A new subatomic particle discovered at the world’s most powerful particle accelerator has been confirmed as a much sought-after Higgs boson.

According to the Standard Model of Physics, the prevailing theory explaining the physical laws of nature, the Higgs boson imparts mass to other particles. The Higgs boson, nicknamed “the God particle” is the only particle in the Standard Model of Physics that had never been observed.

Carleton experts are available to the media to discuss the importance and the implications of this confirmation.

Gerald Oakham, Professor of Particle Physics
Phone: (613) 520-7539
Email: oakham@physics.carleton.ca

Oakham has worked with the 1,800 other physicists on A Toroidal Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Apparatus (ATLAS) to build components for this experiment. He is looking at possible physics signals from ATLAS. Oakham is also searching for ephemeral particles such as the Higgs particles and particles containing the very heavy top quark.

Manuella Vincter, Professor of Particle Physics
Phone: 613 520 2600 ext. 1567
Email:vincter@physics.carleton.ca

Vincter’s primary research focus is on the ATLAS experiment based at the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) laboratory. ATLAS is a particle physics experiment that explores the fundamental nature of matter and the basic forces that shape our universe. The ATLAS detector searches for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons at the highest energies ever produced in a laboratory.

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For more information
Steven Reid
Media Relations Officer
Carleton University
(613) 520-2600, ext. 8718
(613) 240-3305
Steven_Reid3@Carleton.ca

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