Brussels, 05/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - Scientists were (almost) convinced of its existence but had never seen it. British scientist Peter Higgs and François Englert and Robert Brout of Belgium had a hunch in the 1960s that the “Higgs boson” or “God particle” did in fact exist. The sub-atomic particle is the last missing link for explaining the creation of matter. The results, announced at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) on Wednesday 4 July, during a seminar in Geneva, are still preliminary but everything points to the fundamental particle having been discovered.
The particle cannot be seen with the naked eye but is all around us. It is around us and goes through us at the same time, without our being able to feel it. From heavenly bodies to the smallest finite mass, including the constitution of the human body, this particle or the Higgs boson quite simply explains why matter exists, why what was only energy finally has mass. Without its existence, all elementary particles would zoom around at the speed of light without holding together. This cosmic glue allows atoms to come together, thus forming our universe, our world and ourselves. Rolf Heuer, CERN Director General has said, without a note of hesitation, that a new stage has been crossed in our understanding of nature.
The importance of this discovery lives up to the huge investment made to reach this point. Investment has been greater than ever before. Some €4 billion were needed to build the largest microscope on Earth in the hope of one day seeing what is smaller than small, more mysterious and more evasive than anything ever seen before. The underground laboratory, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), allows protons to be propelled against each other at a speed of one billion km/hr, within tubes forming a circle 27,000 metres long. Shocks - or rather 600 million collisions per second - have been scrupulously observed for two years as part of two experiments: Atlas and CMS.
During the night of 11 June, one of the shocks caused the appearance of dust, a cloud bearing the imprint of a new particle never before observed. This was an indication, a trace of a boson seen for the briefest moment, the subatomic equivalent of a blink of the eye. Data has still to be verified. Nonetheless, this applauded discovery has made the heart of physicians everywhere miss a beat, as they can now foresee enthralling areas of future research, among other things to reconcile theory with this observation.
CERN has not directly benefitted from European Commission support for its research, although it has in the past called for support from the 7th framework programme. Michael Jennings, the spokesman for Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn (Research) has nonetheless wanted to congratulate all those involved in what he describes as a “significant and important discovery, and proof that Europe is at the forefront of both fundamental research in this area and cutting-edge engineering”. (JK/transl.jl)