Scientists with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) say they have discovered a new subatomic particle that is consistent with the long-sought after Higgs boson, popularly known as the “God particle”. The elusive particle is believed to help all matter in the universe acquire mass. The Higgs particle has been the subject of a decades-old hunt after it was first postulated in the 1960s.
“We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature,” said Rolf Heuer, director general of CERN, at a press conference in Geneva. “The discovery of a particle, consistent with the Higgs, opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle’s properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe,” he added.
Indian touch
While the world remains abuzz about the discovery, for India, the finding holds special significance. The Higgs boson finding was aided by researchers from Delhi University, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Panjab University, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP). Naba K Mondal, senior professor at the department of high energy physics with TIFR says, “India has contributed in two major ways—providing instrumentation for the experiment and human resource for data analysis.” Many significant parts of the CMS experiment, one of the two experiments on the Higgs boson (the other is ATLAS), were built by TIFR. Furthermore, a number of theorists from India are constantly looking at the data generated, making sense of it and publishing papers to advance knowledge in the field. TIFR alone has fielded some 10 researchers in the CMS experiment.
Sukalyan Chattopadhyay, professor at SINP, says numbers do not give a complete picture of India’s role in the landmark findings. Chattopadhyay, who is India’s project leader for another experiment—ALICE—at CERN, says SINP played a big role in understanding the mechanics of the detectors of the CMS experiment. “Out of some 3,000 physicists at CMS, around 60 are from India. While this may be a small number, it doesn’t tell the entire story,” he says. “We’ve not only played a major role in providing hardware for the experiments, but also providing huge help with data analytics,” Chattopadhyay says.
Boson simplified
If scientists can prove the presence of the subatomic particles (particles smaller than even the atom), it would greatly enhance our understanding of how the universe works. The Standard Model of Particle Physics explains how particles and various forces interact inside the universe, but does not provide any explanation on how particles acquire mass.
