Scientists close in on linchpin of physics, the ‘God particle’

The Washington Post/ Brian Vastag and Joel Achenbach

If rumors were dollars, the arcane world of particle physics would have enough cash to solve the Euro crisis.
For weeks, statements circulating on physics blogs have hinted at the discovery of an elusive particle essential to our understanding of how the universe works.

Called the Higgs boson, this particle — if spotted — would all but complete the fundamental theory of particle physics, known as the Standard Model. Confirmation of the Higgs would solve the mystery of why matter has the property that physicists call mass — the resistance to being shoved around.

If the Higgs does not exist, there’s a gaping hole in physicists’ explanation of nature’s deepest structure.

To search for this cosmic linchpin, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) built the biggest machine on Earth, a $10 billion circular tunnel some 17 miles long underneath the French-Swiss border called the Large Hadron Collider. Inside it, scientists smash together subatomic particles at astounding speeds. Sifting the debris offers clues as to whether the Higgs exists and what, exactly, it might look like.

On Tuesday, CERN scientists will unveil the latest results from two teams racing to spot the elusive quarry.

These new results are “sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the Higgs,” read a CERN statement announcing a news conference Tuesday.

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