No Higgs Boson?

[Adrift]

Caught this blog article over at Reddit: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...ysics-history/

And another article concerning the inability to find "supersymmetric" particles: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14680570

I don't really understand all of the science behind this, but I was certainly aware of all of the media hype behind the LHC a few years ago. Can someone break this up into something laymen could understand and what the new data means to researchers?

What's interesting to me is the drama behind the story... Makes for a good read :

...Stephen Hawking was widely reported in the press to have placed a provocative public bet that the LHC...would never find the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle”...

...informal polls of physicists over the last decade have shown that an overwhelming majority believed that the existence of the Higgs was a foregone conclusion and that all that was needed was simply to run the LHC long enough: the Higgs would eventually show up.

...But the Higgs boson never appeared.

Juicy.

[shunyadragon]

Hawking apparently won the bet so far, but in reality the jury is till out.

[Adrift]

Hawking apparently won the bet so far, but in reality the jury is till out.

Right. Looks like there's still a 5% chance till the end of the year to find it...

[seer]

Hawking apparently won the bet so far, but in reality the jury is till out.

Well the jury is pretty well in concerning the Higgs Boson:

And yesterday, August 22, at the Biennial International Symposium on Lepton-Photon Interactions at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, the bombshell was dropped: CERN scientists declared that over the entire range of energy the Collider had explored—from 145 to 466 billion electron volts—the Higgs boson is excluded as a possibility with a 95% probability.

So a very fundamental question about the nature of the universe i.e. where does mass in the universe come from - remains unanswered...

[Xru]

...informal polls of physicists over the last decade have shown that an overwhelming majority believed that the existence of the Higgs was a foregone conclusion and that all that was needed was simply to run the LHC long enough: the Higgs would eventually show up.

Duh . . .

[rogue06]

Right. Looks like there's still a 5% chance till the end of the year to find it...

Well the jury is pretty well in concerning the Higgs Boson:

And yesterday, August 22, at the Biennial International Symposium on Lepton-Photon Interactions at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, the bombshell was dropped: CERN scientists declared that over the entire range of energy the Collider had explored—from 145 to 466 billion electron volts—the Higgs boson is excluded as a possibility with a 95% probability.

So a very fundamental question about the nature of the universe i.e. where does mass in the universe come from - remains unanswered...

[Adrift]

I'm missing something I think. Was that an ahem to me, or to seer, or to both of us?

[Sparko]

Dang. I thought the thread said Higgs Bacon.

Oh well.

[Adrift]

Dang. I thought the thread said Higgs Bacon.

Oh well.

Not a bacon thread. I'll get mossy over here if I have to.

[Sparko]

Not a bacon thread. I'll get mossy over here if I have to.

But bacon can increase mass.

[shadowmaster]

Like who ever heard of mass-less bacon anyhow?

This Higgs thing doesn't make any sense.

sm

[rogue06]

I'm missing something I think. Was that an ahem to me, or to seer, or to both of us?

Probably shoulda put up an explanation rather than just the smiley. Both of you are noting that there is yet a 5% chance for it to be found. You seem to indicate that this means that judgement has not yet been finalized (which I agree with) whereas seer sees this as meaning "the jury is pretty well in." So I guess I was just amused how differently the same data appears to different people.

On second thought, after reading my explanation, perhaps just an "ahem" was better.

Don't get up. I know the way and can let myself out.

[Adrift]

Probably shoulda put up an explanation rather than just the smiley. Both of you are noting that there is yet a 5% chance for it to be found. You seem to indicate that this means that judgement has not yet been finalized (which I agree with) whereas seer sees this as meaning "the jury is pretty well in." So I guess I was just amused how differently the same data appears to different people.

On second thought, after reading my explanation, perhaps just an "ahem" was better.

Don't get up. I know the way and can let myself out.

Oh, okay. I'm pretty naive about all of this stuff. Its interesting to me, but I realize a lot of it is over my head.

[Xru]

They used the Higgs anti-boson to destroy the "Apparitions" in Solaris. Guess they have to remake the movie now.

[Xru]

Like who ever heard of mass-less bacon anyhow? This Higgs thing doesn't make any sense. sm

Quite right . . . I thought 95% of the Universe was made of Dark matter . . . something no one has the faintest idea what it is.