PhysicsFactsheet

www.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 233

The Higgs Boson

The recent discovery of the Higgs Boson made the news all over the world. So what was it all about?

The Standard Model of Particle Physics is the currently accepted model or theory of the Universe and how it works in terms of the fundamental
particles of which it consists. These fundamental particles are the unimaginably small and indivisible particles that make up matter. The fact
that they are indivisible means that they have no structure.

Fundamental particles are not divisible; they do not consist of other particles.

The fundamental particles of the Standard Model are:

(a) Fermions or matter particles (spin particles) these are either:
Quarks (up, down, strange, charm, top and bottom) or
Leptons (electron e, electron neutrino e, muon , muon neutrino , tau and tau neutrino )
a) Bosons or force carriers:

Exchange Relative
Type of Force Range Where force acts
Particle Strength
Electromagnetic Photon or light
infinite Between charged particles 1
force (virtual photon)
Gluons In the nucleus
Strong force 10-15m 102
(pions + ) Between quarks and hadrons

Bosons
Weak force 10-18m Radioactive (nuclear) decay 104
(Z0, W+, W)

Gravity Graviton? infinite Between masses 1040

All the matter which makes up our everyday world consists of electrons, up-quarks and down-quarks together with the gluons and photons
which hold these together. All other particles are only able to be observed in accelerator experiments or in natural events such as cosmic ray
showers. The non-fundamental particles are called Hadrons and are classified either as Baryons which consist of 3 quarks (e.g. proton, neutron)
or Mesons which consist of 2 quarks (e.g. pion, kaon).

Quick Question No 1 Which forces are involved and which exchange particles mediate the following interactions:
(a) Alpha decay
(b) Ionisation of an atom
(c) Beta decay
(d) The planets orbiting the Sun

Answer to Quick Question No 1

(a) Strong gluon
(b) Electromagnetic photon
(c) Weak boson
(d) Gravity graviton

Antimatter was predicted by the mathematical equations of Dirac. It consists of particles which are equivalent to the matter particles and have
the same mass but opposite spin and charge. They are real and occur naturally when cosmic rays come into contact with the Earths atmosphere
and are also created in accelerator experiments. When an antiparticle meets its particle they annihilate, converting their mass to energy in the
process. For example 0 e + 0 e + 2 0
1 +1 0
[Note: Two -ray photons must be produced in order to conserve momentum.] Uncharged antimatter particles have the same symbol as the
corresponding matter particles but with a bar over the symbol e.g. electron-antineutrino e and tau-antineutrino and muon-antineutrino

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233. The Higgs Boson
Quick Question No 2 -particle decay (where a fast moving electron
is given off when a neutron decays to form a proton) is mediated by
a short lived W particle which is formed during the interaction. The
mass of the proton and electron together is less than the mass of the
neutron. Where has this mass gone? Give the equation which governs
this change.
Answer to Quick Question No 2 Some mass has become kinetic
energy of the electron. The amount of energy can be found from
Einsteins equation, E = mc2 where m is the mass loss and c is the
velocity of light.
Feynman Diagrams are a way of representing the particle interactions.
They consist of:
straight lines which represent the particles before and after the
interaction
wavy or dashed lines which connect the straight lines and represent
the particle exchange. Gluon exchange is often represented by
curly corkscrew lines.
At the point where lines meet charge must be conserved.
Quick Question No 3 Draw a Feynman Diagram to represent the
repulsion between two protons.
Answer to Quick Question No 3
p p
g The Higgs Boson is postulated to only interact directly with particles
p p
Quick Question No 4 Describe the interaction represented by the
Feynman Diagram.
vm e-
w -
m ve
Answer to Quick Question No 4 A muon and an electron neutrino
interact via the weak force, mediated by a W boson, to produce a
muon-neutrino and an electron: p + e n + e
The Higgs Mechanism
The Standard Model could not explain how some of the particles could
have their mass. The Higgs Mechanism was first proposed by the
English physicist Sir Peter Higgs together with five of his colleagues.
He postulated that a Higgs Field exists and this field permeates the
whole of the Universe. It is all around us even though we cannot see
or feel it. However, the Higgs Field allows the particles of the standard
model to attain their mass. They do this by interacting with the Field.
The Higgs Boson is a particle which is predicted by the Higgs Field.
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Physics Factsheet
The Higgs Field is postulated as a hypothetical force field which
pervades the entire Universe. The Higgs Bosons come from the Higgs
Field. Rather like walking through soft sand it is heavy going as
the sand particles impede our progress and stick to our shoes. When a
particle moves through the Higgs Field it interacts and the more mass
it has the more it interacts (and the mediator is the Higgs Boson).
According to quantum mechanics the mass of the particle may be
considered as the disturbance or perturbation of the Higgs Field caused
by movement of the particle through the Higgs Field. Another way of
expressing this is as a particle being an excitation of the Higgs Field.
The need for a particle with the properties of the Higgs Boson comes
from the fact that the W and Z bosons, which mediate the weak
force, have a large mass according to the mathematics governing the
electroweak interactions.
Detecting the Higgs Boson
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator situated
at CERN near Geneva. It consists of a 27 kilometre circular tunnel.
Before entering the LHC, the particles (protons) are accelerated by
two proton synchrotrons in succession which gives them energy of
450 GeV. The protons are then accelerated into two beams which
travel in opposite directions each proton beam attains energies of 7
TeV and so when these beams collide it is with energies of 14 TeV. [1
TeV = 1012 eV]
Two experiments are concerned with detecting the Higgs Boson.
One uses the ATLAS detector (which is the largest volume detector
ever constructed - 45m long and 25m high) and the other uses the
CMS detector (built around the largest superconducting solenoid ever
constructed). Both of these are general detectors.
which have mass and it is the interaction of the Higgs Boson which
actually causes the particles to have mass. The Standard Model predicts
that the Higgs Boson is a spin zero particle arising from the Higgs field
and is responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. This model
expects that the Higgs Boson will couple directly to W and Z bosons
and indirectly to photons. The mass of the Higgs Boson is predicted
to be about 125 GeV.
Coupling of the Higgs Field to fermions is also expected to arise
via a Yukawa interaction the coupling strength is predicted to be
proportional to the mass of the fermion. The masses of many quarks
and fermions are known to a reasonable degree of accuracy from
experiments. The Higgs boson decay rates to these fermions can
therefore be predicted. They are expected to be predominantly decays
to the bottom quark and the lepton.
It is not possible to detect the Higgs Boson directly. The Standard
model predicts the decay pathways and how often they will occur.
By studying the decay of a particle suspected to be the Higgs Boson,
one can compare these and their frequency with that predicted by the
Standard Model, and identify if the suspected Higgs Bosons have
the properties required by the Standard Model. Some of the decay
pathways predicted for the Higgs Boson:
Decay into two very high energy gamma rays. This can be
represented as H . These two gamma rays should leave
an easily recognisable signature in the gamma ray detectors
(electromagnetic calorimeters, ECALs). They each decay to
form an electron-positron pair:
0 0 0
e + e + All their energy should be deposited in
0 1 +1
the ECALs, and none in the inner or outer detectors, unlike
other particles, such as pions, which would leave a track in the
inner detector and in the outermost detectors as well as in the
electromagnetic detectors.
 233. The Higgs Boson Physics Factsheet

Decay into WW boson pairs or ZZ boson pairs. Practice Questions

In November 2013 the ATLAS experiment at CERN obtained 1. Draw Feynman Diagrams to represent the following:
evidence of the production of the Higgs Boson by collision of two (a) The decay of a neutron to a proton ( decay): n p + e + e
14 TeV protons and subsequent decay to two tau particles whose (b) A proton and a neutron held together to form a nucleus by pion
interaction gives two rays: exchange
2. Name the particles of the Standard Model which have spin one
Feynman Diagram for the Production and Subsequent Decay half.
of the Higgs Boson 3. Which fundamental force is involved in holding together the
protons in the nucleus of an atom?
Higgs production 4. How are particles expected to attain their mass?
Higgs decay to photons
5. Explain the proposed link between dark matter and the Higgs
Boson.
p
g

g
t
t

H H
t
g
g
p

http://www.lppp.lancs.ac.uk/higgs/images/higgsfeyn.gif

Part of the Tunnel and LHC at CERN

http://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-AC-0807027-01/file?size=large

Dark Matter and the Higgs Boson

At present it is thought that approximately 25% of the Universe is
dark matter. The orbital speeds of objects in spiral galaxies imply
the existence of dark matter, as an additional gravitational attraction
is needed to explain them. Dark matter interacts mainly through
gravitational pull and so it is thought possible that the Higgs Boson
would interact with dark matter. It would be recognisable as missing
energy:that is the lack of an expected signal in the LHC detectors.

Acknowledgements:
This Physics Factsheet was researched and written by Christine Collier.
The Curriculum Press,Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, Shropshire, TF1 1NU .
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