New discovery could be best hint yet of the elusive Higgs boson

[Swede]

The Higgs boson is the missing particle that would complete the standard model of particle physics, but so far we've found little to even suggest it actually exists. But a new finding might just have come from a decaying Higgs.

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector is one of several individual detectors that comprise the Large Hadron Collider. Researchers there just announced its first ever detection of a pair of Z bosons. Some high energy interaction is responsible for causing this so-called ZZ decay. If the Higgs boson is a massive particle, then it most likely would decay into a pair of Z bosons, as was observed here.

http://io9.com/5689471/new-discovery-could-be-best-hint-yet-of-the-elusive-higgs-boson

[opihimoimoi]

1. "Z" ? If I could ask...how can we tell if its a "Z"...and not a "K" or a "Y" ?

[BadgerKid]

2. I think it's by measuring its properties.

For example, since Z particles have zero charge, their trajectories won't be curved by an applied magnetic field. Generally, particles, ions, and molecules having nonzero mass and nonzero charge are affected in this manner. This is how mass spectroscopy works.

For an overview of how particle detection works, try reading here:

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/research/Detector-en.html

[opihimoimoi]

3. Thank you ....very informative...quantum physics is fascinating