The Higgs Boson: the search for the particle and the role of simulation

Abstract

Answers to pressing questions in high-energy physics may lie in electroweak symmetry breaking, the phenomenon for explaining why the weak and electromagnetic forces are different. From solving the mystery of dark energy to string theory, our entire philosophy depends on the unknown physics at the electroweak scale. The hunt for the elusive Higgs boson has gone on for almost half a century. Its discovery was finally announced on July 4, 2012. The discovery of the Higgs boson is even more significant than often discussed. This grand experimental achievement in the largest, most powerful machine ever built, the Large Hadron Collider, marks a far wider scientific, philosophical and intellectual triumph -- and one that spans human history from the dawn of civilization. It has to do with the idea of symmetry: amazingly, the Higgs boson was predicted to exist not for any physical reasons, but on strictly mathematical grounds based on arcane symmetries usually studied in "pure" mathematics. And the search for these symmetries involves a major quest that began with the Babylonians and Egyptians and continued to the ancient Greeks, the Arabs, medieval Europe, and on through the 19th century to our own time. This talk will begin with a brief overview of particle physics and why the Higgs Boson is so important and how it completes the symmetry. It will then explain how one goes about searching for this particle and expand the critical role simulation efforts played not only in the final analysis but also in designing the detector systems, which truly are modern marvels. I will discuss with some other highlights from these experiments and what to expect as the LHC gears up to come back on line in early 2015 at its design energy, nearly double its current 8 GeV operating point. Finally, I will close with a few words on particle physics and society and how the search for the perhaps esoteric has benefited society.