Wednesday morning there were standing ovations in Geneva's science center CERN when scientists presented their results in their search for the so-called 'divine particle'. A particle was discovered that "resembles the long-searched for Higgins Particle", CERN declared. However, there is no absolute certainty yet whether the newly discovered particle is actually the Higgs-Boson, that has been searched for for decades.
"As a layman I'd say we got it, but as a scientist I have to ask: exactly what have we got there?", CERN-Direktor Rolf-Dieter Heuer said in Genf. CERN-Physicist Yves Sirois explained to news agency AFP: "It could be the Higgs-Boson, which would cast a light on how it was possible for matter to turn up right at the beginning of the universe."
In the past months two detectors at the world's largest particle accelerator LHC searched for the particle. As early as December 2011 first traces got reported. Ever since the experiments with LHC at CERN were continued.
In the collected data of the years 2011 and 2012 the new particle with a mass of 125-126 Gigael-ektronevolt (GeV) was discovered. Contrary to last year, this time the likeliness of an error is almost zero. 0.00006 percent, to be precise. Thus the necessary criteria permitting to call the observation a "discovery" are met.
The so-called Higgs-Mechanism explains how particles, the basic compounds of matter, get their respective mass. The search for the Higgins-particle is one of the prime quests of the LCT particle accelerator located at the border between Switzerland and France. More than 100 yards below the surface, in a 27 km (roughly 19 miles) long ring-shaped tunnel, the CERN scientists make protons collide at almost the speed of light.
