ICTP Applauds CERN Higgs Results

ICTP welcomes the news from CERN that a new subatomic particle has been discovered that behaves much like the elusive Higgs boson, a much sought-after particle that is expected to explain the existence of mass in the Universe.

But what exact properties the new particle has, and whether it's the exact same Higgs Boson the Standard Model of particle physics predicts or a variant, is yet to be known. Answers should be coming throughout 2012, as the preliminary results announced today are using only one-third of the data anticipated to be gained from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

ICTP and the University of Udine, working under the umbrella of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), have played an important role in the discovery. The two institutes have participated in the ATLAS experiment that examines the debris of particle collisions at the LHC to discover new particles such as the Higgs boson. 

The Higgs boson decays too fast to be detect directly, but its decay generates other particle that physicists can use to infer its existence. But other heavy particles often decay into the same particles. This non-Higgs data, called "background" by physicists at CERN, gets in the way of pinpointing the Higgs, rather like how static can obscure a radio signal. So scientists have to determine the subtle differences in these decay sequences to determine where the visible particles came from.  For example, the Higgs, decays into the same particles as those left behind by the combination of a top quark and anti-top quark combined. By calculating and watching for the differences these two decay processes, physicists can screen the background data and remove it, exposing the newly found particle that could be the Higgs.

ICTP physicist Bobby Acharya, who leads ICTP's involvement in the ATLAS experiment, said today's announcement is tremendously exciting. "Now that we know a new particle is there we will study its properties in more details. It probably is the Higgs, which represents the end to a search that has gone on for decades to find the missing piece of the Standard Model puzzle. For ICTP this is an incredibly important result given the fundamental role that Abdus Salam played in the development of the Standard Model of Particle Physics."

ICTP Director Fernando Quevedo, who attended the CERN seminar today, said "CERN's announcement is exciting not only for the scientific community, but for all of humanity. It represents the product of efforts from researchers, engineers and technicians from all continents working together for a common cause. It is also significant because it unites theory with experimentation."

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime privilege to be physically present during the announcement and to share the excitement with the hundreds of other scientists present. ICTP congratulates CERN for this great achievement that is a turning point in the understanding of the basic laws of nature and is proud to be part of this major worldwide effort. We look forward to collaborating on future research into the properties of this new particle," Quevedo added.

The ICTP/Udine ATLAS group, co-led by Marina Cobal of the University of Udine and Acharya (who coordinates ICTP's involvement), has received generous funding from INFN.

Several of the group members are from other scientific institutions in Trieste, demonstrating a healthy spirit of local scientific collaboration: Prof. Claudio Verzegnassi from the University of Trieste and Michele Pinamonti, a postdoctoral researcher at SISSA (formerly a PhD student at the University of Trieste).