Why are physicists still toiling over a particle discovered almost ten years ago? They have, in fact, relaunched collisions in the LHC accelerator of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, to produce an abundance of the famous Higgs boson, the missing link in physics discovered on July 4, 2012 As much data will be recorded in the next two years we have collected since 2011. “We are not pursuing this research by inertia. There are still some very interesting things to discover with the Higgs”, warns Yves Sirois, CNRS researcher on CMS, one of the two experiments to have led to the discovery of the Higgs.
If the previous period was similar to ready-to-wear, with a rough-hewn production of Higgs, now place in haute couture. Researchers want to know everything about their last catch. How is it produced? How does she disappear? Who does she react to?
And if they then find some discrepancies between their experimental results and the theory, they will have strong indications that the model that, until now, has worked so well must be perfected… predict the existence of the Higgs boson. “Because this boson is so inherently sensitive to each new particle, it could register an anomaly in its behaviors due to interference with other as yet undiscovered massive particles.”hopes Guido Tonelli, former spokesperson for CMS and author of Genesis (Dunod, 256 pages, 19.90 euros). If the Higgs derails, it would be proof that a bigger player than him is also present, but remains invisible.
This detailed review is not the only motivation. The main anomalies or deviations identified so far in other experiments, and which await confirmation, have a very strong link with the properties of the Higgs boson. Knowing the latter better will therefore help, in turn, to interpret these deviations on the congeners of the boson.
Chain splitting
There is more fascinating still. “Is the Higgs boson hermaphroditic? », wonders, greedily, Yves Sirois. In other words, can it reproduce itself to give two Higgs babies, which are identical? “The standard model forbids it. We have never seen a particle interact on itself. So that would be a first.”remarks Christophe Grojean, physicist at DESY, a research center in particle physics and synchrotron radiation located in Germany.
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