Y'all my mom just asked me what the "Higgs bosons decaying into muons interesting thing happening at @CERN" was all about on our family whatsapp chat! 😊 If you're interested in what I wrote back, read below!
1/9
1/9
So.... we have different types of particles that make up everything we know of in the universe. We have force particles (which we call bosons) and matter particles (called fermions).
2/9
(picture credit @symmetrymag)
2/9
(picture credit @symmetrymag)
When we discovered the Higgs boson, we needed to be sure that it *was* the Higgs boson, and not some other new particle. We did this by looking at the specific ways the Higgs can decay - or transform into - other particles.
3/9
3/9
When we create a Higgs boson in a collision inside the LHC, it only lives for a very tiny fraction of a second before transforming into other particles. The theory describing how the Higgs works also describes these transformations very specifically.
4/9
4/9
So by checking each specific transformation very carefully, we can see how well our discovered Higgs boson adheres to the theory that is supposed to describe it. If the results match - great, our theory is good! If not - also great! That can be a hint of new physics 😄
5/9
5/9
Each transformation has a different rate and difficulty of being observed. The Higgs->2 muons transformation is an extremely rare process, made even more complicated by the fact that there are lots of other things that also produce 2 muons. So it's a really fantastic result!
6/9
6/9
Finally, what makes this result extra special is because of the way the matter particles are divided up into three different "generations". Each generation is heavier than the previous.
7/9
7/9
We have observed Higgs transformations to gauge bosons, and to the third generation of matter particles. But this is the first time we have evidence of the Higgs transforming into second generation particles, which is why it's extra exciting! 😊
8/9
8/9
Finally, here's a cool picture of a candidate Higgs->2 muon event. In the centre of the detector those yellow lines show particles created in the collision. The two red lines are the muons - they come from the same place, and their mass adds up to the Higgs mass!
9/9
9/9
