The problem with so called modern physics which is a little much
after decades and decades of human effort is that it lacks an
effective model of a fundamental particle that can be manipulated
mathematically in order to ask and answer key questions. We have
accepted such exists implicitly as there is little real choice. Our
empirical results help describe a derivative geometry at the scales
which we have so far been able to use. So far, so good. We even
call the melange of resultant product particles fundamental
particles. The real problem is that they are at least a thousand
times bigger than a neutrino which looks pretty good to be our
elusive fundamental particle.
Aside: the problem with Relativity was that it lacked a
metric that was able to handle the observed particle universe. All
it had was the good old Pythagorean. I corrected that omission in my
paper published in AIP's Physics Essays in June of 2010 and
introduced higher ordered Pythagoreans.
And of course we are trying to measure a thumbtack by throwing stones
at it from a hundred yards and listening to the noise.
Thus: assumption 1 – The neutrino is the fundamental particle in
its various presentations. It continues to look good as present
empirical results are roughly congruent with my theoretical
expectations.
Thus: problem 1 – Model the neutrino as a mathematical object that
we can manipulate. This was not a trivial thought experiment and
took two insights. It is enough to know it can be done.
Curiously I actually have a creditable solution to this problem and
it drives a new cosmology that I will be calling Cloud Cosmology to
replace the antiquated and creaky Big Bang. The model provides a
perfect framework to construct the observed empirical particle world
in a simulator. Our technology is almost up to the task of doing
some neat stuff in this direction. And yes ladies, it will be known
as the Theory of Everything in its time. For the curious, Dark
Matter also becomes obvious and important.
I love writing this stuff on the front page knowing that absolutely
no one has any capacity to understand what I just said and if they do
I want to talk to them anyway. I am not surrounded by a crowd of
grad students to help speed things out into the aether.
In the event geometry is throwing up a Higgs particle and apparently
we will shortly have confirmation. Maybe it is time to go back and
now do it right.
How the Discovery
of the Higgs Boson Could Break Physics
By Adam Mann
July 2, 2012
If gossip on various
physics blogs pans out, the biggest moment for physics in nearly two
decades is just days away. The possible announcement on July 4 of the
long-sought Higgs boson would put the last critical piece of the
Standard Model of Physics in place, a crowning achievement built on a
half-century of work by thousands of scientists. A moment worthy of
fireworks.
But there’s a
problem: The Higgs boson is starting to look just a little too
ordinary.
As physicists at
Europe’s Large Hadron Collider prepare topresent their latest
update in the hunt for the Higgs boson — the strange particle
that exists everywhere in space and interacts with all other
elementary particles, giving them their mass — other physicists are
preparing for disappointment.
That’s because
scientists have been secretly hoping all along that, when they
finally found the Higgs, it would be an interesting particle with
unexpected behaviors — even somewhat unruly. A perfectly
well-behaved Higgs leaves less room for new, exciting physics — the
kind that theorists have been wishing would show up at the LHC.
The current situation
has some physicists starting to worry and, if coming years fail to
turn up interesting results, the field could be headed for a
crisis.
Since the mid-20th century, particle physicists have been
developing a theory known as the Standard Model, which accounts for
all the known forces and subatomic particles in the universe. While
this model has proven time and time again to be extremely good at
predicting particles and forces that were later discovered
experimentally, it is not the final theory of everything. The
Standard Model still has various problems that stubbornly refuse to
cooperate.
###
Simulated particle
collision events in the CMS experiment that would indicate the
presence of supersymmetry. CMS collaboration/CERN
Many contenders have
stepped up to account for the discrepancies of the Standard Model but
none has been more adored than a theory known as supersymmetry. In
order to fix the Standard Model, supersymmetry posits that all known
particles have a much more massive superpartner lurking in the
subatomic world.
“For particle
physicists, the more symmetry there is, the nicer a theory is,”
said theoretical physicist Csaba Csaki of Cornell
University. “So upon first seeing it, most particle physicists fell
in love with [supersymmetry].”
The tricky part is
that the LHC, in addition to searching for the Higgs, has also been
looking for these heavy supersymmetric superpartners. But thus far,
nothing is showing up. Furthermore, all indications are that
scientists will find that the Higgs weighs 125 gigaelectronvolts
(GeV) – or about 125 times more than a proton – which means that
it sits exactly where the Standard Model expected it to be.
Great news for the
troublesome Standard Model, not so much for its savior,
supersymmetry.
Supersymmetry was
first proposed in the 1960s and developed seriously during the heyday
of particle physics in the 1970s and ‘80s. Back then, large
particle accelerators were smashing subatomic particles together and
discovering a slew of new bits and pieces, including quarks and the W
and Z bosons. Supersymmetry was put forth as an extension of the
Standard Model, but the predicted particles were out of reach for
atom smashers of that era.
Before the LHC
was up and running in 2010, many physicists were hopeful that it
would uncover some evidence for supersymmetry. Despite a few
promising results, experimental confirmation of the idea keeps
failing to show up.
This has a few in the
community beginning to seriously doubt their darling supersymmetry
will ever be a viable theory.
“It’s a beautiful
theory, and I would love it if it were true,” said particle
physicist Tommaso Dorigo, who works on one of the LHC’s two
main experiments. “But there is not any compelling evidence.”
For two decades,
people have been claiming the supersymmetry results were just a few
years away, Dorigo added. So as those few years kept coming and going
with no results, physicists have tried explaining the non-appearance
of these particles by making additions and elaborations to
supersymmetry.
Already, the simplest
versions of supersymmetry have been ruled out and a Higgs boson at
125 GeV could require even more changes, making many physicists
nervous, Csaki said. Tweaking the theory to explain why even the
lightest of the predicted superpartners haven’t shown up destroys
some of supersymmetry’s beauty, he said.
For instance, one of
the best aspects of supersymmetry is that many of its extra subatomic
particles make excellent dark matter candidates. Altering
supersymmetry could get rid of these potential dark matter particles,
and further changes might make the theory even less useful.
“One day we may just
look at it and ask if this is still the theory that we’re in love
with,” Csaki said.
Of course, all is not
yet lost. The LHC is still smashing particles together and, over the
next few years, it will do so at higher and higher energies, perhaps
finally bringing supersymmetry to light. While the accelerator will
be shutdown in 2013 for repairs, 2014 and 2015 will have the machine
running at its top capacity.
Many physicists are
eager to see if the lightest predicted superpartner – the
supersymmetric top quark, or stop squark – will show up. The stop
squark is at the heart of supersymmetry and is needed to explain many
properties of the Higgs. Without it, many physicists could give up on
supersymmetry entirely.
“If after two years
of running at high luminosity at the LHC they don’t see anything,
we will be out of ideas of the conventional sort,” said Csaki. “We
will be in some kind of crisis.”
While troubling, this
situation doesn’t bring physics to a grinding halt. The Standard
Model still has holes in it, and something needs to account for the
dark matter and energy in the universe. Alternative theories to
supersymmetry exist. Some require additional forces in nature, new
interactions among particles, or for the Higgs boson itself to be
composed of simpler pieces.
“However those
models have their own problems to be a consistent models of nature,”
wrote particle physicist Rahmat Rahmat from the University
of Mississippi, who also works on the CMS experiment, in an email to
Wired.
As yet, supersymmetry
is still the front-runner for theories beyond the Standard Model and
most physicists remain optimistic for its prospects.
“I’m really
hopeful that besides the discovery of the Higgs, we will also soon
see something else,” said Csaki.
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