Higgs boson

Are these mass-giving particles hanging out with dark matter?

Researchers from Caltech and the University of Southern California report the first application of quantum computing to a physics problem. By employing quantum-compatible machine learning techniques, they developed a method of extracting a rare Higgs boson signal from copious noise data.

The announcement on July 4 was just one part of the story. Take a peek behind the scenes of the discovery of the Higgs boson.

From The New York Times, June 19, 2017: Fermilab scientist Joel Butler is quoted in this article on physicists monitoring the Large Hadron Collider are seeking clues to a theory that will answer deeper questions about the cosmos.

From WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, June 19, 2017: Director Nigel Lockyer and physicists Patricia McBride and Herman White appear in this six-minute segment on Fermilab’s leading role in particle physics, including neutrino research.

From Inverse, March 9, 2017: In the latest issue of the Justice League-Power Rangers crossover comic, superheroes gather at the mouth of what seems to be the LHC to discuss how to use it to jump across universes. A Vanderbilt University scientist and others believe LHC collisions could produce the Higgs singlet, which had the power to travel back and forth in time.

Scientists furthered studies of the Higgs boson, neutrinos, dark matter, dark energy and cosmic inflation and continued the search for undiscovered particles, forces and principles.

Four physicists discuss Higgs boson research since the discovery.

From Science News, Aug. 11, 2016: Particle physicists, including Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer, scrutinize latest LHC results to refine knowledge of the Higgs boson’s properties.

The Higgs appeared in the second run of the LHC about twice as fast as it did in the first.