The Higgs Boson particle has been at the center of theoretical physics debates for quite some time now, and while the elusive particle is conjectured to be at the center of every atom, giving them their mass, researchers have been hard-pressed to prove its existence. Last year, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) revealed that an anomaly discovered in the Large Hadron Collider when atoms were compounded together may have in fact been the Higgs Boson, however, new research says that they may have been mistaken. And the particle CERN found may very well be something entirely different.
An international research team of physicists recently published an analysis of CERN's discovery in the newest issue of the journal Physical Review D, and while they agree that the team had found a new particle never seen before, they scrutinize the data to simply say that empirical evidence may also point to particles other than the Higgs Boson.
"The CERN data is generally taken as evidence that the particle is the Higgs particle" physicist from the University of Southern Denmark who was involved in the study, Mads Toudal Frandsen says. "It is true that the Higgs particle can explain the data but there can be other explanations, we would also get this data from other particles."
While the new analysis cannot define the particle discovered in any absolute statements, as the possibility of it still being the Higgs Boson cannot be entirely excluded, the team of international researchers insist that CERN and colleagues worldwide look to other possible solutions for what they have found.
"The current data is not precise enough to determine exactly what the particle is" Frandsen says. "It could be a number of other known particles."
But if it isn't the Higgs Boson, then what is it that the CERN team may have found? While no other team of researchers have been able to replicate the findings made by the Large Hadron Collider, analysis of the data collected by CERN leads physicists to believe if it isn't the Higgs Boson, it is in fact something quite close.
Frandsen and his associates discuss the possibility of the particle belonging to an entirely different theory of how the universe was created, looking to "techni-higgs particles" as the answer.
"We believe that it may be a so-called techni-higgs particle" Frandsen says. "This particle is in some ways similar to the Higgs particle - hence half of the name."
And while the theory may just be that, a theory, the international research team believes that future experimentation with particle colliders will reveal the answers to the definite identities of what researchers at CERN are seeing now.
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