W.I.M.P.S.

i_have_glasses · May 2, 2005

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles are the bomb just admit it. Don’t you think so? Is there any recent news on wimps? Has they been proven to exist? If I understand correctly wimps pass through matter, only once in a great while interacting with it. I seem to remember scientists looking at samples of mica in electron microscopes looking for traces of them. What if a person got hit by a wimp that just happened to interact with them? What would happen?

thalion · May 2, 2005

To my knowledge, they haven't been found, though the search is still on. Honestly, if a WIMP interacted with one of the atoms in your body, probably nothing would happen. Neutrinos probably interact with our atoms every once in a while, and nothing happens; it's probably the same deal with WIMPs.

centsworth_II · May 2, 2005

"The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator which will probe deeper into matter than ever before. Due to switch on in 2007, it will ultimately collide beams of protons at an energy of 14 TeV." The best chance to detect a WIMP will be to make one, which the LHC may do. It will take a few years to do the experiments and analyse the data but maybe by 2010 there could be some news as to the prospects for success. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

Saiph · May 2, 2005

neutrino's, as they have been found to have mass, can be classified as WIMPs...so they exist in that form. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> --------------------SaiphMOD@gmail.com -------------------"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

centsworth_II · May 3, 2005

I was under the impression that the "massive" in WIMP meant "more massive than any currently known particle." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

Saiph · May 3, 2005

not really. Now, neutrinos are a lightweight...and people think there are supermassive ones out there...but neutrinos technically are WIMPs, just not the ones people are really looking for. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> --------------------SaiphMOD@gmail.com -------------------"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

newtonian · May 5, 2005

Saiph - Have they detected the Higgs boson yet?

Saiph · May 5, 2005

they think they may have some traces of it. Personally I side with Higgs...I don't like the idea. You either have a field everywhere, that tells everything what everything elses mass is...(smacks of aether doesn't it?) or it follows the masses around in clumps...meaning the matter generates a field that tells things its mass....which sorta defeats the point doesn't it? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> --------------------SaiphMOD@gmail.com -------------------"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

newtonian · May 7, 2005

Saiph- Yes, it shows how much we don't know yet. The 2004 Britannica does not indicate any discovery of a Higgs particle or field. Do you have any specific knowledge of recent discoveries relevant to this? You all - here are some basics in this field: From the 2004 Britannica CD, under Current research: The Higgs particle is the particle associated with the mechanism that allows the symmetry of the electroweak force to be broken, or hidden, at low energies and that gives the W and Z particles, the carriers of the weak force, their mass. The particle is necessary to electroweak theory because the Higgs mechanism requires a new field to break the symmetry, and according to quantum field theory all fields have particles associated with them. Researchers know that the Higgs particle must have spin 0, but that is virtually all that can be definitely predicted. Theory provides a poor guide as to the particle's mass or even the number of different varieties of Higgs particles involved. However, comparisons with the precision measurements from LEP suggest that the mass of the Higgs particle may be quite light, perhaps less than 200 GeV, although the data do not rule out a much heavier Higgs particle with a mass greater than 1 TeV. Ibid, under Higgs particle: the carrier of an all-pervading fundamental field that is hypothesized asa means of endowing mass on elementaryparticles through its interactions with them. The field and the particle are namedafter Peter Higgs of the University of Edinburgh, one of the physicists who first postulated the idea. The Higgs field is different from other fundamental fields, such as the electromagnetic field, which underlie the basic forces between particles. First, it is a scalar field?i.e., it has magnitude but no direction. This implies that its carrier, the Higgs particle, has an intrinsic angular momentum, or spin, of zero, unlike the carriers of the force fields, w

alokmohan · May 7, 2005

I also read so.

centsworth_II · May 7, 2005

This article summarises the situation as I remember it: "CERN's Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider in Switzerland was due to be decommissioned in October [2000], to make way for the construction of its replacement, the Large Hadron Collider, which will take five years to build. However, at the beginning of September, scientists at LEP announced that they had observed several unusual events which could have been the signature of the elusive Higgs boson. The scientists asked for more time to confirm their results, and the LEP continued running until 2 November. At that point, however, with conclusive evidence still lacking, CERN decided to close the LEP and go ahead with dismantling it and building the LHC. Although it is likely that the LHC will be able to detect the Higgs particle conclusively, the fact that it will not be operational for five years means that the Fermilab collider in the US, just outside Chicago, is likely to get there first." For a much more technical discussion of what was seen in the tantalizing last experiments at CERN's LEP see this pdf document: http://lephiggs.web.cern.ch/LEPHIGGS/papers/August2004_MSSM/LHWG-Note-2004-01.pdf I haven't heard any news of Fermilab discovering any signs of the Higgs particle, so it looks like the first article's prediction that "the Fermilab collider in the US, just outside Chicago, is likely to get there first" was overly optimistic. In searching for Fermilab Higgs results I found this provocative pdf document: http://library.fnal.gov/archive/test-fn/0000/fermilab-fn-0752.pdf It relates, however to searching for the Higgs at CERNS's LHC when it opens. "An interme <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

alokmohan · May 8, 2005

Are we discussing WIMPS or Higgs boson or both are same thing.Sorry if it looks odd to you.

centsworth_II · May 8, 2005

"Sorry if it looks odd to you." If what looks odd? I was just responding to Newtonian. Of course I_Have_Glasses started this thread asking about WIMPS. Where is he by the way? He shows no interest in his own thread! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

alokmohan · May 10, 2005

Interesting.Where is he.I did no+t notice so long.

i_have_glasses · May 15, 2005

I show no interest in my own thread? I've read every post that has been made here....sorry if I dont sit by my computer, hitting refresh every 5 min. like you must centsworth, but I have things to do......I asked a question and was hoping for some responses from some people who knew a little more about the topic than myself. I do not appreciate you saying that about me. How do you know that I show no interest in this thread? Have you been watching me? I KNEW IT!!!

centsworth_II · May 15, 2005

"I show no interest in my own thread? ...I do not appreciate you saying that about me." Sorry. It was just a shameless ploy to defuse the charge against me of topic changing. I would have replied sooner, but I didn't want you to think I sat by my computer hitting refresh every five minutes. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

alokmohan · May 16, 2005

Anyway what is wimps as transpires in this discussion?Can you say?

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