picture of the higgs boson?

[Powdered Toast Man please]

this is supposed to be a computer simulation of what the higgs boson will look like when found. now, i am by no means a physics buff so i was wondering if someone could explain the picture to me.

i know its a picture of a particle collision, but what sets it apart? what part of this is picture envelopes the higgs boson?


http://home.planet.nl/~dorp0043/media/20080531.jpg

[Kwinnie Bogan]

IIRC it looks like this:
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8163/ght.png

But I am not 100% that I haven't got it confused with something else.

The different lines you see there all represent different molecular paths, each line is an atom.

I think I might just add that not only is there absolutley zero evidence of any hint of the higgs boson existing, there's no reason to suspect it either. The higgs boson is a lie, dammit.

[PirateJoe]

I think I might just add that not only is there absolutley zero evidence of any hint of the higgs boson existing, there's no reason to suspect it either. The higgs boson is a lie, dammit.

I thought it was required by the standard model?

[Mathematics]

this is supposed to be a computer simulation of what the higgs boson will look like when found. now, i am by no means a physics buff so i was wondering if someone could explain the picture to me.

i know its a picture of a particle collision, but what sets it apart? what part of this is picture envelopes the higgs boson?


http://home.planet.nl/~dorp0043/media/20080531.jpg

It is a picture of the decay products of a Higgs created through proton-proton collision. There are various ways for the Higgs to be produced and various different ways for it to decay, so I'm not sure what process is going on here and I'm not sure which bit would tell you it's a Higgs. I'll see if I can find out.

There are certain decays that can't be explained by other processes, so by examining the decay products and looking at the rules of which decays are allowed you can work out which particles must have been produced in the collision and which particles have decayed.

My post in this thread gives a guide to how it works in the case of the weak gauge bosons: http://www.zoklet.net/bbs/showthread.php?t=59246

[Mathematics]

IIRC it looks like this:
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8163/ght.png

But I am not 100% that I haven't got it confused with something else.

The different lines you see there all represent different molecular paths, each line is an atom.

I think I might just add that not only is there absolutley zero evidence of any hint of the higgs boson existing, there's no reason to suspect it either. The higgs boson is a lie, dammit.

You must be thinking of something else, you don't get atoms in particle collisions.

Also, there are very good reasons to suspect it. There isn't just one Higgs boson, there are various different ones pertaining to slightly different extended versions of the standard model. These extensions might be wrong, but at the very least a Higgs boson is required by the standard model, specifically by our theory for electroweak symmetry breaking. All other predictions of electroweak theory have been tested experimentally, including the prediction of the existence of three massive weak gauge bosons. The existence of the Higgs is the only part left, which is what makes it so exciting. If it isn't found then it shows we have really misunderstood something fundamental. That is an exciting time for science.

[Archetype]

You must be thinking of something else, you don't get atoms in particle collisions.


Simply knowing that basic fact means you know more about physics than 88% of this forum's regulars. :(

The Higgs is predicted in supersymmetry theories, CDT theories, E8 theory and string theories. If it doesn't exist, then all current particle physics is wrong. :)