Higgs Boson Research Paper
Israel Garcia
Elena Klock
Honors English C-104
20 May 2013
Higgs Boson Research Paper
Scientist have been hunting it for forty years, the key that will unlock the secrets of the universe, and now they have found it! Can the Higgs boson particle really tell humans how everything came into being? Does human kind owe its existence to something so elusive, so powerful? Is there a “God Particle”? How did humans get to be here in this universe? Scientist say that the universe began as a burst of pure energy, but somehow that energy turned itself into mass, which eventually became; stars, planets, and the stuff that makes up all humans and living things around the world. Instead of being a bursting fireball that would be gone in an instant, the universe has stuck around for billions of years. Physicists have long suspected there must be some invisible force field spread across the universe that can change pure energy into solid tangible matter. Now scientists have at last proven that this theoretical force field is real. They have produced from it a subatomic particle, known as the Higgs boson, the so called “God particle”. Can it explain the mystery of the creation of the universe?
Physicists have been searching for the “God Particle” for more that forty years and on the day that CERN announced the monumental discovery Peter Higgs, the British theoretical physicist whom the particle is named, said “To me it’s really an incredible thing that it happened during my life time” this quote can serve as a point of perspective for many people to see how many scientist believed that the Higgs Boson would never be found (Kharel 1). On July 4, 2012, CERN announced the discovery of a new subatomic particle that is consistent with the Higgs Boson – a particle that’s been searched for since the 1970s (“The Higgs Boson” 1). The Higgs boson particle weighs about 125-126 billion electron volts, abbreviated as GeV, the electron in a hydrogen atom weighs 1 GeV (“Elementary
Elena Klock
Honors English C-104
20 May 2013
Higgs Boson Research Paper
Scientist have been hunting it for forty years, the key that will unlock the secrets of the universe, and now they have found it! Can the Higgs boson particle really tell humans how everything came into being? Does human kind owe its existence to something so elusive, so powerful? Is there a “God Particle”? How did humans get to be here in this universe? Scientist say that the universe began as a burst of pure energy, but somehow that energy turned itself into mass, which eventually became; stars, planets, and the stuff that makes up all humans and living things around the world. Instead of being a bursting fireball that would be gone in an instant, the universe has stuck around for billions of years. Physicists have long suspected there must be some invisible force field spread across the universe that can change pure energy into solid tangible matter. Now scientists have at last proven that this theoretical force field is real. They have produced from it a subatomic particle, known as the Higgs boson, the so called “God particle”. Can it explain the mystery of the creation of the universe?
Physicists have been searching for the “God Particle” for more that forty years and on the day that CERN announced the monumental discovery Peter Higgs, the British theoretical physicist whom the particle is named, said “To me it’s really an incredible thing that it happened during my life time” this quote can serve as a point of perspective for many people to see how many scientist believed that the Higgs Boson would never be found (Kharel 1). On July 4, 2012, CERN announced the discovery of a new subatomic particle that is consistent with the Higgs Boson – a particle that’s been searched for since the 1970s (“The Higgs Boson” 1). The Higgs boson particle weighs about 125-126 billion electron volts, abbreviated as GeV, the electron in a hydrogen atom weighs 1 GeV (“Elementary
Cited: Atteberry, Johnathan “What exactly is the Higgs Boson” howstuffworks.org, 21 Mar 2013 Web. “Elementary Particles may have gained their mass from elusive particle – the Higgs Boson” home.web.cern.ch.org. 16 Mar 2013. Web. 26 Mar 2013 “Elementary particles may have gained their mass from an elusive particle – the Higgs Boson. And CERN physicists just might be closing in on it”. Home.web.cern.ch. 2013. 27 Mar 2013 Kharel Chardra, Gopi. “God Particle found: CERN Scientist confirm discovery of Higgs Boson ” ibtimes.org. 14 Mar 2013. Web. 21 Mar 2013 Knapp, Alex. “CERN Now Certain it has discovered The Higgs Boson.” forbes.com. 16 Mar 2012. Web. 26 Mar 2013 Landau, Elizabeth. “Scientist More Certain That particle is Higgs Boson.” CNN.com. 16 Mar 2013. Web. 26 Mar 2013 Markandeya, Virat. “Physicist detected new heavy particle.” insidescience.com. 4 July 2012. Web. 21 Mar 2013 “The Large Hadron Collider.” Home.web.cern.ch. 27 Mar 2013 “The safety of the LHC.” press.web.cern.ch. 4 Apr 2013