The Higgs boson: who thought of it first?

[WyomingKnott]

Well, congratulations, CERN found evidence for the Higgs boson.

There are time when I wonder if humans are exploring the already-existing world at finer and finer levels of detail, or if God looks at particle physics and says "OK, that one is a good theory, I'll stick it in over at that collider they are working on." Or, to split the difference, if the act of observing the Higgs boson brings it into existence despite it not having been there before. Which sounds remarkably like some of the statements in quantum theory to me.

So which of the following (and the answer can be plural) seem plausible to you? That we are picking apart a puzzle box that may have infinite levels of detail? That the puzzle-master is one or two steps ahead of us, working away from us as we work towards him / her / it / xu? Or that the details at that level are an uncollapsed function until we observe them, and different experiments could have led to a different set of "fundamental" particles?

Personally, I'm a great believer in the power of the scientific method to produce useful information that is a close approximation of what happens in the real world, but at that level I'd be content with any of the above answers.

 

[johnsonma]

I believe that in 100 years (if we are still around) that this will be accepted as a known fact, much like the process involving the knowledge that the earth is round. Its hard to imagine that we are merely scraping the surface with how far we have come but that seems the most plausible. That shouldn't take anything away from this discovery though, it is still a fundamental block in understanding the Universe.

 

[dogman_1234]

Science is a great...if not the greatest, tool humans have developed thus far.

Regarding if this disproves or proves anything is a matter of debate...and will continue. Controversy of faith and matter will not cease even until the end of times. We will never know until our eyes are shut. Then the truth and light will be visible to us all.

EDIT: The Higgs Boson helps complete the Standard Model. Currently, we still do not know whether we have found it or not, but a similar particle that represents the Higgs is visible. If it a consensus amongst the scientific community, the Standard Model will be complete.

 

[Reynod]

I think the findings are still a bit premature and the collider should have been run for a few more weeks at varying energy levels.

When your looking for a particular event or particle to fit a presupposed theory the level of proof required is much higher.

They will also likely find that there are more than one Higg's type particle ... a single massive particle is unlikely to exist on its own without some variants.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

I think the findings are still a bit premature and the collider should have been run for a few more weeks at varying energy levels.

When your looking for a particular event or particle to fit a presupposed theory the level of proof required is much higher.

They will also likely find that there are more than one Higg's type particle ... a single massive particle is unlikely to exist on its own without some variants.

What I've read on the subject is that the standard of proof is 5 sigma, or a signal observed at 5 standard deviations statistically. That's pretty strong..