God Particle: ‘India is Like a Historic Father of the Project’ : Kolkata

KOLKATA/GENEVA: The discovery of a new sub-atomic particle that is crucial to understanding how the universe is built announced in Geneva today has an intrinsic Indian connection.

A large number of Indian scientists, representing the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Harishchandra Research Institute, Allahabad and Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, were involved in the world's most ambitious experiment over the years.

The Indian link to the world's ambitious experiment was also significantly reflected in comments ahead of the announcement by CERN scientists that a sub-atomic particle "consistent" with the Higgs boson or 'God particle' has been spotted.

"India is like a historic father of the project," said Paolo Giubellino, spokesperson of Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research, famously known as CERN.

As scientists thrashed out the 'God particle' in its physical form in a giant collider, there was palpable excitement at SINP since its scientists had made significant contributions to the development of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments at CERN.

The long-sought particle, known as Higgs boson, is also partly named after an Indian scientist Satyendra Nath Bose, who worked with Albert Einstein in the 1920s and made discoveries that led to the most coveted prize in particle physics.

Stating that it was a historical moment in physics and SINP took pride in being a part of the history, the Institute irector Milan Sanyal said "It will require more data and intense scrutiny to establish these findings beyond any doubt.

"This is an important moment for the development of science and I am very happy that our institute, this city and our country is part of the science revolution," he told PTI in Kolkata.

He said that the core CMS team of the SINP had five faculty members — group leader Prof Sunanda Banerjee, Prof Satyaki Bhattacharya, Prof Suchandra Datta, Prof Subir Sarkar and Prof Manoj Saran.

The phrase " God particle" was coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman but is used by laymen, not physicists, as an easier way of explaining how the subatomic universe works and got started.

Meanwhile, Cosmologist Archan Majumder, who is attached with the S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, today termed the spotting of the sub-atomic particle "consistent" with the 'God Particle' as a victory for human civilization.

"The discovery is revolutionary in human history. This is a great victory of the fundamental knowledge of human civilization," Majumder told here.

With God Particle, Bigger Search Begins: Kolkata

KOLKATA: The discovery of Higgsboson will lead particle physics to an even bigger theory of which the standard model, that was proved correct on Wednesday, is a small part. 
While the new theory will have more predictions about matter - which could take science to the next level - it will also provide scientists with an opportunity to iron out the inherent flaws of the standard model, say the scientists of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics who worked on the CERN experiment.
Particle physics, they explained, has not been shut with the discovery of the God particle. It has just turned a corner and is possibly on the threshold of a bigger leap.
"With the discovery of the new particle we have merely proved the standard model theory right. But it happens to be just a small part of a bigger theory on which scientists have been working for 10 years. Now that the smaller part has been proved, it's time to move to the bigger theory. It will be like widening a camera lens to focus on a bigger object," said scientist Subir Sarkar, a member of the CMS group at SINP working on the CERN experiment.
Research will now be focused on finding ways to frame the bigger model. New technology will have to be evolved for that, Sarkar said.
"It will lead us to many more new particles that we haven't been able to find or even conceptualize so far. Their masses are so great that they can't be produced without large accelerators. So, we shall have to develop new technology to produce such particles, observe and analyze them, much like what was done at CERN for 15 years. These are still early days but the possibilities are exciting ," gushed Sarkar.
Even though the standard model is being hailed across the world and its successful verification is being celebrated, the theory had its flaws, according to SINP scientists. "Apart from being just a sub-set of a bigger model, its mathematical structure is incorrect. Mathematicians don't accept it in totality. Now that the Higgs-Boson is out of the way, scientists can focus on framing a mathematically perfect model that will be flawless," added Sarkar.
Manoj Shara, another CMS group member at SINP, agreed. "The standard model is certainly not the last theory in particle physics. For the international physicist community, work has, in fact, just begun. The goal will now be a much larger one and the possibilities enormous. We have already started working on technology development to facilitate the future course of experiment at CERN. We will get a clearer picture once the CERN tunnel shuts down for research later this year," said Sharan.

HIGGS BOSON (God Particle)

The Standard Model successfully describes all of the elementary particles we know to exist and how they interact with one another. But our understanding of nature is incomplete. In particular, the Standard Model cannot answer one basic question: Why do most of these elementary particles have masses?

Without mass, the universe would be a very different place. For example, if the electron had no mass, there would be no atoms. Hence there would be no ordinary matter as we know it, no chemistry, no biology and no people. In addition, the Sun shines thanks to a delicate interplay among the fundamental forces of nature, which would be completely upset if some of those force particles did not have large masses.

At first sight the concept of mass seems not to fit into the Standard Model of particle physics. Two of the forces the model describes – electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force – can be described by a single theory, that of the electroweak force. Scientists have subjected the electroweak theory to many experimental tests, which it has passed with flying colours. However, the basic equations of the theory seem to require all elementary particles to be massless.

Scientists needed a way out of this conundrum. Several physicists, including Peter Higgs, discovered a mechanism that, if added to the equations, would allow particles to have masses. This is now known as the Higgs mechanism. Integrating it into the Standard Model allowed scientists to make predictions of various quantities, including the mass of the heaviest known particle, the top quark. Experimentalists found this particle just where equations using the Higgs mechanism predicted it should be.

According to theory, the Higgs mechanism works as a medium that exists everywhere in space. Particles gain mass by interacting with this medium. Peter Higgs pointed out that the mechanism required the existence of an unseen particle, which we now call the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is the fundamental component of the Higgs medium, much as the photon is the fundamental component of light.

The Higgs boson is the only particle predicted by the Standard Model that has not yet been seen by experiments. The Higgs mechanism does not predict the mass of the Higgs boson itself but rather a range of masses. Fortunately, the Higgs boson would leave a unique particle footprint depending on its mass. So scientists know what to look for and would be able to calculate its mass from the particles they saw in the detector.

Experimentalists might find that the Higgs boson is different from the simplest version the Standard Model predicts. Many theories that describe physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry and composite models, suggest the existence of a zoo of new particles, including different kinds of Higgs bosons. If any of these scenarios turn out to be true, finding the Higgs boson could be a gateway to discovering new physics, such as superparticles or dark matter. On the other hand, finding no Higgs boson at the LHC would give credence to another class of theories that explain the Higgs mechanism in different ways.

GOD PARTICLE FOUND

John Ellis answer the question What is the Higgs boson? in preparation for the press conference following the seminar on LHC 2012 results on the Higgs boson searches, due on July 4 2012 at CERN. John Ellis répond à la question c'est quoi le boson de Higgs en préparation de la conférence de presse qui suivra le séminaire scientifique sur les résulats des recherches du boson de Higgs au LHC, prévue le 4 juillet 2012 au CERN.