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Scientists: elusive Higgs particle could be found next year
Dec 13, 2011, 20:53 GMT
German Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General of CERN (the European particle physics laboratory), informs to media about the Higgs search, during a press conference at the European Particle Physics laboratory (CERN), in Geneva, Switzerland, 13 December 2011. EPA/SALVATORE DI NOLFI
Geneva - One of the final missing puzzle pieces to explain our physical world could be found as early as next year, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Tuesday.
They said they had obtained 'exciting' indications that the so-called Higgs particle was traceable in the low-energy spectrum at the world's largest particle accelerator, operated by CERN in Geneva.
But the data collected in past months were 'not strong enough to claim a discovery,' the physicists said.
A theory developed by British scientist Peter Higgs in 1964, based on the Standard Model governing our understanding of particle physics, explains why mass exists in the universe by introducing the Higgs boson as a key part of the mechanism that allows particles to gain mass.
Tuesday's press conference had been eagerly anticipated by the scientific community, amid hopes that the existence of the Higgs boson had been experimentally proven.
If it really exists, it would be most likely found in the low-energy range of up to 130 gigaelectron volts.
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