The God Particle

I was browsing a few articles, catching up on one of my other interests – physics – when I found something about a story I’ve been following for several years; the search for the Higgs Boson. Wikipedia describes it thus: “…[T]he Higgs boson is the quantum of one of the components of a Higgs field. In empty space, the Higgs field acquires a non-zero value (or non-zero vacuum expectation value), which permeates every place in the universe at all times.”

Very Nice. Come Again?

OK, for those of you with a physics-tuned mind can switch off; this is going to be layman’s only, and any errors are mine, either through poor translation or a lack of deep understanding of quantum theory.

In Physics, there exists a concept called the “Standard Model” – basically a conceptual outline of how quantum-level effects give rise to all structures in the Universe. Of particular note in the Standard Model are two main concepts; Particles and Fields.

Particles are the stuff that makes up the universe.. simple, really; your electrons, your protons, your quarks… basic stuff, except where it gets exotic, like muons, W and Z bosons and so on… I won’t go into them here, but they get complicated.

Fields are effects in the universe; your electromagnetic field,for example, is the effect of electromagnetism on objects, space-time and, indeed, other fields. Now it gets juicy when you see that in the Standard Model, fields are transmitted via other particles. So, for example, the electromagnetic field is carried and effected by the photon.

Field-carrying particles are called baryons; they are a small family, consisting of the aforementioned photon, the gluon, and the W and Z bosons. As far as the Standard Model is concerned, all fields in the universe utilize these particles.

How Fields “Work”

A basic conceptual overview of fields can be provided by this incredibly simplified example. Two electrons are approaching each other. They both carry an equal negative charge, so, in keeping with your high-school physics, they repel each other. At a highly-granular level, we see that they are surrounded by an electromagnetic field, which is expressed as a “cloud” of photons. These photons don’t actually exist in the physical sense, at least not yet, but their effect exists as a field.

As the electrons approach one another, the energy concentration around them increases, as a result of the increased density of the electromagnetic field. It’s rather like having two “blobs” of mist approach one another; the density of the mist increases as they approach and finally combine.

This extra energy has to go somewhere; the easiest way that the universe deals with energy excess is to pipe it into the creation of new particles; eventually, the energy reaches a critical point where the field is dense enough to actually express itself as a particle.

This may seem “weird”, but remember that Einstein demonstrated that matter and energy are the same thing; indeed, particle “mass” is expressed as an energy quotient (the electron Volt, or eV - but more on that later). It’s not surprising, therefore, that with increased energy, particles that correspond to that energy can be “created”. (This is not true “creation” in any sense; merely a transfer of energy into matter.)

Anyway, back to our electrons. When the density of the field reaches this critical point, a photon is emitted; this strikes the other electron, imparting its energy to that particle. This has the effect of jostling the electron out of it’s initial course, and onto a new one, so that the two electrons move away from each other. From a macroscopic viewpoint, the electrons have just repelled one another.

So What Does The Higgs Particle Do?

The Standard Model has a little problem; as far as our understanding of it goes, there is nothing that “tells” a particle exactly what it is; why is a photon a photon, a neutron a neutron, and so forth? If mass and energy are equivalent, why do certain particles always get produced, even if the energy available is sufficient for them to produce some combination of other particles? If, for example, the field densities were enormous, why do interacting electromagnetic fields always express themselves as photons? The answer is the Higgs Field.

Essentially, the Higgs Boson, and by extension, the Higgs Field, operates to “mop up” the energies of interactions and collisions, reducing the number of overall configurations that particles can achieve in their interaction with one another. This acts as a brake on the process, streamlining particle-particle (and particle-field and field-field) interactions so that they do not “cascade” in sufficiently energetic situations. Basically, any “freak” particles that might be expressed in any given interaction, are subjected to the Higgs Field, their energy is sapped and they drop down to produce the “normal” particles. Of course it’s a lot more complex than that in the real world, but I’m trying to give a layman’s view here.

So Why Haven’t We Found It Yet?

Well, there are two problems; firstly, the Higgs Boson is pretty big. As mentioned earlier, mass and energy are the same thing; in order to “spot” a particle, physicists have to give a reaction sufficient energy to separate it from the background. The electron Volt can be defined as the amount of energy given to an electron by passing through an electromagnetic field of one Volt; the Higgs Boson has to be of a mass greater than 114.4 GeV (Giga-electron-Volts – or 1,000,000,000 eV!) since that is about as high a field as we can produce right now.

Secondly, the Higgs Boson is inherently unstable; hardly surprising when you consider its role is to appear and then break down almost instantly when it’s job of giving other particles their “identity” is done. This gives us a tiny window in which to spot it.

There are some tantalizing glances; this article suggests that it may have been spotted, but it’s not quite clearly defined enough to say for certain. Other experiments give us a top value of about 144 GeV for its mass – basically, if it was any “heavier”, it would not be able to operate as it is thought to.

Why Should We Care?

Well, it’s not going to change your life if the Higgs Boson is found. Life will not suddenly become perfect, the world will not become unified with angelic choruses singing “hallelujahs” to the skies… but it will vindicate the Standard Model. Yes, there are alternatives to the Higgs Boson, but they tend to be, in computer parlance, a little “kludgy”, and the one thing we’ve learned from physics is that it’s pretty elegant.

Besides, I like knowing things like this; they’re unimportant in one sense, but they demonstrate very clearly just how far we’ve come as a species. Just a few thousand years ago, we were standing on the plains at night, fearing the stars, and now we are peeling the lid off and rooting around inside the very universe itself, finding answers that frankly boggle the mind.

Why not attack Quantum Physics?

 OK, another rant about creationism.

It has occurred to me several times over the past several years, harking back to my days frequenting evolution “discussion boards”, that creationists are clueless on many levels except one; their choice of targets. In that, they are pretty clever. Evolution is one of the few theories of modern science that can be encapsulated (albeit in mangled form) on the back of a postcard. Everyone has heard of it, and fancies that they understand its basic tenets (many don’t of course, but that’s another problem). That concision is one of the reasons for the vociferous attacks against it.

If creationists understood the real issue, they would abandon their attacks on a theory that solely explains biodiversity and genetic variation, and concentrate on the true “villain of the piece” in their worldview that the Earth is young, God zapped everything into being, and the Bible is His inerrant Word; Physics.

Quantum physics and its father, the Theory of Relativity, essentially marked our first real, testable model of the Universe and how it operates. Through these two masterpieces of science, we owe everything the modern world has to offer, electronics, the space age, communications, energy, even some of the materials we use.

There is a “dark side” to them, though; one Creationists are oddly mute about. They essentially laid the groundwork for a true understanding of nuclear processes, for example. From this, we were able to develop radiometric dating, which demonstrates an ancient Earth, and an even more ancient Universe. They speak of a Universe not created by act of fiat, but by physical processes that, although we do not yet understand them, appear tantalizingly close at times. They give definitive, testable answers about the forces that shape the Universe itself, thus, in the view of fundamentalists, attempting to relegate God to the role of onlooker, with no power to intercede within the laws of physics.

And yet, Creationists are silent on these matters; not surprising, when you realize that they know they are even less well-prepared for that debate than the one they are currently engaged in (and, in scientific terms, losing hands down) on evolution. But another reason they steer clear of it is that they also understand that the average Joe-on-the-street, whom they seek to sway with their straw-man and ad hominem attacks against evolution, has little to no understanding of these theories, and thus it does not provide them fertile ground in which to get their ideas to take root.

But if you look at it, physics is every bit as damaging to their cause as evolution; it says we are all just accumulations of particles, in a meaningless universe that had great beauty but no “purpose” as we would understand it. That universe is destined to expand forever (as the current state of cosmology is starting to suggest) until matter itself collapses, evaporating into nothing as the energy budget for everything drops below the threshold needed to sustain it. Even the one thing in modern cosmology that might give them hope, the Anthropic Principle, can only be supported in its weakest possible form in the face of the latest research – we’re here because we’re here, because we’re here, because we’re here (sung to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne”)

Assuming the unimaginable occurs, and creationists succeed in finally turfing evolution out of the modern canon of American science (it won’t happen anywhere else, except — maybe — Australia); physics will still stand proud, telling anyone who can hear it that the world is not the way religious zealots try to claim it is. And, given their track record for going after what they consider the easy targets, they will not be able to counter it.

Let us hope that does not happen, though. The easiest way to counter their attacks is not to doggedly address each and every one of their points, knock down one creationist after another and watch in appalled exhaustion as a dozen more sprout, like the heads of Hydra, where the others fell, but to truly educate the American people, bring the level of their knowledge up to a standard where they can actually grasp the fallacy of what they’re being fed, like Ben Stein’s “Expelled!” or the latest drivel from Behe or the ICR.

Thanks for listening, and remember to support science education in schools. It’s the only hope for this, and every other country.