MetaFilter posts tagged with particlephysics

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Fizz — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 08:56:11 -0800

"I'm confident that it's a Higgs particle. I don't need to call it Higgs-like any more...I may need to eat my words one day, but I think that's very unlikely."

"Cern scientists believe newly discovered particle is the real Higgs boson. Results of analysis at Cern in Switzerland show particle behaves precisely as expected." Previously

A Rendezvous with Destiny for a Generation of Physicists

Eyebrows McGee — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:05:11 -0800

What began with one man in a patent office and the insight that mass and energy are the same has culminated at the largest particle collider ever built, employing 2400 full-time employees and 10,000 visiting scientists: CERN has announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, a major vindication for the Standard Model of particle physics. The announcement was marked by celebration "everywhere that members of a curious species have dedicated their lives and fortunes to the search for their origins in a dark universe." (NYT, very poetic) 1,000 people waited overnight to be in the auditorium during the announcement; Peter Higgs was given a standing ovation; the presenting scientists were interrupted again and again by waves of applause. Scientists are carefully calling the new boson a "Higgs-like particle," stating that it's unclear yet whether the new boson behaves exactly as the hypothetical Higgs is predicted to behave. The Higgs is thought to be responsible for explaining why particles have mass, by creating a Higgs field that is like, in the traditional metaphor that you will see in every article, a pool of molasses that causes mass to "stick" to other particles as they move through it. (Wired has some pretty good explanation in their coverage of the announcement.) Higgs himself appeared to weep (photo at 12:10 p.m. in the liveblog). However, the results are not exactly as predicted, and this is good news for physics. Notes the NYTimes, "There are hints, but only hints so far, that some of the channels are overproducing the Higgs while others might be underproducing, clues maybe that there is more than the Standard Model at work." Physics for the sake of physics not your thing? How about the ROI for industry? For every euro invested by corporations, they got 3.5 euros in return from new technology, including silicon detectors.

How I learned to stop worrying and love reductionism

AElfwine Evenstar — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 23:45:06 -0800

Scientists at CERN, using the Large Hadron Collider, may have discovered the Higgs Boson. (previously) and (previously)

Fermilab to announce new physics

auto-correct — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:53:19 -0800

The CDF collaboration at Fermilab is set to announce evidence for non-Standard Model physics today. The experiment at the Tevatron particle collider has released a paper on the Arxiv stating it has found evidence for a potential new particle that isn't the Higgs boson. A live stream announcing the results will begin at 4pm Central time (21:00 GMT). Excess events (at 3.2 standard deviations) were found in quark jet events corresponding to a particle mass around 144 GeV. Dedicated Higgs searches in the same mass region turned up negative, implying that this could be non-Standard Model physics. The paper, cautiously, makes no guesses about what kind of physics is being observed. CDF's sister experiment at the Tevatron, D0, has yet to weigh in. Whether D0 sees the same signature will go a long way in confirming whether a signal is actually present.

Neutrinos on ice

AElfwine Evenstar — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:24:02 -0800

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has been completed in Antarctica. What is a Neutrino anyway? Here is an informative video, which seems to draw at least some inspiration from this(NSFW), that explains what neutrinos are and how we can detect them.(via) The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is the successor project of the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA). Various methods have been used to detect these "ghost particles". Super Kamiokande (previously) is a large volume of water surrounded by phototubes that watch for the Cherenkov radiation emitted when an incoming neutrino creates an electron or muon in the water. Another type of neutrino observatory can be found underwater. Examples of these include: Baikal Deep Underwater Neutrino Telescope, ANTARES, NESTOR, and the proposed Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope(KM3NeT). Perhaps the most important neutrino observatory to date has been the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Ontario. This observatory provided the results which solved the solar neutrino problem indicating that neutrinos have mass. This has led physicists to conclude that something is wrong with the Standard Model, which predicts that neutrinos are massless. Revisions are under way.

Higgs, Higgs, glorious Higgs

Lutoslawski — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:29:16 -0800

The CERN Choir sings about the Higgs Boson in the Particle Physics Song (slyt).

Physics Experiment Will Use Lead From a Roman Shipwreck

homunculus — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:15:11 -0800

Roman ingots to shield particle detector. "Around four tonnes of ancient Roman lead was yesterday transferred from a museum on the Italian island of Sardinia to the country's national particle physics laboratory at Gran Sasso on the mainland. Once destined to become water pipes, coins or ammunition for Roman soldiers' slingshots, the metal will instead form part of a cutting-edge experiment to nail down the mass of neutrinos." [Via]

Bringing the end of the world to your iPod

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:05:31 -0800

CERN Podcast - Lighthearted chats at the CERN laboratory with "a bit of particle physics thrown in". Featuring visits from British satirists and comedians, including Chris Morris and Kevin Eldon.

Quantum Mechanics: Myths and Facts

XMLicious — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:21:29 -0800

Quantum Mechanics: Myths and Facts (pdf), a recently-updated paper on the Cornell arXiv peer-review site. By Hrvoje Nikolić of the Rudjer Bošković Institute in Croatia. Note: the presence of a paper on arXiv does not necessarily mean it has been reviewed and is not equivalent to having been published in a journal.

Neutron = negative exterior + positive middle + negative core

russilwvong — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:23:30 -0800

Particle accelerator experiments show that the neutron has a negatively charged exterior, a positively charged middle, and a negative core. Abstract from Physical Review Letters.

The Universe is Finite

snsranch — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:52:17 -0800

Remember CERN from The Da Vinci Code? And their mega-project the Large Hadron Collider(previously mentioned here?) This BBC Horizons show, The Six Billion Dollar Experiment, does a good job illustrating why such an experiment is so cool, important and fascinating. Apparently, the universe is finite. (Includes Google Video-last link)

People have long asked, "What is the world made of?" and "What holds it together?"

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:06:41 -0800

The Particle Adventure.

Easy now!

superposition — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 23:36:04 -0800

Good advice for all of us! Don't drink and lower heavy machinery into the particle physicists' orbed abyss. "If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."