A tiny particle keeps the world in suspense
Lecture and discussion about the search for the Higgs particle with Dr. Axel Kleinschmidt.
The search for the Higgs particle is currently keeping physicists around the world on tenterhooks. Shortly before Christmas 2011, researchers from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that their measurement results suggested the existence of the long-sought particle, but have not yet proved it. Dr. Axel Kleinschmidt from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) talks about the current state of the research at an event held as part of the "Science Café Potsdam" series together with Prof. Dr. Johann Ev. Hafner from the University of Potsdam.
Lecture and discussion "The Higgs Particle as the Origin of Mass in Particle Physics" will take place on Thursday, January 19, 2012, at 7 pm at "Galerie 11-line", Charlottenstraße 117, 14467 Potsdam.
As early as in 1964, Peter Higgs (UK) and, almost simultaneously with him, five other physicists predicted the existence of the elementary particle that was later named after Higgs. The Higgs particle gives the other particles of the Standard Model of known matter a measurable weight, due to the interaction with them. While the other particles could be detected in experiments, this has not been possible with the Higgs particle for more than 40 years because - according to the theory - it falls apart into its constituent parts extremely quickly. Nevertheless, the researchers at the world's largest particle accelerator, the "Large Hadron Collider" (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, are confident that the Higgs boson can be detected before the end of 2012, thus closing the last detection gap in the Standard Model. The latest results of this search will be highlighted in the discussion.
Dr. Axel Kleinschmidt has been a scientist at the AEI since 2011. His research focus is the structure of the effective equations of string theory, in particular the search for hidden symmetry structures and their effects on the quantum gravity theory, as well as cosmology. String theory is a hypothetical physical model that aims to explain all observable fundamental forces of physics in a uniform way.
