• Question: how close are we to actually find out if the higgs boson exists?

    Asked by powh123 to Ben, Jony, Mark on 25 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 24 Nov 2011:

      About a year off. The latest information on this came from combining the result from the Atlas and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider

      http://cms.web.cern.ch/news/atlas-and-cms-combine-summer-11-search-limits-standard-model-higgs

      There is now only a very small range of masses where the Higgs can exist. It is thought that with just one more years data the LHC experiments will be able to detect or rule out the existence of the Higgs, well the most simple “standard model” version. This would then mean that either the Higgs mechanism for giving mass to particles is wrong or that there is more complex physics that requires a Higgs particle(s) of higher mass.

    • Photo: Jony Hudson

      Jony Hudson answered on 25 Nov 2011:

      The real answer is nobody knows!!

      If it behaves in the way that we expect it to, then the LHC should be able to see it pretty soon. But the great thing about science is that you never know the answer until you do the experiment. I’d be really pleased if we didn’t find the Higgs boson, because then we’d have to go back to the drawing board with our theories – which would be really exciting!

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