[zilsolley3]

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldN...77L5L420110822

Does anyone understand this particle physics Higgs boson stuff? Can you explain it to me?

[actrisski]

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldN...77L5L420110822

Does anyone understand this particle physics Higgs boson stuff? Can you explain it to me?

Well I hope you know the Physics model of an atom. Basically all atoms consists of 3 atomic particles Protons, electrons and Neutrons(Hydrogen doesnt have neutron). This model was found almost a century back by Physicists like Neils Bohr, Einstein etc etc. Now Physicists have found that these atomic particles are further made up of smaller sub atomic particles like : Bosons, Leptons and Quarks. Basically they accelerate atoms and smash them in big Colliders and study how the atom disintegrate.

From what I understand(from wikipedia) this 'Higgs boson' is a hypothetical subatomic particle which helps to explain the 'Standard model' of the atom. But now the physicists think there is no such thing as a Higgs boson due to lack of conclusive evidence. So basically their standard model theory went up in smoke i guess. The rest of the details just went over my head, lol. Didnt understand a thing.!

[u8MmZFmF]

The standard model hasn't gone up in smoke yet. All that's happened is that there are now doubts in regards to the existence of the Higgs Boson, which would challenge some of the assumptions of the Standard Model, though as far as I know the entire theory would not be trashed because of that (I'm no physicist though, so perhaps someone better informed could comment).

What I find interesting though, is that the current theory posits multiple elementary particles. Now, previous "elementary particles" have been shown to be divisible in the past, so this doesn't necessarily confirm anything, but I'm just wondering what the scholars of Theology stated on that issue.

My understanding is that they've held that all matter consists of 1 elementary particle at the deepest level of division. Anyone who has studied Aqeeda would be greatly appreciated if they could comment.

[johnuioyer]

As I understand it, the Higgs boson is the particle that causes "mass" in the sense of things having inertia. Or so they say.

They're working hard on String Theory (the One Elementary Particle), but I understand they're a bit stuck; the mathematics is really hard so they approximate, but this results in predictions being quite vague and not provable by experiment. And it's been that way for 15 years.

[zilsolley3]

I know physics at the university level, but none of this advanced theoretical stuff. To me, it's always seemed like stuff only really good mathematicians can understand. This is unlike chemistry or biology, where it's possible to give simplified explanations of concepts without going into the math.

The part I didn't understand was about the Higgs boson giving mass to matter. How is mass defined in contemporary physics (I'm talking on the subatomic level, not the Newtonian definition)? I hope people will continue the discussion. Not a lot of time now due to Ramadan, but hopefully afterward. I just bought a couple of books by Martin Rees which I hope will cast some light on some of this stuff for me.

I wouldn't really care about it, but I want to know how much of what physicists say is true because of the philosophical implications.

[johnuioyer]

What I know comes from popular science books, they give an overview without plunging into the maths. I bought three books, spaced spaced five years apart and it seems String Theory has not advanced much in that time.

It is thought that there is a field called the Higgs Field which permeates all space and time, and it gives a sort of "viscosity" to movements so that you need to apply force to get acceleration, thus defining "inertia" and "mass" in terms of resistance to acceleration. It's been a while since I read the books, but it seems the Higgs Boson is the means by which matter interacts with this Higgs Field. The Boson is exchanged between matter particles and the field.

A lot of the cutting edge stuff is speculative. Some may ask, "Why bother?"

Because the potential jackpot is HUGE. The entire field of semiconductor technology, and lasers, and nuclear physics, and much of electronics arose from quantum mechanics. They're hunting for another Big Paradigm with tremendous economic potential, exploring many theories at the same time. What if they find a shortcut to free energy? Or something else quite unimaginable?

Of course they won't benefit much if they just license the discovery out to China and India...

[xFZ3k8Mw]

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldN...77L5L420110822

Does anyone understand this particle physics Higgs boson stuff? Can you explain it to me?

There are four type of forces and hence four type of interactions in nature.
You are familiar with electromagnetic force-the force between charged particles and the like.
You are familiar with gravitational force-the force responsible for falling of apples or the earth goind around the sun or the moon going around the earth.
Then there are strong and weak nuclear forces. Both of them acts inside the nucleus of atoms. Nucleus is very small. Hence both of them are called short range forces.

To describe the first one-the electromagnetic interactions you use electric and magnetic fields and the theory perfected by J.C.Maxwell around the time when Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband was being established. This has to be taken one step further to incorporate some thing called quantum mechanics. Leave it here for the time being.

The second interaction, the gravitational interaction in the simplest form is described by Newton's law of gravitation. This much is taught in High school itself. For a better description of the same we need Einstein's General theory of Relativity (GTR). This usually can be taught only at Post Graduate (PG) level. Leave this also-Higgs is some where else.

The weak and strong interaction that act at very small places can not at all be described in a way that Maxwell used for electromagnetic case and Einstein (Or Newton for simpler case) for gravitational case. In case of strong and weak interactions we necessarily need the thing mentioned earlier-quantum mechanics.

In fact we need a sophisticated version of quantum mechanics called quantum field theory. If you combine Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity (this is not not the GTR mentioned above!) with quantum mechanics then you end up in quantum field theory. This is the technology that is used to understand weak and strong interactions. (We have to use the same thing for the best description of electromagnetic interactions also.)

So various things, difficult things, have to be mixed together to get there.

So suppose you want to understand weak interactions then in that quest you need this Higgs field. But I'll cover that story in a similar post if you are still with me.
Wassalam

PS: Also posted here.

[TaxSheemaSter]

There are four type of forces and hence four type of interactions in nature.
You are familiar with electromagnetic force-the force between charged particles and the like.
You are familiar with gravitational force-the force responsible for falling of apples or the earth goind around the sun or the moon going around the earth.
Then there are strong and weak nuclear forces. Both of them acts inside the nucleus of atoms. Nucleus is very small. Hence both of them are called short range forces.

To describe the first one-the electromagnetic interactions you use electric and magnetic fields and the theory perfected by J.C.Maxwell around the time when Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband was being established. This has to be taken one step further to incorporate some thing called quantum mechanics. Leave it here for the time being.

The second interaction, the gravitational interaction in the simplest form is described by Newton's law of gravitation. This much is taught in High school itself. For a better description of the same we need Einstein's General theory of Relativity (GTR). This usually can be taught only at Post Graduate (PG) level. Leave this also-Higgs is some where else.

The weak and strong interaction that act at very small places can not at all be described in a way that Maxwell used for electromagnetic case and Einstein (Or Newton for simpler case) for gravitational case. In case of strong and weak interactions we necessarily need the thing mentioned earlier-quantum mechanics.

In fact we need a sophisticated version of quantum mechanics called quantum field theory. If you combine Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity (this is not not the GTR mentioned above!) with quantum mechanics then you end up in quantum field theory. This is the technology that is used to understand weak and strong interactions. (We have to use the same thing for the best description of electromagnetic interactions also.)

So various things, difficult things, have to be mixed together to get there.

So suppose you want to understand weak interactions then in that quest you need this Higgs field. But I'll cover that story in a similar post if you are still with me.
Wassalam

PS: Also posted here.

Bismillah

Alhamdulillah Allah SWT has blessed you with the way you write things. I enjoy reading your blog. Let Allah SWT bless you. Amin
Also when your blog Thus spake shaikh was opened, it gives the malware threat and the website shuts down. I hope you can fix it inshaaAllah

[xFZ3k8Mw]

Bismillah

Alhamdulillah Allah SWT has blessed you with the way you write things. I enjoy reading your blog. Let Allah SWT bless you. Amin
Also when your blog Thus spake shaikh was opened, it gives the malware threat and the website shuts down. I hope you can fix it inshaaAllah

for kind words and pointing out the malware problem-let me see what I can do.
Wassalam

PS: What browser are you using?

[zilsolley3]

I don't have the background to follow you completely, but I think I understand the gist of what you are saying. Please continue when you have a chance, inshallah.

[TaxSheemaSter]

for kind words and pointing out the malware problem-let me see what I can do.
Wassalam

PS: What browser are you using?

Bismilalh
I am using google chrome. This is what I get

Warning: Something's Not Right Here!
anonahouse.blogspot.com contains content from www.deoband.org, a site known to distribute malware. Your computer might catch a virus if you visit this site.
Google has found malicious software may be installed onto your computer if you proceed. If you've visited this site in the past or you trust this site, it's possible that it has just recently been compromised by a hacker. You should not proceed, and perhaps try again tomorrow or go somewhere else.
We have already notified www.deoband.org that we found malware on the site. For more about the problems found on www.deoband.org, visit the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page.

[TaxSheemaSter]

for kind words and pointing out the malware problem-let me see what I can do.
Wassalam

PS: What browser are you using?

Bismilalh
Also couple of days ago I opened deoband website and it was ok but yesterday or day before yesterday it gave me the warning of virus. So you check inshaaAllah

[xFZ3k8Mw]

(Continued from Post Number 7 Above)

So if we look at the four fundamental interactions electromagnetic, gravitational, weak and strong then Higgs makes its grand entry in the context of weak interactions. These are not the day to day type of experience interactions. Electromagnetic interactions are experienced daily-when you comb your dry hair you feel the electric charge, you do not touch high tension lines, you know magnets. Gravitational interactions are also familiar-you do not want to fall even on the floor. Weak and strong interactions are not so common. But they are not uncommon too-at least now a days. Radioactivity is all about them. So is cancer therapy using Cobalt-60 source. So is nuclear power. So is atom bomb. So is hydrogen (also called thermo-nuclear device in general). So if you have studies even little bit of history of discovery of radioactivity then you know about weak interactions. When we talh about Fukushima Disaster in recent Tsunami in Japan, or Chernobyl Disaster or Three Mile Island Disaster then we are talking about nuclear interactions, that is, weak and strong interactions. In fact mostly weak interactions.

Since these interactions occur in rather special circumstances, mainly deep inside the nucleus there study understanding too was bit late. The currently acceptable theory of weak interactions, the Salam-Weinberg Model, was proposed in the year of Six-Day-War between Egypt-Syria-Jordan and Israel, that is 1967. Better understanding of strong interactions dawned in the year of Yaum Kippur war, that is 1973. That is also the year when the Salam-Weinberg model was experimentally verified-before that it was just a proposed model-it could have been disproved by experiments. But that 1973 verification was verification of only one of the predictions of Salam-Weinberg Model. Over the years other, and much more spectacular, predictions of Salam-Weinberg model have been verified-one after another and yet another. Last one was in 1995-the discovery of a new particle called the top quark. It sounds so long ago-from the point of view of progress of modern society. One last piece of Salam-Weinberg Model remains to be checked experimentally and that of course is the new filed or particle called Higgs.

Salam-Weinberg Model is part of the so called Standard Model of particle Interactions. The Standard Model is just the name given to Salam-Weinberg Model combined with the theory of strong interactions. There is a name for the latter theory too but why should we bother about that name when we just want to talk about weak interactions-the locality in particle world where Higgs resides.

Actualy Salam-Weinberg model is not only a theory of weak interactions it also incorporates the earlier theory of electromagnetic interactions. Not Maxwell's theory but the finer version that includes quantum mechanics.
This combination of two theories is called unification-the current fad in particle physics. But I digress.

I need one more post to round it up but I'll check whether you have gone to sleep or not.

wassalam

PS: Also posted here.

[xFZ3k8Mw]

Bismilalh
Also couple of days ago I opened deoband website and it was ok but yesterday or day before yesterday it gave me the warning of virus. So you check inshaaAllah

My preliminary investigation too is pointing to the fact that Deoband Dot Org is the site that has been attacked. I'll try to remove the material from there asap but I do not remember having borrowed much from there. I feel irritated that our beloved web site has been targeted by the filthy people.
Wassalam

[minowz]

My preliminary investigation too is pointing to the fact that Deoband Dot Org is the site that has been attacked. I'll try to remove the material from there asap but I do not remember having borrowed much from there. I feel irritated that our beloved web site has been targeted by the filthy people.
Wassalam

سلام عليكم
Here is a diagnostic page for deoband.org

What is the current listing status for deoband.org?

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 8 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 8 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2011-08-22, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2011-08-22.

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including counter-wordpress.com/.

This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS11798 (ACEDATACENTERS).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, deoband.org did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.
–––––
والسلام

[xFZ3k8Mw]

@AbuHaris,
I have opened a thread for it here and brother Azhar too has posted the Google diagnostics
Wassalam