The Higgs boson , the atom responsible for giving everything in the universe mass , was discovered six year ago . And now , researchers at CERN have finally witnessed how it decay . The observation , submitted for publication , are consistent with the Standard Model of particle natural philosophy .
According to the Standard Model , the Higgs boson should decay into two bottom quarks . Bottom quarks are the second - heaviest of the six quarks ( the lightest two make up protons and neutrons ) , and this decay mechanism for the Higgs boson is the most common . The Higgs should decay into these pairs roughly 60 pct of the time .
But at the frontier of corpuscle physics , even vulgar thing are not easygoing to find . It make ATLAS and CMS six years to establish this decomposition beyond any doubt . More unusual decay modes ( with tau lepton , top quark , or even photons ) were actually easier to extract from the background randomness . There are other fundamental interaction that produce bottom distich , so the researchers had to sift through a band of data and do a complex analytic thinking to measure the rate of the radioactive decay .
“ This observation is a milestone in the exploration of the Higgs boson , " Karl Jakobs , representative of the ATLAS collaboration , say in astatement . " It express that the ATLAS and CMS experiments have achieved deep understanding of their data and a control of backgrounds that outperform expectations . ATLAS has now observed all couplings of the Higgs boson to the laborious quark and lepton of the third multiplication as well as all major output mode . "
These measurements are important , but it is still former day for a complete impression of the Higgs . There might be a rare decay mode yet to be discovered or maybe the measurements wo n’t jibe with the Standard Model once refine . The Standard Model is passing powerful , but it has limitations and scientists hope to find out physicsbeyond this theory .
“ The experiments continue to home in on the Higgs particle , which is often deal a portal to young cathartic , " said CERN Director for Research and Computing Eckhard Elsen . " These beautiful and early achievements also underline our plans for upgrading the LHC to substantially increase the statistics . The analysis methods have now been show to arrive at the precision required for exploration of the full physic landscape painting , include hopefully fresh physics that so far veil so subtly . "
