Physicists Await Announcement concerning 'God Particle'

If you're a physicist, you're probably looking forward to Tuesday morning's news with Christmas morning-level anticipation-and possibly even more than that. That's because on Tuesday, scientists from the CERN laboratory in Geneva, working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will announce their progress in the search for the elusive "Higgs boson" particle. 

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Higgs boson is also known as the "God Particle" because of its importance in reconciling inconsistencies in the Standard Model of particle physics. In short, finding the particle means that scientists won't have to (get to) go back to the drawing board to figure out just how particles acquire their mass.

The conference set for 8 am EST, will discuss the current status of the research being done. However, the amount of data crunched prior to the report has physicists excited that something definitive will be announced. 

The research is being conducted at the LHC in Switzerland, which is presently the world's largest particle accelerator. The 17 mile subterranean ring can accelerate subatomic particles to near the speed of light and smash them into other minute particles. When those particles collide, they give off a shower of smaller, high-energy particles which can be detected. These infinitesimally small particles can be studied and how they behave gives important clues about their nature. 

CERN scientists started the buzz when they issued a statement that read in part:

"These results will be based on the analysis of considerably more data than those presented at the summer conferences, sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the Higgs." 

It's the "considerably more data" part that has built anticipation to Christmas eve levels. 

While the statement could take the wind out of the sails of the lay observer, it is of great interest to physicists. Obviously, they have something to say, even if that statement isn't conclusive. What some are hoping for is a strong indication of the answer, one way or another.

While each physicist may have their private hopes, by and large, the scientific community is not hoping for any one outcome over another. It is understood that if the Higgs boson is eventually found, then some parts of the Standard Model of particle physics can be written in ink.

Alternatively, if research suggests the particle simply doesn't exist then scientists will have to consider other possibilities to reconcile present inconsistencies of the Standard Model. 

The pursuit of new answers is what scientists live for, so evidence which points to the existence of the particle will be good news. However, evidence that the particle may not exist is good news too.
Hence, Tuesday's announcement will be like Christmas for scientists, who stand to be enriched and excited regardless of what they find under the LHC's tree this year.

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