CERNs historic discovery of the elusive Higgs boson the subatomic particle thought to be at the root of what gives normal matter its mass may actually represent only a portion of a more complicated and heretofore unexplored particle physics paradigm, say researchers.

After new analysis of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)s Higgs observations, the authors of a paper recently published in the journal Physical Review D crack the door on the possibility that this actual particle detected by CERNs Large Hadron Collider (LHC) may not be fundamental (or point-like). Instead, they argue it could be a composite particle made up of two even smaller techni-quarks, bound by a theoretical Technicolor force. Even so, much of the particle physics community still needs convincing. The idea of such a new Technicolor force has been around for more than three decades and appears to have worn out its welcome among many theoretical physicists. Thats likely in part because it would require a new force of nature, which to many may seem ad hoc.

In contrast to protons and neutrons that are made up of quark particles, bound by natures fundamental strong nuclear force, particle physicists say that the force that would hold such techni-quarks together could not be one of the existing known forces of nature. Thats because neither gravity, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force nor the strong nuclear force are strong enough to do so.

[The paper] points out that the particle we discovered at CERN might not turn out to be the simple particle predicted in the Standard Model, but a similar particle predicted by a different theory called Technicolor, UCLA particle physicist Jay Hauser, now on assignment as a Geneva-based CERN project manager, told Forbes.

An example of simulated data modeled for the CMS particle detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Here, following a collision of two protons, a Higgs boson is produced which decays into two jets of hadrons and two electrons. The lines represent the possible paths of particles produced by the proton-proton collision in the detector while the energy these particles deposit is shown in blue. (Credit: Wikipedia)

The key to the Higgs particle is the Higgs field itself which has been compared to cosmic molasses. Particles which have mass interact with this unseen field of Higgs particles. And the more mass a given particle has, the more it interacts.

But the Higgs boson has only been measured to a certain precision at the energy levels CERN is currently using. Theorists are quick to point out that there may be more than one Higgs boson or even that the Higgs boson as CERN has currently probed it at energies of 125 Giga electron Volts (125 GeV), is not sufficiently high to definitively say whether this new particle is composite.

Even so, Mads Toudal Frandsen, one of the studys co-authors and a particle physicist at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, told Forbes it will come as a surprise to some how close the properties of a Techni-Higgs can be to those of CERNs Higgs particle. He notes that although Technicolor remains a time-honored idea for the origin of mass, it has been abandoned by most of the community.

The paper studies CERN findings in the light of a Technicolor Higgs, said Frandsen. This paper demonstrates that a Techni-Higgs can look very much like a Standard Model Higgs and thus potentially be what LHC has found.

Critics of this Physical Review D paper, however, point out that the authors techni-Higgs arguments are neither provable nor disprovable.

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CERN's Higgs Discovery As Portal To New 'Technicolor' Physics