- An announcement this week in the news was that the Higgs Boson like particle discovered statistically last July is truly the new Higgs Particle.
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- The math is the Standard Model of Particle Physics states that the Higgs should have zero spin and positive parity. After 2 ½ times more data was collected since last July from the proton - anti-proton collisions these properties for the Higgs Particle were confirmed.
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- The Higgs is supposed to decay into Bottom Quarks and Leptons. This “ coupling” decay still needs to be confirmed, so, the research is not done yet. The mass of the particle is measured to be 126,000 million electron volts.
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- These discoveries are huge. Really, so what? What is the Higgs Boson really and how does it work?
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- To learn this we need to know a little Quantum Mechanics, a little Field Theory , the Uncertainty Principle, and some Particle Physics. I know as little as anyone. So here it is. No problem:
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- First, Quantum Mechanics. Things are not smooth and continuous as they appear. Things are all in “ quanta’, small packets that are too small to see and even measure. It all started with the study of light. Was light a continuous wave of a tiny particle? Called the theory of Wave-Particle Duality. The wave was really a spread of probabilities of the position and the momentum of a quanta of energy which is a particle. We call the quantum of light the “Photon”. Photons are little packets of electromagnetic energy. Each packet is 4.136 * 10^-15 electron volts. Each packet is a cycle of oscillation. The total energy of light is the packet of electron volts times the frequency of oscillation. (E = h*f ). “ h” is Planck’s Constant of Action. “f” is frequency is cycles per second. The higher the frequency of light the higher the energy. That is why ultraviolet light burns your skin and X-rays can kill you.
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- Next, Quantum Mechanics does not stop with light. All things are quantized. Time is quantized at 10^-43 seconds. Space comes in a minimum length of 1.613*10^-35 meters. The speed of light travels that far in the quantized time of 10^-43 seconds. Angular momentum comes in quanta of 6.625 * 10^-34 joule-seconds. In Quantum Mechanics everything is “lumpy” . Space, time , energy, everything comes in a smallest lump.
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- Next, the lumps never stand still. They never have a fixed position. They never have a fixed momentum which is mass times velocity. This is called the Uncertainty Principle. This principle says that the position times the momentum of a particle must always be less than Plancks Constant of Action divided by the wavelength., 4.136*10^-15 electron volts / wavelength. ( delta “position” * delta “momentum” < = Plancks Constant).
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- Translated this means that the more you know about “position” the less you can know about “ velocity” because the product of the two can not exceed the fixed value of Plancks Constant. At the same time particles can not have “ no momentum” or a “ fixed position”. The vacuum of space is filled with this quanta of oscillating energy. You can not have empty space without a charge being in it. This condition can be interpreted as a sea of “ virtual particles” jumping in and out of existence. They do this so fast as to not violate the “Conservation of Energy“.
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- Now, to Field Theory. Fields are simply a condition of points in space. Space is filled with Fields. The vacuum of space is the state of lowest energy but the fields are still there. Fields cost energy. When particles vibrate they displace the field and that costs energy. Rotation at the lowest energy level does not cost energy. Rotation at this lowest energy point corresponds to a charge at no cost. This is how Einstein’s Condensate works and Superconductivity works. It is symmetry breaking that we are not going in to.
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- Particle Physics is our next pursuit. Mass and Energy are the same thing. When we say the mass is in electron volts we really mean electron volts / c^2, (m = E / c^2 ). Particles come in different energy levels. Photons and Gluons are at zero mass and the only ones that can travel only at the speed of light, which is the fastest anything can travel. Photons and Gluons are energy carriers. Photons carry the electromagnetic force. Gluons carry the Strong Nuclear Force. That is what holds protons together in the nucleus of atoms. Then we have W and Z Bosons that carry the Weak Nuclear Force but they have enormous mass and they decay. All together these force carriers are called “Bosons”. All the matter particles are called “ Fermions”. There are 3 types of electrons, 3 types of neutrinos and 6 types of Quarks that are Fermions.
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- Electrons can emit photons. Neutrinos can not emit photons. Neutrinos have very little mass. The lowest energy levels are the ordinary matter of electrons, neutrinos and Up and Down Quarks. The heavier particles decay always seeking the lowest energy levels. The heavier the particle the faster it decays. Top Quarks decay the fastest, but, they can produce the Higgs particle as we shall see. But, all the Fermions have mass:
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------------------------- Electrons -------------- 0.511 million electron volts / c^2
------------------------- Muons -------------- 106 MeV ( c^2 is assumed )
------------------------- Tau ---------------- 1,777 MeV
------------------------- Up Quark ------------- 2,000
------------------------- Down Quark --------- 5,000
------------------------ Bottom Quark -------- 4,200
------------------------ Top Quark ------------ 173,000
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- Two of the Bosons have mass. They are responsible for the Weak Nuclear Force decay, commonly referred to as radioactivity.
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------------------------- W Boson ------------- 80,300
------------------------ Z Boson -------------- 91,188
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- Add all these particles up and get 16 particles. Each of these has an equivalent anti-matter particle that has equivalent mass but opposite charge. That brings the total to 32 fundamental particles of matter and anti-matter.
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- What causes these particles to have mass? Why do the different particles have different mass? The answer is their degree of interaction with the Higgs Field gives them mass. The Higgs Field permeates all of space. Inertia is the degree of interaction each particle has in this sea of “ virtual particles”. The virtual particles can become real particles if enough energy is added to them. The Higgs Particle requires 126,000 MeV.
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- An electron and an anti-electron could create a Higgs Particle if they had enough energy. But, practically this will not happen because electrons have too little mass and too small cross-section area to have high energy collisions. The Top Quark collisions offer the best candidates to create the Higgs.
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- Here is the plan. Collide protons and anti-protons together in the Large Hadron Collide at speeds near that of light. The Gluons that collide in pairs create a Top Quark and a anti-Top Quark. This pair of Top Quarks decay into a Higgs Particle.
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- That is the theory and the math needed to create the Higgs Boson. A real particle is created out of the virtual particle in the Higgs Field. This is what happened at CERN last July. The statistics from trillions of collisions found a particle with 126,000 MeV mass. When the energy is high enough the energy becomes matter. The matter has mass. The mass in the interaction with the Higgs Field. What a discovery!
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- The math in the Standard Model allows for 4 more Higgs Boson particles to exist. It even suggests there an equivalent set of Super-particles to all the Standard Model particles. Called Super Symmetry it is a theory supported by String Theory. Particle discoveries are definitely not finished. Dark Matter is another form of mass that is undiscovered. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email upon request. Some reviews are at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Tuesday, March 19, 2013
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