Higgs Boson Decay

Higgs Boson Decay

News: Physicists at CERN, working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), have reported detecting a rare decay process where a Higgs boson decayed into a Z boson and a photon.

What is Higgs Boson?
 The Higgs boson is a subatomic particle that is integral to our understanding of mass. The strength of a particle’s interaction with the Higgs boson determines its mass.
 The LHC creates a Higgs boson by accelerating protons into a high-energy collision, resulting in a release of energy that forms different particles.

Recent Findings:
 As the Higgs boson is a heavy particle, it is unstable and decays into lighter particles
 As per the Standard Model of physics, it is predicted that a Higgs boson will decay into a Z boson and a photon 0.1% of the time. This means the LHC needed to have created at least 1,000 Higgs bosons to have been able to spot one of them decaying to a Z boson and a photon.
 This rare decay process was detected by physicists at the LHC.
 Two detectors at the LHC, ATLAS and CMS, have combined their data from 2015 to 2018, improving the statistical precision of their searches. However, the data does not yet confirm this decay pathway with 100% certainty.

Significance:
 The properties of the Higgs boson and how particles interact with it can provide insights into the universe.
 Its decay process can help test the predictions of the Standard Model of physics. It is because even after the success of this model, it can’t answer the questions like what dark matter is or, in fact, why the Higgs boson is so heavy. By testing its predictions with precision, physicists are looking for possible inconsistencies or “cracks” in the Standard Model, which may validate new theories in physics.