The Origins of Mass

The Higgs boson was discovered in July of 2012 and is generally understood to be the origin of mass. While those statements are true, they are incomplete. It turns out that the Higgs boson is responsible for only about 2% of the mass of ordinary matter. In this dramatic new video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln tells us the rest of the story.

 

Physics Nobel Prize 2013 - Sixty Symbols

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to François Englert and Peter Higgs - but who missed out and what will happen with future prizes?

 Discussed by Professor Ed Copeland and Professor Mike Merrifield from the University of Nottingham.

 

The Higgs and all that. How the universe works and why we should care

Berkeley Lab's Ian Hinchliffe discusses "The Higgs and all that. How the universe works and why we should care" in this Oct. 28, 2013 talk, which is part of a Science at the Theater event entitled Eight Big Ideas.

 

Higgs Boson Discovery Wins Nobel Prize for Physics

Peter Higgs and Francois Englert win Nobel Prize in Physics. Want to know what makes the Higgs Boson Nobel Prize-worthy? Brian Greene explains.

 

Higgs and Englert awarded 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics for Higgs boson theory

Theoretical physicists, Britain's Peter Higgs and Belgium's Francois Englert have been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Peter Higgs, whose work in 1964 predicted the existence of the Higgs boson. Last year researchers at the Large Hedron Collider announced they had discovered the particle, so ending the one of the biggest scientific hunts in history. Belgian Francois Englert was the first to put forward the theory of the boson.

 

The Discovery of the Higgs Boson: America's Role

The discovery of the Higgs boson was an international endeavor, involving thousands of physicists from across the world. While the accelerator at which the experimental work was done is located on Europe, the US supplied more physicists than any other single country. America had a very large role in the discovery of the Higgs particle and continues to have a leading role in the ongoing studies of the boson's properties. This video describes some of the contributions of U.S. universities and laboratories.

 

ESA Euronews: Planck, Higgs and the Big Bang

When it comes to the origins of the Universe, there's one idea that really captures our imagination: everything, even time itself, started with the Big Bang.

The concept of the Big Bang is difficult to describe and problematic to measure, however that's exactly what two major projects have set out to do: one on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the other in space, ESA's Planck mission.

In this edition of Space, Euronews gets to the heart of the matter and attempts to discover how matter and everything in the Universe came into being. We speak with experts from the CERN, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Sorbonne University and ESA, all studying how the Universe works.

 

Higgs Boson: The Inside Scoop

In July of 2012, physicists found a particle that might be the long-sought Higgs boson. In the intervening months, scientists have worked hard to pin down the identity of this newly-found discovery. In this video, Fermilab's Dr. Don Lincoln describes researcher's current understanding of the particle that might be the Higgs. The evidence is quite strong but the final chapter of this story might well require the return of the Large Hadron Collider to full operations in 2015.

 

The basics of the Higgs boson - Dave Barney and Steve Goldfarb

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-basics-of-boson-dave-barney-and-steve-goldfarb

 In 2012, scientists at CERN discovered evidence of the Higgs boson. The what? The Higgs boson is one of two types of fundamental particles and is a particular game-changer in the field of particle physics, proving how particles gain mass. Using the Socratic method, CERN scientists Dave Barney and Steve Goldfarb explain the exciting implications of the Higgs boson.

 Lesson by Dave Barney and Steve Goldfarb, animation by Jeanette Nørgaard.

 

Your Mass is NOT from Higgs Boson

The Higgs mechanism is meant to account for the mass of everything, right? Well no, only the fundamental particles, which means that electrons derive their mass entirely from the Higgs interaction but protons and neutrons, made of quarks, do not. In fact the quark masses are so small that they only make up about 1% of the mass of the proton (and a similar fraction of the neutron). The rest of the mass comes from the energy in the gluon field. Gluons are massless, but there is so much energy in the field that by E=mc^2 there is a significant amount of mass there. This is where most of your mass comes from and the mass of virtually everything around you.

 

Demystifying the Higgs Boson with Leonard Susskind

(July 30, 2012) Professor Susskind presents an explanation of what the Higgs mechanism is, and what it means to "give mass to particles." He also explains what's at stake for the future of physics and cosmology.

 

Higgs Boson Update From CERN

"For a report on ABC's Catalyst program (http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/), I visited the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland to find out what is being done now that the Higgs Boson has been discovered.

 Although its mass has been measured around 125-126 GeV most of the other properties of the particle remain unknown. Its spin appears to be 0 or 2 but more results are required to nail this down. If it is the standard model Higgs, the spin should be 0, resulting in a fairly symmetric distribution of decay products in the detectors.

 We may know this year if it's not the standard model Higgs - this would be the case if it doesn't decay into specific particles with the expected frequency. However if it is the standard model Higgs, it may take many more years to be certain. The large hadron collider will be shut down in 2013 for upgrades so that higher energies up to 14 TeV can be tested. Right now the LHC is operating at 8 TeV. The next announcement is expected in December."

Other Veritasium videos

 

CERN News The Higgs or not the Higgs? Spin will tell... PART 1

Following the announcement of the discovery of a new particle made at CERN on July 4, this piece of videonews from CERN explains what is missing to declare that the new boson found at the LHC is actually the Higgs or not and that to finally answer that question precise measurements of the spin of the newly found particle have to be made. Contains interviews to CMS Higgs Searches co-convener, Christopher Pauss and theoretician John Ellis.

Higgs Boson Part III: How to Discover a Particle

How do you know when you've "discovered" a particle? What do we mean by "discovery"?

Other Minute Physics videos

Colliding Particles - Episode 7: Data

The 7th in a series of films following a team of physicists involved in research at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.

We're back on the Eurostar as Jon, Gavin and Adam travel to the ICHEP conference in Paris for the announcement of first results from the LHC. It's the culmination of over 20 years work and the first step on the road to many years of new discoveries at the LHC.

Post-ICHEP, Gavin moves to Geneva, Adam finishes his PhD), and Jon continues the fight.

 
Colliding Particles - Episode 7: Data from Mike Paterson on Vimeo.

Colliding Particles - Episode 6: Beam

The 6th in a series of films following a team of physicists involved in research at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.

 'Beam' looks at the role of competition in science and joins the night shift on the CMS detector.

 
Colliding Particles - Episode 6: Beam from Mike Paterson on Vimeo.

Colliding Particles - Episode 5: Collidonomics

The fifth in a series of films following a team of physicists involved in research at the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland.

This episode looks at the issue of funding, has an update on the status of the ATLAS experiment, joins Gavin in the mountains, and continues to follow the progress of the 'Eurostar' idea within ATLAS.


Colliding Particles - Episode 5: Collidonomics from Mike Paterson on Vimeo.

Colliding Particles - Episode 4: Problems

The fourth in a series of films following a team of physicists involved in research at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland. 'Problems' travels to Paris for a look at some of the theoretical work behind the 'Eurostar' paper. Gavin and his PhD student Mathieu explore the mathematics behind the behaviour of fundamental particles, and we have an update on the 'incident' which is holding up work at the LHC.

 
Colliding Particles - Episode 4: Problems from Mike Paterson on Vimeo.

Colliding Particles - Episode 2: Big Bang Day

The second in a series of films following a team of physicists involved in research at the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland.

Visit the project website at collidingparticles.com . At 10.28am on 10 September 2008 the first beam of protons was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.

Episode 2 introduces us to life at CERN and the excitement surrounding 'Big Bang Day'.

 
Colliding Particles - Episode 2: Big Bang Day from Mike Paterson on Vimeo.

Colliding Particles - Episode 1: Codename Eurostar

The first in a series of films following a team of physicists involved in research at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland.

Gavin, Jon and Adam have a cunning plan to find the Higgs Boson, an elusive particle which physicists have been trying to find for over 40 years. One of the main aims of the the LHC is to discover once and for all whether the Higgs actually exists or not, and ‘Eurostar’ might just hold the key to finding out… Visit collidingparticles.com to found out more.


 
Colliding Particles - Episode 1: Codename Eurostar from Mike Paterson on Vimeo.