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Precise W Boson Mass Measurement Helps Lead the Way To the Higgs Boson

Posted by Soulskill on from the over-the-river-and-through-the-woods dept.

New submitter SchrodingerZ writes "'The world's most precise measurement of the mass of the W Boson, one of nature's elementary particles, has been achieved by scientists from the CDF and DZero collaborations at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.' This new number (80387 +- 17 MeV/c^2) puts more constraint on the mass of the theorized Higgs Boson, which is theorized to give mass to all other things, supporting the standard model. 'Scientists employ two techniques to find the hiding place of the Higgs particle: the direct production of Higgs particles and precision measurements of other particles and forces that could be influenced by the existence of a Higgs particle.'"

13 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Why can science... by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ....routinely measure such esoteric things, but still can't devise a test to determine my girlfriends mood?

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    Silence is a state of mime.
    1. Re:Why can science... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      We can either determine her mood or determine that she is your girlfriend, not both.

    2. Re:Why can science... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Because people are much more complex than particle physics. Why that might seems strange, physicists are so very successful in part because the phenomena they seek to explain are the simplest possible, i.e. the fundaments of reality.

      Not that it's easy, no. But very much easier, or at least possible, than mathematically model, in any degree, a person.

      We cannot really even measure the mass of person to the degree of precision we can measure particles. Much in the same sense that measuring the shoreline of Norway is non-trivial if we want mm precision.

    3. Re:Why can science... by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hmmm. Schrodinger's pussy I guess.

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      Silence is a state of mime.
  2. Where does the Higgs mass come from? by crt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If all other things get their mass from the Higgs Boson, where does the Higgs boson get its mass from?

    1. Re:Where does the Higgs mass come from? by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's Higgs Boson's all the way down.

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      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
    2. Re:Where does the Higgs mass come from? by elfprince13 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Higgs Mechanism is thought to give particles mass, and the Higgs boson is the particle that we anticipate to be the carrier particle for the Higgs field. Your question is a little bit like asking "if all other things get their light from photons, where do the photons get their light from?", which is to say, it reveals a bit of a misunderstanding about what's actually going on. That's okay though, because hardly anyone bothers to explain these things.

    3. Re:Where does the Higgs mass come from? by Quantum+Jim · · Score: 5, Informative

      They get their masses from the Higgs Field. The W Boson is like a ripple in the W-Field. An electron is like a ripple in the electron-field (not the electrical field). Et cetera. So a Higgs Boson is like a ripple in the Higgs Field. But it still gets is mass by interacting with that field, like most other elementary particles with mass. Here's a good article that explains that: If the Higgs field were zero.

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      - Jerome Klapka Jerome
    4. Re:Where does the Higgs mass come from? by BitterOak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Higgs Mechanism is thought to give particles mass, and the Higgs boson is the particle that we anticipate to be the carrier particle for the Higgs field. Your question is a little bit like asking "if all other things get their light from photons, where do the photons get their light from?", which is to say, it reveals a bit of a misunderstanding about what's actually going on. That's okay though, because hardly anyone bothers to explain these things.

      No, that's not a good analogy, because Higgs particles do indeed have a mass of their own, while photons don't tan. Higgs particles can interact with themselves, and that's why they can have a mass while also giving other particles their mass. A better photon analogy would be this: photons carry the electromagnetic force and so they can be said to give charged particles their charge. But photons don't self-interact, so photons themselves don't have charge.

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  3. Obligatory XKCD by Powercntrl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slashdot should just automatically link Higgs Boson to this, every time.

    There's probably some truth to this, too. A particle accelerator is the ultimate geek toy.

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    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  4. Cupcakes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I find the best way to lure a Higgs Boson out of hiding is with cupcakes.

  5. Wrong Summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Higgs boson is the result of symmetry breaking in the electroweak force. It, in itself, does not give mass to all other things. It is an indicator that allows the existence of the higgs field and mechanism to be inferred.

  6. come on now by KingAlanI · · Score: 4, Funny

    menstruation jokes are the lowest form of humor, period.

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    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.