Researchers at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have discovered a new interaction between the Higgs boson, also known as “God Particle” and the elementary particle b-quark (bottom quark), they say in a statement, which led to the observation of the Higgs boson decay for the first time. Physicists from the “Universite Libre de Bruxelles” (ULB) have also contributed to this discovery, announces the university’s representatives.
The researchers observed the Higgs boson decay into other fundamental particles, the b-quarks. This result, obtained with the CMS detector at the CERN scientific laboratory and published in the journal Physical Review Letters, is compatible with the hypothesis that the quantum field linked to the Higgs boson also gives its mass to the b quark.
The Higgs boson theoretically disintegrates into a pair of b-quarks in 60% of cases, but it was difficult to confirm or refute this standard model, due to the many other production modes of a bottom quark elementary particle.
CERN researchers finally found out how the Higgs boson decay takes place after six years of research
The research teams also measured a decay rate that corresponds to the prediction of the standard model.
“Experiments continue to focus on the Higgs boson (“God particle”), which is often seen as a gateway to new physics,” said Eckhard Elsen, CERN’s Director of Research and Computer Science. “It now appears that analytical methods are achieving the precision required to explore the entire landscape of physics, including, we hope, the new physics that has remained so well hidden so far,” the scientist added.
“This observation is a milestone in the exploration of the Higgs boson. It shows that the ATLAS and CMS experiments have achieved a deep understanding of their data and control of backgrounds that surpasses expectations. ATLAS has now observed all couplings of the Higgs boson to the heavy quarks and leptons of the third generation as well as all significant production modes,” explained Karl Jakobs of the CERN.
The newly observed Higgs boson decay after the interactions with a b-quark elementary particle sheds more light on the so-called “God Particle” and pave the road to new physics laws which are still hidden for the physicists.
