Scientists at the world’s largest atom smasher have new data that shows with greater certainty where to find a long-sought theoretical particle that would help explain the origins of the universe.
Physicists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research near Geneva, told The Associated Press on Thursday that reams of new data will help in the search for the Higgs boson, whose existence is theorized under the main particle physics theory that explains the Big Bang.
Finding it would be an enormous scientific breakthrough for the physics world and would help explain why different particles have different masses. That is because the particle itself is thought to give mass to other particles, and thus to objects and creatures in the Universe.
CERN scientists say their data from two main experiments using CERN’s $ 10-billion Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border will be made public next Tuesday, but any firm discovery will have to wait until next year.
They say the data helps narrow the region of the search because it excludes some of the higher energy ranges where the Higgs boson might be found, and shows some intriguing possibilities involving a small number of “events” at the lower energy ranges.
“What’s exciting is we know we’re close to getting something in focus. We know we’re close to the stage where we’re going to see something,” said Joe Incandela, a physicist who will lead one of CERN’s two main experiments next year.
“We’re really right at the boundary of where you might get a vague hint of something,” he said. “But whenever you’re talking about that small number of events, there’s no real statement you can make.”
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