Physicists have made significant progress in understanding the origin of the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) over a decade ago. An international team of theoretical physicists, including Dr. Rene Poncelet from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Prof. Michal Czakon from RWTH Aachen University, have determined the cross section for Higgs boson production in gluon-gluon collisions with unprecedented accuracy.
Their calculations, published in Physical Review Letters, reveal that the Higgs boson’s properties can be explained by the Standard Model, a theoretical framework describing elementary particles and forces. The team’s work suggests that no new physics beyond the Standard Model is visible in the mechanisms responsible for Higgs boson formation, at least for now. This finding has significant implications for our understanding of the universe, as it reinforces the Standard Model’s ability to describe fundamental phenomena.
Unveiling the Higgs Boson: A Closer Look at its Origin
The Higgs boson, a fundamental particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, has been a subject of intense research since its discovery in 2012. Despite significant progress, its properties remain not fully understood due to experimental and computational challenges. Recently, an international team of theoretical physicists made a breakthrough in understanding the origin of the Higgs boson, shedding light on its production mechanisms.
The Standard Model: A Complex Theoretical Structure
The Standard Model is a comprehensive framework that describes the behavior of elementary particles, including quarks, electrons, muons, tau, and their associated neutrinos. It also encompasses electromagnetic forces (photons) and nuclear forces (gluons, W, and Z bosons). The Higgs boson plays a crucial role in this model, as it is responsible for giving masses to other elementary particles. The discovery of the Higgs boson was announced in 2012, marking a significant milestone in particle physics.
Theoretical Determination of the Higgs Boson Cross Section
Physicists have been striving to gain insight into the properties of the Higgs boson by determining its cross section for specific collisions. This parameter provides information on how often the particle can be expected to appear in collisions of a certain type. Researchers from the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN), RWTH Aachen University, and the Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPI) focused on the theoretical determination of the Higgs boson cross section in gluon-gluon collisions, which are responsible for producing about 90% of the Higgs bosons.
Overcoming Mathematical Difficulties
The team’s work involved taking into account certain corrections that are usually neglected due to their small contribution. These corrections were found to contribute almost one-fifth to the value of the sought active cross section. The researchers also considered the effect of bottom-quark masses, leading to a small but noticeable shift of about one per cent. This achievement marks the first time these corrections have been successfully calculated.
No Harbingers of New Physics
The values of the active cross section for Higgs boson production found by the team are practically the same as those measured in previous beam collisions at the LHC, taking into account current computational and measurement inaccuracies. This suggests that no signs of new physics are visible within the mechanisms responsible for the formation of Higgs bosons being investigated – at least for now.
The Need for New Physics
The Standard Model is incomplete, as it fails to answer several fundamental questions. For instance, why do elementary particles have the masses they do? Why do they form families? What is dark matter made of, and what is the reason for the predominance of matter over antimatter in the Universe? The model also neglects gravity, a common interaction. The latest achievement does not rule out the presence of new physics in the phenomena accompanying the birth of the Higgs boson.
Future Prospects
As data from the fourth research cycle of the Large Hadron Collider begin to be analyzed, much may change. The increasing number of observations of new particle collisions may make it possible to narrow down the measurement uncertainties in such a way that the measured range of permissible cross sections for Higgs production no longer coincides with that defined by theory. Whether or not this will happen, physicists will find out in a few years. For now, the Standard Model can feel safer than ever – and this fact is slowly starting to become the most surprising discovery made with the LHC.
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