I dislike the term “god particle” but I could not resist the play on words … as researchers at Fermilab suggest that there may be five different versions of the Higgs boson, not just one. This would require, apparently, some rewriting of the Standard Model.<\/p>\n
\nHere’s the story in non-technical terms, and thus, somewhat butchered (but if you’re reading my blog for particle physics, you’re kinda asking for it anyway). Matter and it’s constituent parts may or may not have a certain kind and degree of symmetry. One theory as to why there is only “matter” and not “anti-matter” in the universe is because of asymmetry, but the kind and amount of asymmetry previously measured didn’t seem to be enough to explain this matter-antimatter thing.<\/p>\n
New research at a project called DZero has seemingly uncovered some additional asymmetry not previously expected. If confirmed, this may require some re-writing of the Standard Model (the physics model that explains everything except certain things … like, embarrassingly, gravity).<\/p>\n
One possible change in the model would result in how we think of the Higgs Boson …. the thingie that gives other thingies mass, and the holy grail (as it were) of the Large Hadron Collider Project. This change could mean that there are multiple different versions of the Higgs.<\/p>\n
… the data points to five Higgs bosons with similar masses but different electric charges.<\/p>\n
Three would have a neutral charge and one each would have a negative and positive electric charge. This is known as the two-Higgs doublet model.<\/p>\n
… the two-Higgs doublet could explain the results seen by the DZero team while keeping much of the Standard Model intact.<\/p>\n
“In models with an extra Higgs doublet, it’s easy to have large new physics effects like this DZero result,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“What’s difficult is to have those large effects without damaging anything else that we have already measured.”<\/p>\n
Dr Martin explained that there were other possible interpretations for the DZero result. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You can read the story at the BBC<\/a> web site, and see the press release here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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