The
Large Hadron Collider (
LHC at Wikipedia) is expected to finally answer the question of whether the
Higgs boson (
HB at Wikipedia) really exists. If it exists then it lends further confirmation to the standard model, which would probably disappoint most particle physicists. If it doesn't exist at any of the energies that theory says are possible then we know the standard model is incomplete, which we were pretty sure of anyway, but it would mean we'd finally identified one of the very borders between known and unknown where the standard model finally stops working. Particle physicists would find this very exciting.
The LHC will be able to produce the high energies necessary to produce the Higgs, which will exist for only an instant before decaying into a spray of lighter particles. Particle detectors built into the LHC will detect this spray and from it attempt to infer the existence of the Higgs.
The Higgs is highly intriguing to physicists because it is theorized to be the mediating particle of gravity. Just as light is transmitted by photons, gravity is theorized to be transmitted by exchanges of Higgs bosons. The Higgs field, supposedly generated by the motion of Higgs bosons just as electromagnetic fields are generated by the motion of photons, is what is thought to give matter mass.
But if the Higgs boson, unlike the photon, is highly unstable and decays almost instantly into lighter particles, how can it be the mediator of anything like gravity. A Higgs boson from our sun would take eight minutes to get here, far too long a journey for it to survive.
What's more, given that the Higgs is a massive particle it couldn't possibly move at anything like light speed, and so it couldn't possibly mediate the force of gravity at the speed of light.
Given these seeming contradictions, obviously I'm misunderstanding something somewhere. Can someone explain these things? Thanks!
--Percy
Edited by Percy, : Spelling and grammar.
Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Do stuff I suggested in message 2.
™ Version 4.2