51 lines
2.2 KiB
HTML
51 lines
2.2 KiB
HTML
<h2>The Higgs Mechanism</h2>
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<p>When you are in a room filled with jelly, every movement will be
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difficult - just like if you were much heavier than you really are. In
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a similar way, something called the Higgs field fills the universe,
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making every particle feel massive through the interaction with the
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Higgs field.</p>
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<p>This way, the particles will acquire masses, but why are they are
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different from one another? Much the same way a large person will
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“feel” the jelly stronger than a small person will, the different
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particle types will feel the Higgs field differently. Switching to
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physicists speech: The strength of the interactions between the
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particles and the Higgs field are different. In a way, this does not
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answer the question, because it only relates the masses of the
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particles to their couplings to the Higgs field - but it is the best
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we can do!</p>
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<h2>What about the Higgs boson?</h2>
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<p>In a room filled with jelly, not only the jelly affects you, but
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also you affect the jelly. If you punch the jelly, it will move. And
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if you punch it in the right way, there will be waves running through
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the jelly. </p>
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<p>We know already that photons can be viewed as particles and waves
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at the same point. In a way, the Higgs Boson is a wave in the Higgs
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field - a wave in the jelly, that we can try to create by shaking and
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punching the jelly in the right way.</p>
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<p>Experimental particle physicists have been trying to do exactly
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this with the LHC: To collide particles in a way that will create an
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excitation (or wave, if you want) in the Higgs field - because
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measuring the wave in the field is the only way for us to know that
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the field is actually there.</p>
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<h2>What now?</h2>
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<p>The journey of particle physics is not over. There are still a lot
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of things we do not fully understand - some of them we have already
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mentioned, some others (like the mystery of Dark Matter) you might
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have heard about.</p>
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<p>If you read everything up to now - congratulations! We also have
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exciting quizzes, where you can test your knowledge about the Standard
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Model, and additional chapters on Feynman diagrams - the little
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sketches physicists love to use to explain what they are doing. Hang
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on!</p>
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