The ‘hypothetical’ elementary particle Higgs boson, also known as Good’s particle, has long been sought after by scientists. It was believed that the particle is essential to understand the origin of mass or matter in the universe. Some Texas scientists were engaged in a project to search for the Higgs boson around a decade ago. But the project was shut down before take off. A decade later, Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) found a particle that matches the description of the Higgs boson. The news brings a bitter-sweet experience for the Texan’s involved in the research a decade earlier.
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical particle, that is the quantum of the Higgs field. The Higgs field and the hypothetical particle provide a testable hypothesis for the origin of mass in elementary particles. If the hypothetical particle Higgs boson exist or can be found, it is believed that, it would be easy to understand the nature. Most importantly, it would help to unveil mysteries about the creation of the universe.
Around two decades ago in Waxahachie, 30 miles south of Dallas, the construction of a machine named Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) was underway. That Superconducting Super Collider machine was being built for finding the Higgs boson hypothetical particle project. But after spending about $2 billion on the project, US Congress shut down the work in 1993. The site was later turned into a chemical blending facility.
But the search for the Higgs boson didn’t stop. Some other researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland had been searching for the Higgs boson. Last Wednesday, Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that they have found a new particle that matches the description of the Higgs boson. After hearing about CERN’s success, experts involved in the SSC project recalled that if Superconducting Super Collider machine would have completed, then the discovery of the Higgs boson would have been discovered a decade earlier in the US.
Source : New York Times
Thanks To : Texas Tribune, Nature
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