Monday, February 18, 2013
Room 306 (Hynes Convention Center)
If discovered in 2012, the Higgs would represent the first fundamental force to be found for over a century, responsible for the shortest-range interactions of nature, occurring everywhere to give mass to a dozen varieties of elementary particles. A discovery would raise questions that could lead to a more unified description of the quantum world that includes gravity. If the Higgs is excluded, physics would be back to the drawing board. After 40 years of waiting, physicists begin a new drama whose twists and turns may lead to a radically new view of the subatomic world.