希格斯玻色子的实验探索(search for the Higgs boson)指的是从实验中证实希格斯玻色子存在与否?这是一个极为重要的基础物理问题。物理学者花费四十多年时间寻找它。至今为止,全世界最昂贵、最复杂的实验设施之一,大型强子对撞机(LHC),其建成的主要目的之一就是寻找与观察希格斯玻色子与其它种粒子。[1]2012年7月4日,欧洲核子研究组织(CERN)宣布,LHC的紧凑渺子线圈(CMS)探测到质量为125.3±0.6GeV的新玻色子(超过背景期望值4.9个标准差),超环面仪器(ATLAS)测量到质量为126.5GeV的新玻色子(5个标准差),这两种粒子极像希格斯玻色子。[2]2013年3月14日,欧洲核子研究组织发表新闻稿正式宣布,先前探测到的新粒子是希格斯玻色子,并且暂时确认具有偶宇称与零自旋,这是希格斯玻色子应该具有的两种基本性质,但有一部分实验结果不尽符合理论预测,更多数据仍旧等待处理与分析。[3][4]
核对标准模型:在标准模型的各种延伸模型或替代模型之间做选择:假若希格斯场存在,则从测量其性质,可以决定哪一种更进阶的延伸模型应被建议或排除。物理学者普遍认为,后标准模型物理(physics beyond the standard model)已开始成型,在某个传承点,标准模型必须被延伸或取代。希子物理有可能会是开启这新物理的一扇大门,寻找暗物质、超对称、额外维度等等的蛛丝马迹,[6]:268给出可观的证据指引研究者怎样航行于新物理。
Strassler, Matt. The Known Particles – If The Higgs Field Were Zero. Article by Dr Matt Strassler of Rutgers University. 2011-10-08 [2012-11-13]. (原始内容存档于2021-03-17). The Higgs field: so important it merited an entire experimental facility, the Large Hadron Collider, dedicated to understanding it
Sean Carroll. The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World. Penguin Group US. 2012-11-13. ISBN 978-1-101-60970-5.
Max Jammer, Concepts of Mass in Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000) pp.162–163, who provides many references in support of this statement.
Irene Klotz (editing by David Adams and Todd Eastham). Universe Has Finite Lifespan, Higgs Boson Calculations Suggest. Huffington Post. Reuters. 2013-02-18 [2013-02-21]. (原始内容存档于2017-09-07). Earth will likely be long gone before any Higgs boson particles set off an apocalyptic assault on the universe
Boyle, Alan. Will our universe end in a 'big slurp'? Higgs-like particle suggests it might. NBC News' Cosmic log. 2013-02-19 [2013-02-21]. (原始内容存档于2013-02-21). [T]he bad news is that its mass suggests the universe will end in a fast-spreading bubble of doom. The good news? It'll probably be tens of billions of years. The article quotes Fermilab's Joseph Lykken: "[T]he parameters for our universe, including the Higgs [and top quark's masses] suggest that we're just at the edge of stability, in a "metastable" state. Physicists have been contemplating such a possibility for more than 30 years. Back in 1982, physicists Michael Turner and Frank Wilczek wrote in Nature that "without warning, a bubble of true vacuum could nucleate somewhere in the universe and move outwards..."
Lee, Benjamin W.; Quigg, C.; Thacker, H.B. The Strength of Weak Interactions at Very High-Energies and the Higgs Boson Mass.. Physical Review Letters. 1977, 38: 883–885. Bibcode:1977PhRvL..38..883L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.38.883.
The CDF & D0 Collaborations. Combined CDF and D0 Upper Limits on Standard Model Higgs Boson Production with up to 8.6 fb-1 of Data. 2011-07-27. arXiv:1107.5518 [hep-ex].
The CDF & D0 Collaborations. Updated Combination of CDF and D0 Searches for Standard Model Higgs Boson Production with up to 10.0 fb-1 of Data. 2012-07-02. arXiv:1207.0449 [hep-ex].
LHC: Higgs boson 'may have been glimpsed' – BBC News, 13 December 2011 (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆) – "two experiments at the LHC see hints of the Higgs at the same mass, fuelling huge excitement" ... "the simple fact that both Atlas and CMS seem to be seeing a data spike at the same mass has been enough to cause enormous excitement in the particle physics community."
ATLAS Collaboration. Combined search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector. 2012-07-02. arXiv:1207.0319 [hep-ex].