09.17.08
The Heart of the Matter
In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Fariss Samarrai, Senior News Officer with the Office of Public Affairs, we discuss the research of a multi-institutional team of scientists, including Bob Hirosky, a University of Virginia associate professor of physics, and their attempt to verify or refute the existence of the Higgs boson, which is theorized to be the essence of all matter, and the ultimate basis of everything in the universe.
Man’s eternal quest to understand the world we live in has led to a series of discoveries that questioned the conventional thinking of the time. In centuries past the great minds that have advanced human knowledge have either been lauded or treated as heretics. Today’s more tolerant and informed world of science has delved into the deep reaches of space, as well as the smallest inner workings of all matter.
Just recently, an international effort to understand the most basic structure of matter has yielded a particle that is critical to further understanding of the universe and its evolution.
The multi-institutional team of scientists, including Bob Hirosky, a University of Virginia associate professor of physics, has announced the first observation of pair production of Z bosons, force-carrying particles in electroweak interactions, in proton-antiproton collisions.
Properties of the ZZ diboson particle states make this discovery an essential prelude to eventually confirming—or refuting—the existence of the Higgs boson, which is theorized to be the essence of all matter, and the ultimate basis of everything in the universe.
The basic structure of matter evolved from the first nanoseconds after the Big Bang. This explosion of energy is now generally accepted throughout the science community as the creative force of the universe. And a better understanding of the basic makings of everything could provide insight into how the universe will further evolve.
Hirosky said, “What we learn could lead to new interpretations of the forces of nature and possibly to an understanding of dark matter, the mysterious substance that is believed to contribute the bulk of the mass of the universe.”
The experiments were carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab near Chicago, home of the Tevatron, a high-energy particle accelerator.
The accelerator collides intense beams of proton and anti-protons. The collisions shatter the protons, producing new particles and allowing physicists to study the most basic elements of matter and forces that form the basis of all matter.
A new, much higher energy collider, the $3.2 billion Large Hadron Collider near Geneva on the Franco-Swiss border, went online September 10, 2008, and may ultimately prove whether the elusive Higgs particle exists.
Hirosky said, “Only about one in 10 billion collisions might produce a pair of Z dibosons, which we observed. The Higgs is predicted to be at least 10 times rarer than the ZZ. Our observation of ZZ puts us deeper into Higgs territory. The observation of ZZ is perhaps the last experimental stepping stone before finding the Higgs.”
The questions that remain to be answered ultimately will create new questions. Whether the Higgs particle’s existence is proven or refuted, the scientific quest of man to explain the world we live in continues to bring the understanding that we seek.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us for our next show, when we introduce the Moderator and UVa Faculty panel participating in the Race and Gender in Politics Forum being held tomorrow evening at 7:00 PM at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, located at 2201 Old Ivy Road, in Charlottesville, VA. This event is free to the public.