After decades of searching, the Higgs boson particle finally was observed at the Large Hadron Collider. This historic discovery was called a tremendous step forward in science.
U-M physics faculty members Gordon Kane, Homer Neal, Jay Chapman, Jianming Qian and Aaron Pierce will serve as panelists and present experimental and theoretical discussions during the Discovery of the Higgs boson Particle Special Panel Discussion from 4-5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Rackham Amphitheatre.
This image depicts a Higgs boson particle created by a proton-to-proton collision at the Large Hadron Collider, detected by ATLAS. Photo courtesy CERN.
The Higgs boson is responsible for generating masses for all of the elementary particles in particle physics theory. Finding the Higgs boson unlocks the mystery of the origin of masses, which will advance understanding of the world at the most fundamental level.
Panelists will discuss the particle physics history of the past half century, and how it relates to the Higgs boson, the role of U-M in experiments to unlock the mystery of electroweak symmetry breaking, and particle physics detector design and construction at U-M. The Higgs boson discovery with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider also will be examined, along with the significance and impact of the discovery in future particle physics.
The physicists will field questions at the panel’s conclusion. The presentation is sponsored by the Department of Physics.
