On July 4, 2012 at CERN a press conference presented the preliminary results of two experiments, CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) and ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus), which confirmed the discovery of a boson that had the characteristics expected for the Higgs boson. Last wednesday, at the Moriond conference in La Thuile, Italy, additional data were presented obtained from those experiments that confirm that the particle discovered is really the Higgs boson.

Last July, the data presented concerned the mass of the boson discovered using the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle accelerator in the world that recently entered a shutdown phase to be upgraded and made even more powerful. To be precise, the CMS experiment revealed the existence of a boson which has a mass around 125 GeV while the ATLAS experiment revealed the existence of a boson which has a mass around 126.5 GeV.

Investigations such as the one carried out at CERN produce huge amounts of data that scientists analyze for months before presenting conclusions. Last Wednesday they communicated that the data indicate that the boson discovered most likely has spin-zero, which is another feature predicted for the Higgs boson.

In quantum mechanics, spin is an intrinsic angular momentum of the particles and helps to define its quantum state. It’s a characteristic whose value depends on the type of particle, is possessed by each of them and is unalterable. It’s therefore clear that measuring the spin is one of the elements that allow scientists to identify a particle whose characteristics have been predicted only theoretically.

The results presented at the conference in La Thuile aren’t final yet so the data obtained from the ATLAS and CMS experiments will keep on being analyzed. However, it does seem that the boson discovered last year is the Higgs one confirming theory called the Standard Model, according to which this particle is one that allows the others to have a mass.

Although there should be no surprises in the new analysis of this boson, its discovery is not a point of arrival for physics but only one step. In fact, there are other physical theories that include the existence of multiple Higgs bosons such as the five of supersymmetry. Therefore, first of all research will have to clarify how many Higgs bosons exist.

Another interesting possibility emerged at the conference in La Thuile is that the Higgs boson has a role in the earliest phase of the universe. This’s what is called inflation, occurred immediately after the Big Bang, which has resulted in a greatly accelerated expansion of the universe.

It’s possible that it will take more years to determine the identity of the particle theorized by Peter Higgs (Photo ©Gert-Martin Greuel) for good. Probably we’ll have to wait for the Large Hadron Collider to be reactivated but now the search for the secrets of the universe is well focused.

[ad name=”Google Adsense 300″]