Philosophy
"Scientists want Higgs boson to be renamed"
Arpril 21st, 2013
The Hindu Business Line
What’s in a name? A lot — at least as far as the Higgs boson is concerned.
Some leading scientists want the elusive God particle, called Higgs boson after its discoverer Peter Higgs, to be renamed in order to also credit the other researchers involved in its discovery.
Scientists argue that Higgs, the genial but reclusive Edinburgh University physicist who predicted the existence of the ‘God particle’ in a 1964 paper, was just one of six researchers involved. The others should also be credited, they say.
A variety of names have been suggested as replacements.
One idea proposed is to call it the Brout-Englert-Higgs, or BEH, particle, to reflect the roles of Belgian physicists Robert Brout and Francois Englert, whose paper on the topic came out just before that of Higgs, The Sunday Times reported.
Another is to rename it the BEHGHK (pronounced Berk) particle, with the extra letters representing Gerald Guralnik, Carl Hagen and Tom Kibble, based at Imperial College London, whose joint paper followed Higgs’s by a few weeks.
“It should not be called the Higgs. The rest of us are fighting not just for our ego but for our place in the annals of physics,” Hagen said.
The debate has raised tensions within the physics community. Last month, at a conference organised by The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern), speakers were told not to use that name but instead refer to the BEH boson.
The programme for the meeting at Moriond, in France, also referred to it as the SM Scalar boson.
“Higgs is the wrong name for this particle because the paper where the mechanism and structure was first set out was ours,” said Englert, who chaired the session at which the particle was discussed.
“Maybe the name should not matter but it is not pleasant if you have done important work to be ignored. What’s more, Brout was my friend and should not be forgotten,” Englert said.
Others scientists are not so concerned.
“The name Higgs boson has been in common use for 40 years and it is silly to try to change it. There is no chance that any of the longer names on offer will ever be in everyday use.
They are just too clumsy,” Kibble, now emeritus professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College, said.
Higgs, 83, could not be contacted, the report said.
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Philosophy
Change the name?...Higgs boson
"Scientists want Higgs boson to be renamed"
Arpril 21st, 2013
The Hindu Business Line
What’s in a name? A lot — at least as far as the Higgs boson is concerned.
Some leading scientists want the elusive God particle, called Higgs boson after its discoverer Peter Higgs, to be renamed in order to also credit the other researchers involved in its discovery.
Scientists argue that Higgs, the genial but reclusive Edinburgh University physicist who predicted the existence of the ‘God particle’ in a 1964 paper, was just one of six researchers involved. The others should also be credited, they say.
A variety of names have been suggested as replacements.
One idea proposed is to call it the Brout-Englert-Higgs, or BEH, particle, to reflect the roles of Belgian physicists Robert Brout and Francois Englert, whose paper on the topic came out just before that of Higgs, The Sunday Times reported.
Another is to rename it the BEHGHK (pronounced Berk) particle, with the extra letters representing Gerald Guralnik, Carl Hagen and Tom Kibble, based at Imperial College London, whose joint paper followed Higgs’s by a few weeks.
“It should not be called the Higgs. The rest of us are fighting not just for our ego but for our place in the annals of physics,” Hagen said.
The debate has raised tensions within the physics community. Last month, at a conference organised by The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern), speakers were told not to use that name but instead refer to the BEH boson.
The programme for the meeting at Moriond, in France, also referred to it as the SM Scalar boson.
“Higgs is the wrong name for this particle because the paper where the mechanism and structure was first set out was ours,” said Englert, who chaired the session at which the particle was discussed.
“Maybe the name should not matter but it is not pleasant if you have done important work to be ignored. What’s more, Brout was my friend and should not be forgotten,” Englert said.
Others scientists are not so concerned.
“The name Higgs boson has been in common use for 40 years and it is silly to try to change it. There is no chance that any of the longer names on offer will ever be in everyday use.
They are just too clumsy,” Kibble, now emeritus professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College, said.
Higgs, 83, could not be contacted, the report said.
- Physicists Confirm They Found And Killed The 'god Particle'
Virtually since the inception of its moniker, many atheists have hated the fact that the Higgs Boson, a theoretical subatomic particle thought to be responsible for attributing mass to matter, has been referred to as the "God Particle." But as The Onion...
- Deceased--gerald Guralnik
Gerald Guralnik September 17th, 1936 to April 26th, 2014 "Gerald Guralnik, 77, a ‘God Particle’ Pioneer, Dies" by William Yardlet May 3rd, 2014 The New York Times Gerald Guralnik, one of six pioneering physicists who in the 1960s came up with a theory...
- We Haven't Wet Ourselves Yet--the Higgs Boson
"This Just in: Higgs Boson Still Boring" by Adam Mann March 6th, 2013 Wired Physicists from around the world are convening this week and next in Italy at the annual Rencontres de Moriond conference to discuss the latest in particle physics and cosmology....
- Standard Physics Model Is On The Line
"End of Higgs Search Will Confirm or Refute the Standard Model of Physics 'Within Months'" by Alexis Madrigal July 24th, 2011 The Atlantic The number one particle on physicists most-wanted list, the Higgs boson, has played a key role in our...
- "the Atom Smashers"--eccentric
Now I know why they ran this so late last night. "The Atom Smashers" was a study of eccentric physicists and the race to discover the Higgs Boson--overall somewhat boring. It is a small world of theoretical physicists and the question here, especially...