This post is not the one I was expecting to be writing today, but current events have prompted me into talking about the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle.
On December 13th 2011 The CERN team from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced, in effect, that they had discovered the elusive "God Particle", known to physicists as the "Higgs Boson" particle. From my perspective, if on the same day it had been announced that the holy grail had been found, the Higgs Boson story should still have taken first place in the headlines!
This news is important to this blog because, if this result is validated, it could represent the first real evidence for string theory and hence, for multiple dimensions. As this blog is predicated on the assumption that there are higher dimensions, it adds weight to my thesis about the origins of consciousness.
The search for the Higgs Boson was primarily aimed at validating the Standard Model of particle physics. This is the only particle predicted by the model that had not (until now) been observed experimentally. It's link to string theory - and hence to the existence of multiple dimensions is connected to the mass of the Higgs Boson.
The standard model cannot predict the mass of a Higgs Boson but string theory can. If the mass measured at LHC (approx 125GeV) is in line with the string theory value then this supports string theory.
To be fair, CERN's actual position on the "discovery" was expressed by a spokesperson on BBC radio as [sic] "the probability of the Higgs Boson particle NOT existing has diminished". So why is CERN being so careful not to shout out the news from the rooftops?
At the time of writing, the degree of confidence that CERN have in the validity of the result is about 1 in 1000: in other words there is only a 0.1% chance that these results are caused by random chance or error. Before they can declare the result to be confirmed, that confidence level needs to increase to 1 in a million. It will take time for enough experiments to be conducted to confirm the results. So we might expect a firm announcement about the Higgs Boson in 2012.
String theory suggests that the graviton particle would not be detected from a particle collision because it would have "jumped" into another dimension. So, if the graviton exists and the theory is correct, there should be a "gap" in the energy profile of all the particles ejected from the collision.
To understand this, think of breaking the pack of balls in a game of pool. The total energy of all the balls after the collision will depend on the force with which the cue ball was hit. So, after the collision, the energy of all the balls is measured and added-up to make sure it is the same as the energy of the cue ball. BUT - imagine that there is some energy missing, because one of the pool balls has "gone missing" - into a higher dimension.
In this video, physicist Brian Green outlines the origins of string theory and (at around 17:00) he states that the graviton could be detected at the LHC.
I look forward to CERN announcing the existence of the graviton some time in the next few years.
Next: I will return to the theme of consciousness acting at a distance.
From the perspective of THIS universe, I am "The REAL" Jeff Hall
Further Information
An explanation of the Higgs Boson by the (rather excited) Ross Exton
Monday, 19 December 2011
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