Guest Blogger------ Higgs boson!

         As you may know, CERN has released a large amount of information concerning the Higgs boson. The scientific community is excited, especially that a specific GeV range has been found. However, most people don't belong to the scientific community, when they see the news, say "Holy Crap! A Higgs boson! ...What is it?" To say that it is the boson governing mass does not help much.

         Just to understand what a boson is, one must have general knowledge of the so-called elementary particles of the Standard Model. The particles are divided into two categories: the fermions, which make up stuff, and the bosons, which are energy particles. The idea of the Higgs boson comes from an occurrence in the fermions- that certain particles, such as the electrons, have such small mass that they are not even considered in atomic mass, while other particles, such as the top quarks, weigh much more than whole protons, and even some atoms. The idea is that mass has a boson like electromagnetic force has the photon and the weak force has the W and Z bosons. The entire universe has a field of Higgs bosons called the Higgs field. A particle such as the electron interacts with the Higgs field very little; a particle like the top quark interacts with the Higgs field greatly.

         The discovery of a Higgs boson would benefit the Standard Model and probably discredit other theories like the topological helon model and some variants of string theory. However, if it is not found, and the theory is destroyed, we might have to create some new models of subatomic particles.

Resident teenager, maths geek, science nerd, sax player, computer geek, and connoisseur of tasty  food!