The Higgs Boson Particle

Scientists claim that they are close to discovering the Higgs Boson particle. Lots of hype came out of the science community anticipating a ground-breaking announcement, and all that was announced, really, was that scientists are now closer than they have ever been, but still have found nothing. What exactly is this Higgs Boson particle?

British physicist Peter Higgs in the 1960s postulated a theory hypothesizing that a lattice of sorts, that he referred to as the Higgs field, fills the entire universe. Imagine an electromagnetic field that affects particles as they move through it. We know that when an electron passes through a positively charged crystal lattice of atoms, the electron's mass will increase. That same principal might be true in the Higgs field; particles moving through any field create distortion. The Higgs Boson particle is thought to be tied to a field thought to be responsible for giving all other particles their mass. The operative word is "thought" as scientists do not have any details about the mass of the Higgs Boson particle. Because scientists know nothing about the mass of this "supposed particle," they have no specific parameters for its location. It has been like looking for a needle in a haystack. Supposedly, scientists have now eliminated enough possibilities to consider the Higgs Boson cornered as most agree that the Higgs Boson particle's mass lies in a range between 115 and 130 gigaelectronvolts (GeV).

According to Guido Tonelli, we are still a good distance away from discovering this particle, and there is still a good chance it does not exist at all.

"The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below, but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive," CMS experiment spokesperson Guido Tonelli said in a statement. "As of today what we see is consistent either with a background fluctuation or with the presence of the boson. Refined analyses and additional data delivered in 2012 by this magnificent machine [Large Hadron Collider] will definitely give an answer."

The question of mass has always been puzzling, and has left many wondering if the Higgs Boson was the missing particle in the Standard Model, the widely accepted theory of nuclear interactions. The Standard Model effectively describes three of nature's four forces of particle interaction: electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Scientists have learned much more about the strong force, which binds the elements of atomic nuclei together, and the weak force, which governs radioactivity and hydrogen fusion (from the sun). Electromagnetism describes fairly well how particles interact with photons, which are tiny packets of electromagnetic radiation. The weak force does a good job describing how two other entities interact with electrons, quarks, neutrinos and other sub-atomic particles. However, there is one very important difference between these two interactions: photons have no mass, while the masses of the other two entities are large in comparison. In fact, they are some of the most massive sub-atomic particles known to scientists today.  

The first assumption, and in science an assumption can be a very bad thing, is to assume that the two entities exist and interact with other particles in normal ways. Here lies our problem according to almost all scientists, the math does not add up; the giant masses of the two entities raise inconsistencies in the Standard Model. In order to make sense of this, scientists postulate that there must be at least one other particle -- the Higgs Boson - to account for the inconsistency.  As I read about the Higgs Boson I  wondered, could this also be explained according to the distortion created as particles move through any field, but according to what I have read, most scientists believe this would not add enough to explain the inconsistencies in the Standard Model; there has to be something more, and that something more would be the Higgs Boson. Some believe that there is only one Higgs, and others believe there maybe more than one. Either way, most believe it is the missing piece and worth all the money, effort and time. And, there you have the reason for all the hype in the last month.

What will they find? I am confident it will be more proof pointing to a Creator! Blessings!