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Physicists wonder if the Higgs boson is a hermaphrodite
Kes: sorry this doesn't link to a complete article but hey, quantum physics is getting more queer all the time.
Physicists wonder if the Higgs boson is a hermaphrodite
By David Larousserie
Published on June 10, 2022 at 16h02, updated at 16h02 on June 10, 2022
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/science/article/2022/06/10/physicists-wonder-if-the-higgs-boson-is-a-hermaphrodite_5986332_10.html
There is another even more fascinating prospect. "Is the Higgs boson a hermaphrodite?" asked Mr. Sirois eagerly. In other words, can it reproduce by itself to give two identical Higgs babies? "The standard model of particples does not allow this. We have never seen a particle interact with itself. It would be a first," said Christophe Grojean, a physicist at DESY, a research center in particle physics and synchrotron radiation located in Germany.
This "reproduction" is all the more important to observe, and even to quantify, since it is at the very origin of the Universe. A few moments after the Big Bang, when the Universe was no bigger than a football and still very hot, all the forces and particles were, in a way, indistinguishable. Then cooling caused a major change, the same way liquid water becomes ice or a magnetic material suddenly loses its electrical resistance. That change broke the beautiful homogeneity, which specialists call "symmetry," of the Universe, and the particles and forces we know today became distinguishable. The particles acquired the mass that we know. And the details of what exactly happened during this key period depend on what is discovered about how the Higgs boson interacts with itself and reproduces itself. This means that observing the Higgs chain split in two means taking a great leap back in time to the origin of the matter that makes up the world and its contents.
You have 8.39% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
Physicists wonder if the Higgs boson is a hermaphrodite
By David Larousserie
Published on June 10, 2022 at 16h02, updated at 16h02 on June 10, 2022
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/science/article/2022/06/10/physicists-wonder-if-the-higgs-boson-is-a-hermaphrodite_5986332_10.html
There is another even more fascinating prospect. "Is the Higgs boson a hermaphrodite?" asked Mr. Sirois eagerly. In other words, can it reproduce by itself to give two identical Higgs babies? "The standard model of particples does not allow this. We have never seen a particle interact with itself. It would be a first," said Christophe Grojean, a physicist at DESY, a research center in particle physics and synchrotron radiation located in Germany.
This "reproduction" is all the more important to observe, and even to quantify, since it is at the very origin of the Universe. A few moments after the Big Bang, when the Universe was no bigger than a football and still very hot, all the forces and particles were, in a way, indistinguishable. Then cooling caused a major change, the same way liquid water becomes ice or a magnetic material suddenly loses its electrical resistance. That change broke the beautiful homogeneity, which specialists call "symmetry," of the Universe, and the particles and forces we know today became distinguishable. The particles acquired the mass that we know. And the details of what exactly happened during this key period depend on what is discovered about how the Higgs boson interacts with itself and reproduces itself. This means that observing the Higgs chain split in two means taking a great leap back in time to the origin of the matter that makes up the world and its contents.
You have 8.39% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.