriminate these events from the background of neutrinos, since the dimensions of the required neutrino shield would ensure collapse into a black hole.[12] I don't think it's cheating.

[@heavymetaldeath4life]

"Mass is an illusion granted by the Higgs Field" The Higgs field provides mass to fundamental particles like electrons and quarks but when it comes to the mass of ordinary matter such as you and me and trucks and baseballs, most of the mass does not arise from the Higgs field. It's actually the energy of the gluons that is responsible for most of the mass of the protons and neutrons, and hence the mass of familiar matter.

[@technicalhoboskater]

you can't go in to the cavern because of the radiation but they explain the history of CERN and the construction of the detectors, and information about the computing and the plans for the future: its closing next year for maintenance but sometime in the future they're going to replace all the computers with the best thing there will be at the time and replacing the wires with a better alloy and in general making it more powerful, and something about a linear accelerator 50 km in length

[@akashashen]

The Higgs field, unlike the strong nuclear force, doesn't share a unique relationship with quarks or the hardrons they composite. The reason there may be a wide energy range for the Higgs boson(s) relates to how much energy and interaction any individual particle can have with the field. Any field can be excited to release force carriers. Several meters of wire, for example, will allow you to run an LED right off of the Earth. (character limit, again)

[@handulldtd]

E=m*c^2 (i believe another sixty symbles video talks about it, and yes, technically the equation is a bit different for relativistic cass). roughly speaking mass and energy are interchangable. so while a photon has no mass, it does have energy. so when you are talking about how gravity effects something, you have to consider both its mass and its energy. photons have energy, and thus you get effects like gravitational lensing, light not escaping black holes, etc.

[@tristanroberts]

fields self-interact all the time, gravity couples to energy but it's field is a field of potential energy. The strong force couples to colour charge but gluons have colour charge etc.

[@akashashen]

I consider mine to be fond memories and lucky charms. I've got an 8" AST Research disk for System 34/36 -- though it is in a frame, looking as if it was still only 4 years old.

[@maxovertime1979]

good job. i will watch more of your vids. very interesting, thank you

[@sidewaysfcs0718]

energy is quantized, mass is simply the effect of the higgs field on all particles. for all intents and purposes, no particle hass mass, and every single particle moves at "c" ,but most particles get mass by interacting with the higgs field and their phase velocity goes down. imagine a particle going in a tight zig-zag at "c", and then imagine a particle going in a straight line at "c'. the first we call a massive particle, the second is a photon or gluon. the picture is complete now

[@MrKydaman]

I am no expert, and it is doubtful I can provide the quality answer you would like. That being said something to keep in mind is that fact that energy and mass are one in the same hence E=MC2. The particles that collide have been sped up (particle accelerator), and this means that there is a huge amount of energy that could then be converted to mass.

[@vividexstance]

There was once two laws of conservation, but Einstein's equations show that there is a mass-energy equivalence, therefore the the two conservation laws were redundant and we only needed 1 law of conservation. Even though mass is lost in a nuclear reactor, there is still conservation because it was converted to energy. Convert is really the wrong word because mass and energy are two names for the same thing.

[@RigelOrionBeta]

I didn't say photons are heavy. I said other objects are, such as black holes. Black holes warp the space around them. The curves in space around the black hole, and between its center and the event horizon are such that photons cannot escape.

[@gricka31]

Yes, but that's not specifically saying what excites the Higgs field, just that the energy of the protons colliding is enough. Smashing protons together isn't impossible, it's just hard, because of the electrostatic repulsion. Although the protons are accelerated a lot, their velocity relative to each other can't be that of light, this is fundamentally impossible as they have mass. If you didn't know, it'd be easier just to say...

[@fishybishbash]

I understand the idea that the Higgs field acts as a kind of medium which gives mass to particles and that confirmation of its existence is an affirmation of this theory but many people are describing the discovery as a sort of jumping off point or 'gateway' to new discoveries - I don't really understand why that should be?

[@Graphene_314]

yes... and also many other combinations, but the two photons are the easiest to detect which is why CERN looks for it that way

[@akashashen]

The neutron is made up of three quarks, which on their own, would each have their own boson; however, when they integrate into a single stable energy structure, it is considered as having it's own boson. Since bosons are force carriers (gauge bosons), they do not exist long on their own, nor can they couple to other bosons, as they ignore the Pauli exclusion principle (they can pass through each other, like laser beams).

[@Gnomefro]

"So, what will me the short-term utility of this?" It's hard to tell, because we don't know exactly what this thing is yet, but it's quite possible that new discoveries in particle physics can result in new processes for harnessing energy etc. Such discoveries may easily be much more valuable for humanity than taking steps to allow overpopulated regions to become even more overpopulated. However, in practice, we manage to do research in several areas at the same time - so relax and enjoy it.