• Question: if higgs theory is true and so the higgs field thn why would smashing two protons head on can give rise to higgs boson?i mean wats the exact mechanism of formation of higgs boson or its detachment from higgs field.?

    Asked by shobhit to Chris, Dave, David, Fiona, Jack on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: David Freeborn

      David Freeborn answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Hi shobit,

      Good question!

      All particles are ultimately made of the same “stuff”: basically just energy and a few other properties. Their mass is just energy, according to Einstein’s equation E=mc^2. They also have a few other properties like spin. This makes life very easy for particle physicists: we can make almost any particle out of any other, because they’re all ultimately made of the same things. It really is as simple as that!

      So to make a Higgs Boson, all you need to do is get two very high energy particles of just the right mass and spin together in the right place. If you keep doing this often enough, eventually it will settle into a “Higgs Boson” particle.

      The most common way we make Higgs Bosons is by a process called gluon fusion. All the protons we fire together in the LHC are held together by gluons. When the protons hit, there’s a very small chance that two gluons of just the right energy and properties to make a Higgs Boson will collide. You need a very specific energy so it only happens very rarely, but we fire millions and millions of protons together, so eventually we make a Higgs Boson!

      This is pretty much how we make every other particle too. It’s a very simple recipe.

      I hope that makes sense! Feel free to ask more, if it doesn’t!

    • Photo: Jack Miller

      Jack Miller answered on 22 Jun 2013:

      Great answer from David! I think it’s also important to say that there are many, many different ways of making a Higgs from two protons colliding at or above the right energy — infinitely many ways, in fact. There are certain ‘signature modes’ of Higgs production, which are what are being looked at intensely by the detectors in the LHC — the Higgs has a certain set of decay products, and it’s also predicted to be produced in excess by certain other reactions. If you look at all the reactions of the right type that have occurred, you can see how many particles of different types you’ve observed, and compare that to how many you’d expect to observe if the Higgs does or doesn’t exist.

      The evidence is mounting for a Higgs at a rest mass of around 125 GeV (and I really wish I’d placed a bet on that a few years ago, like David did…), but there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding all the measurements. By producing more reactions, we can hopefully reduce those uncertainties!

      — Jack

Comments

  • Photo: shobhit

    shobhit commented on :

    @david I got your point that we can produce particles from other particles as we do in chemical reactions but I have seen a clip abt higgs boson by sir brian greene in which he said that the collision is going to jiggle the higgs field resulting in higgs boson. what do u think abt this as we know particles interact with this field?

  • Photo: David

    David commented on :

    Hi shobit,

    It’s difficult to separate what we mean by a particle form what we mean by a field. All particles are really just an excitation/vibration of a field, and the Higgs is no different.

    I’m guessing what Brian Greene meant (by the way, have you read his book, the Elegant Universe? It’s really good!) is that by creating a Higgs Boson, we are “jiggling” the Higgs field, because that’s what a Higgs Boson is: an excitation of that particular field.