The scientists have witnessed the Higgs boson decomposing into a couple of b quarks, validating the assumptions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. The Higgs boson is a significant fundamental particle for the Standard Model because it is linked to the Higgs field, an energy field that provides mass to the particles.
The physicists use particle accelerators to smash particles into each other, yielding a multitude of exotic and subatomic particles. ATLAS is among the six particle accelerators at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, located in Switzerland.
The scientists routinely watched the breakdown of the Higgs boson into tau-leptons, W and Z bosons, and photons, but witnessing Higgs boson decaying into b quarks was challenging to observe.
Researchers at the ATLAS team regularly fine-tuned the process of Higgs boson production to minimize the number of back-end reactions that yield b quarks.
After a lot of testing, the researchers were capable of lowering the background noise sufficiently to focus on the b quarks caused by the breakdown.
Standard Model of particle physics will be further challenged as we step into a new era of Higgs boson measurements
The new method for perfecting only the collisions between particles of interest will enable researchers to explore further theories of particle physics, whereas recent findings are in agreement with the Standard Model.
“With these observations, a new era of detailed measurements in the Higgs sector opens up, through which the Standard Model will be further challenged,” stated the scientists in the press release.
“Studies of this new Higgs boson decomposition will open up a whole new window on the Higgs, and may also provide clues to new physics beyond our current theories,” the researchers added.
In short, the Higgs boson was observed breaking down into b quarks by the scientists at ATLAS particle accelerator, which can help physicists explore new hypothesis regarding particle physics.
