"I hope to find the Higgs boson or confirm that it does not exist by December 2012"
"I hope to find the Higgs boson or confirm that it does not exist by December 2012"
The position will remain until December 2013, since each CERN management period lasts five years, a period in which it will have to manage the first years of the LHC and make the first major decisions.
Heuer tells us about one of those decisions. Instead of staying the LHC to make technological improvements in December 2011, it will keep it until the end of 2012. By then we will already know if the famous Higgs boson exists or not.
Next to Geneva, but in the French area. [With his hand he makes the gesture of money] This difference is a little cheaper [laughs].
And if you want to have a garden, it is much more expensive than the French area.
No, but I would care nothing.
And that's why I say there's a lot of fantasy on this topic. However, this controversy has helped us because it has attracted people's attention to the LHC.
In one word: world. It worked very well, it worked better than I expected. It is a very complex machine, it is the only one of its kind in the world and it is its prototype, since it has not been tested before anywhere else. It worked very well. We are very optimistic for the coming years. It has overcome the limits of energy and immersed us in a new field of knowledge. It has also confirmed our knowledge of the conditions in the lower energies. Once you confirm what you know in advance you can make new discoveries, first you have to understand what you have done before and then you are willing to find new things. And in that sense I am satisfied.
In 2011 and 2012 I decided to have the LHC running because I expect one of these two things: Find the Higgs boson or confirm that it does not exist. This will occur in the search for the Higgs boson over the next two years. I think we can answer Shakespeare's question, that is, to be or not to be. This is why the LHC is in operation in 2012.
No. The key is a combination of two factors: the number of impacts of particles (number of experimental impacts) and energy. I wouldn't have the LHC running in 2012, if I'm not sure the energy it generates is enough and what I need is a number of collisions. Energy is enough. But we still have to investigate the number of collisions.
Of course. But it is clear that at the energy level obtained by the LHC we will identify the Higgs boson or, if it does not exist, we will find another mechanism that makes Higgs. That is very clear. The Higgs boson doesn't have to be there, it can be something else, and we don't know what else can be. In this case we should generate a debate. But if the Higgs boson exists, I'm sure we'll find it in the next 24 months.
The question is not whether I trust or not, but what nature tells us. I am open, as a scientist I have to be open. And I hope to find the Higgs boson, which would form practically the entire standard model. But this is not the end, as the standard model only explains a small fraction of the universe energy. He has more things around him.
Comparable to the physics of Newton and Einstein. Newton explains gravity in our speed intervals. Einstein, with the theory of relativity, goes to the zone of very high speeds. You won't notice Einstein's theory at all (until you turn on GPS). Newton, so to speak, explains gravity at low speeds. In turn, the standard model explains another broader theory of particles for low energies. And I hope the LHC will help extend the standard model in the direction of general theory.
Well, without competing you can't do science. Competition is essential. Push you forward and test you. Don't create the result of a test that makes you a single team, it's better for more groups to do it. Therefore, the competition is good. But it can also compete through collaborations.
Of course, we have some competition with Fermilabe, but at the same time we work together. When we had to repair the LHC accelerator, many Fermilabe experts came to help us recover the LHC. And the largest community of CERN resource users is from the United States.
And we support them in new projects. Tevatron will remain after 25 years of activity. 25 years is a good age to stop such a machine. Precisely, the proper functioning of the LHC makes them decide to leave Tevatron.
Gluon was detected by shocks between electrons and positrons. It is surprising, since gluon is the fundamental particle of strong nuclear force, while the interaction of electrons and positrons is an example of weak force. It is interesting.
The discovery was made on the PETRA accelerator of the German organisation DESY. Four experiments were conducted. I was in one of those four, one of those responsible for a detector. It was an interesting time. We were not the first to detect gluon, but it was okay because we participated in that work.
There is debate, yes, but I don't get involved. People put too much emphasis on saying "I was the first and you the second, I saw it 10 seconds after me." Come on! The most important thing is science itself.
I was not in the discovery, but in the investigation of those sketches that were made later. We made concrete measurements. When they made the same discovery, I worked at DESY.
In the experiments where I was I became 500 scientists. The largest experiment currently conducted is 3,000 scientists, 3,000 individuals to achieve a single goal. And it works. You can do it. Why? You only have one goal for everyone: to advance the knowledge of a specific field. Within the experiment there is a competition that makes the clearest young people stand out.
Go to CERN and you will discover that there is a community.
Zero [hand gesture]. I have never been a top scientist. I have always had better scientists around me. But I can combine science and management. I love working with people. I like to guide people's work. This also helps science move forward. People with gray hair (like me) should leave the way free for young people to do new research. I have to look for money for it.
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