September 27, 2000. Copyright 2000. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

SCIENTISTS CLOSE TO FINDING ELUSIVE ÒMISSING LINKÓ

LONDON, September 27, Graphic News: OFFICIALS at CERN, the giant European atom-smasher centre outside Geneva, have decided to extend the life of a huge ÒacceleratorÓ machine that is tantalisingly close to identifying a sub-atomic particle, dubbed ÒGodÕs particle,Ó that has eluded physicists for more than 30 years.

Scientists will continue experiments on CERNÕs 11-year-old Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP) for an additional month to track down the theoretical particle which actually goes by the less grandiose name of ÒHiggs bosonÓ or ÒHiggsÓ for short.

Higgs -- named after Scottish theoretical physicist Peter W. Higgs in the early 1960s -- is viewed as the Òmissing linkÓ in explaining the fundamental laws of particle physics and nature itself.

Scientists say such a discovery could put Higgs in line for a Nobel prize for Physics.

ÒDiscovery of the Higgs boson would be the most outstanding step forward in three decades in our understanding of how matter, and by extension, the universe behaves,Ó said CERN spokesman Neil Calder.

Bosons are particles that carry forces, and the ultramassive Higgs boson is thought to be the force-bearer of the hypothetical Higgs field -- a ubiquitous, invisible, space-pervading nexus that gives everything in the cosmos its mass -- in much the same way that the photon carries the force of electromagnetism.

Higgs bosons, more than 100 times more massive than the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, are believed to have had a short-lived existence in the first micro-seconds of the universe, following the Big Bang.

At that point they converted some of the stupendous energy present in the cosmic cauldron into elementary particles -- the sub-atomic building blocks of matter: quarks, which combine to form protons and neutrons; and leptons, which include familiar electrons and neutrinos.

This small family of particles, fewer than 20 in number -- and its anti-matter equivalent -- is responsible for all energy and matter in nature. It is called the Standard Model.

When the high-energy environment of the early universe is recreated in an accelerator the elementary particles, and their anti-matter equivalents, jump into existence -- at least they all do except for the Higgs.

But then, a few weeks ago, word leaked out that some of CERNÕs 2,000 physicists might already have sighted the coveted Higgs after they tweaked the collider to energy levels well beyond its original specification. As a result, they had intriguing evidence, based on only a handful of events, for a Higgs of 115 proton masses.

The results were sparse and inconclusive but they were intriguing enough to keep the LEP running until November 2.

After this CERN is due to start construction of the $6 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in their 17 mile (27 km)-round underground ring. If the Higgs-hunters have not dramatically improved their data set by then the hunt will pass to scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. Already the worldÕs most powerful accelerator, it has just been substantially upgraded especially to search for GodÕs elusive particle.
/ENDS
Sources: CERN, Reuters, UPI, Workings of the Universe; Time-Life Books