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A Great Triumph in 21st Century Particle Physics: the Discovery of a New Particle & the Aftermath (by Huping Hu, Maoxin Wu)
On July 4, 2012, CERRN announced discovery of a new particle. Congratulations to CERN, Fermilab, people at LHC, people at Tevatron and all the theoretical and experimental physicists who made this discovery possible over the last 50 years! In the meantime, let us all be cautious and open-minded about the new discovery since there are still unsettling issues. After introductions of Higgs discovery related articles in this issue, we shall focus our attentions on some of the phobic, allergic or even hostile but important issues related to the new discovery. The topics covered includes: Antidote to 20th Century phobia; “higgson” as the name of the new particle; quantum gravity & table top experiments; higgson as the shadow of a fundamental entity; and the 2012 phenomena & and Dawn of a Brave New World. This Editorial ends with a “mathematical” poem entitled “The Real ‘God Particle’ Please Stand Up.”
In this article the focus is on the hadron physics. The applications are to various anomalies discovered during years.
1. Application of the many-sheeted space-time concept in hadron physics. The many-sheeted space-time concept involving also the notion of field body can be applied to hadron physics to explain findings which are difficult to understand in the framework of standard model. The spin puzzle of proton is a two decades old mystery with no satisfactory explanation in QCD framework. The notion of hadronic space-time sheet which could be imagined as string like rotating object suggests a possible approach to the spin puzzle. The entanglement between valence quark spins and the angular momentum states of the rotating hadronic space-time sheet could allow natural explanation for why the average valence quark spin vanishes. The notion of Pomeron was invented during the Bootstrap era preceding QCD to solve difficulties of Regge approach. There are experimental findings suggesting the reincarnation of this concept. The possibility that the newly born concept of Pomeron of Regge theory might be identified as the sea of perturbative QCD in TGD framework is considered. Geometrically Pomeron would correspond to hadronic space-time sheet without valence quarks.
The discovery that the charge radius of proton deduced from the muonic version of hydrogen atom is about 4 per cent smaller than from the radius deduced from hydrogen atom is in complete conflict with the cherished belief that atomic physics belongs to the museum of science. The title of the article {\it Quantum electrodynamics-a chink in the armour?} of the article published in Nature expresses well the possible implications, which might actually go well extend beyond QED. TGD based model for the findings relies on the notion of color magnetic body carrying both electromagnetic and color fields and extends well beyond the size scale of the particle. This gives rather detailed constraints on the model of the magnetic body. The soft photon production rate in hadronic reactions is by an average factor of about four higher than expected. In the article soft photons assignable to the decays of $Z^0$ to quark-antiquark pairs. This anomaly has not reached the attention of particle physics which seems to be the fate of anomalies quite generally nowadays: large extra dimensions and black-holes at LHC are much more sexy topics of study than the anomalies about which both existing and speculative theories must remain silent. TGD based model is based on the notion of electric flux tube.
2. Quark gluon plasma
QCD predicts that at sufficiently high collision energies de-confinement phase transitions for quarks should take place leading to quark gluon plasma. In heavy ion collisions at RHIC something like this was found to happen. The properties of the quark gluon plasma were however not what was expected. There are long range correlations and the plasma seems to behave like perfect fluid with minimal viscosity/entropy ratio. The lifetime of the plasma phase is longer than expected and its density much higher than QCD would suggest. The experiments at LHC for proton proton collisions suggest also the presence of quark gluon plasma with similar properties. TGD suggests an interpretation in terms of long color magnetic flux tubes containing the plasma. The confinement to color magnetic flux tubes would force higher density. The preferred extremals of K\"ahler action have interpretation as defining a flow of perfect incompressible fluid and the perfect fluid property is broken only by the many-sheeted structure of space-time with smaller space-time sheets assignable to sub-$CD$s representing radiative corrections. The phase in question corresponds to a non-standard value of Planck constant: this could also explain why the lifetime of the phase is longer than expected.
Particle Massivation in TGD Universe (by Matti Pitkänen): http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/278
This article represents the most recent view about particle massivation in TGD framework. This topic is necessarily quite extended since many several notions and new mathematics is involved. Indeed, the calculation of particle masses involves five chapters of [11]. In the following my goal is to provide an up-to-date summary whereas the chapters are unavoidably a story about evolution of ideas.
The identification of the spectrum of light particles reduces to two tasks: the construction of massless states and the identification of the states which remain light in p-adic thermodynamics. The latter task is relatively straightforward. The thorough understanding of the massless spectrum requires however a real understanding of quantum TGD. It would be also highly desirable to understand why p-adic thermodynamics combined with p-adic length scale hypothesis works. A lot of progress has taken place in these respects during last years.
Zero energy ontology providing a detailed geometric view about bosons and fermions, the generalization of $S$-matrix to what I call $M$-matrix, the notion of finite measurement resolution characterized in terms of inclusions of von Neumann algebras, the derivation of p-adic coupling constant evolution and p-adic length scale hypothesis from the first principles, the realization that the counterpart of Higgs mechanism involves generalized eigenvalues of the modified Dirac operator: these are represent important steps of progress during last years with a direct relevance for the understanding of particle spectrum and massivation although the predictions of p-adic thermodynamics are not affected.
During 2010 a further progress took place. These steps of progress relate closely to zero energy ontology, bosonic emergence, the realization of the importance of twistors in TGD, and to the discovery of the weak form of electric-magnetic duality. Twistor approach and the understanding of the Chern-Simons Dirac operator served as a midwife in the process giving rise to the birth of the idea that all particles at fundamental level are massless and that both ordinary elementary particles and string like objects emerge from them. Even more, one can interpret virtual particles as being composed of these massless on mass shell particles assignable to wormhole throats so that four-momentum conservation poses extremely powerful constraints on loop integrals and makes them manifestly finite.
The weak form of electric-magnetic duality led to the realization that elementary particles correspond to bound states of two wormhole throats with opposite K\"ahler magnetic charges with second throat carrying weak isospin compensating that of the fermion state at second wormhole throat. Both fermions and bosons correspond to wormhole contacts: in the case of fermions topological condensation generates the second wormhole throat. This means that altogether four wormhole throats are involved with both fermions, gauge bosons, and gravitons (for gravitons this is unavoidable in any case). For p-adic thermodynamics the mathematical counterpart of string corresponds to a wormhole contact with size of order $CP_2$ size with the role of its ends played by wormhole throats at which the signature of the induced 4-metric changes. The key observation is that for massless states the throats of spin 1 particle must have opposite three-momenta so that gauge bosons are necessarily massive, even photon and other particles usually regarded as massless must have small mass which in turn cancels infrared divergences and give hopes about exact Yangian symmetry generalizing that of ${\cal N}=4$ SYM. Besides this there is weak "stringy" contribution to the mass assignable to the magnetic flux tubes connecting the two wormhole throats at the two space-time sheets.
Overall View about TGD from Particle Physics Perspective (by Matti Pitkänen): http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/275
Topological Geometrodynamics is able to make rather precise and often testable predictions. In this and two other articles I want to describe the recent over all view about the aspects of quantum TGD relevant for particle physics. In the first article I will concentrate the heuristic picture about TGD with emphasis on particle physics. First I will represent briefly the basic ontology: the motivations for TGD and the notion of many-sheeted space-time, the concept of zero energy ontology, the identification of dark matter in terms of hierarchy of Planck constant which now seems to follow as a prediction of quantum TGD, the motivations for p-adic physics and its basic implications, and the identification of space-time surfaces as generalized Feynman diagrams and the basic implications of this identification.
Symmetries of quantum TGD are discussed. Besides the basic symmetries of the imbedding space geometry allowing to geometrize standard model quantum numbers and classical fields there are many other symmetries. General Coordinate Invariance is especially powerful in TGD framework allowing to realize quantum classical correspondence and implies effective 2-dimensionality realizing strong form of holography. Super-conformal symmetries of super string models generalize to conformal symmetries of 3-D light-like 3-surfaces and one can understand the generalization of Equivalence Principle in terms of coset representations for the two super Virasoro algebras associated with lightlike boundaries of so called causal diamonds defined as intersections of future and past directed lightcones ($CD$s) and with light-like 3-surfaces. Super-conformal symmetries imply generalization of the space-time supersymmetry in TGD framework consistent with the supersymmetries of minimal supersymmetric variant of the standard model. Twistorial approach to gauge theories has gradually become part of quantum TGD and the natural generalization of the Yangian symmetry identified originally as symmetry of ${\cal N}=4$ SYMs is postulated as basic symmetry of quantum TGD.
The so called weak form of electric-magnetic duality has turned out to have extremely far reaching consequences and is responsible for the recent progress in the understanding of the physics predicted by TGD. The duality leads to a detailed identification of elementary particles as composite objects of massless particles and predicts new electro-weak physics at LHC. Together with a simple postulate about the properties of preferred extremals of K\"ahler action the duality allows also to realize quantum TGD as almost topological quantum field theory giving excellent hopes about integrability of quantum TGD.
There are two basic visions about the construction of quantum TGD. Physics as infinite-dimensional K\"ahler geometry of world of classical worlds (WCW) endowed with spinor structure and physics as generalized number theory. These visions are briefly summarized as also the practical constructing involving the concept of Dirac operator. As a matter fact, the construction of TGD involves three Dirac operators. The K\"ahler Dirac equation holds true in the interior of space-time surface and its solutions havea natural interpretation in terms of description of matter, in particular condensed matter. Chern-Simons Dirac action is associated with the light-like 3-surfaces and space-like 3-surfaces at ends of space-time surface at light-like boundaries of $CD$. One can assign to it a generalized eigenvalue equation and the matrix valued eigenvalues correspond to the the action of Dirac operator on momentum eigenstates.
Momenta are however not usual momenta but pseudo-momenta very much analogous to region momenta of twistor approach. The third Dirac operator is associated with super Virasoro generators and super Virasoro conditions define Dirac equation in WCW. These conditions characterize zero energy states as modes of WCW spinor fields and code for the generalization of $S$-matrix to a collection of what I call $M$-matrices defining the rows of unitary $U$-matrix defining unitary process.
Twistor approach has inspired several ideas in quantum TGD during the last years and it seems that the Yangian symmetry and the construction of scattering amplitudes in terms of Grassmannian integrals generalizes to TGD framework. This is due to ZEO allowing to assume that all particles have massless fermions as basic building blocks. ZEO inspires the hypothesis that incoming and outgoing particles are bound states of fundamental fermions associated with wormhole throats. Virtual particles would also consist of on mass shell massless particles but without bound state constraint. This implies very powerful constraints on loop diagrams and there are excellent hopes about their finiteness. Twistor approach also inspires the conjecture that quantum TGD allows also formulation in terms of 6-dimensional holomorphic surfaces in the product $CP_3\times CP_3$ of two twistor spaces and general arguments allow to identify the partial different equations satisfied by these surfaces.
Table of Contents: http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/issue/view/32
Editorial
The Higgs Boson and the Power of Consistency (by Philip E. Gibbs)
A Great Triumph in 21st Century Particle Physics: the Discovery of a New Particle & the Aftermath (by Huping Hu, Maoxin Wu)
Special Reports
Higgs Live, viXra Combinations and Congratulations - It's an Boson (by Philip E. Gibbs)
Tevatron Squeeze 2.9 Sigma Higgs Signal (by Philip E. Gibbs)
Higgs Essays
A Review of Higgs Particle Physics (by Lawrence B. Crowell)
Is It Really Higgs? (by Matti Pitkänen)
The Higgs Boson (by B. G. Sidharth)
Crossroads on Way to Single Mathematical Particle (by Dainis Zeps)
Articles
Are Unofficial Higgs Combinations Valid? Unofficial Higgs Discovery with 2011 Data and H --> WW Revisited (by Philip E. Gibbs)
Decomposing Electromagnetism's Four-potential into Quantizable and non-Quantizable Parts via Conserved Spacelike Projections of the Four-current (by Steven K. Kauffmann)
Preferred Extremals of Kahler Action & Solutions of the Modified Dirac Equation? (by Matti Pitkänen)
Hunting the Higgs Boson Using the Cholesky Decomposition of an Indefinite Matrix (by John R Smith, Milan Nikolic, Stephen P. Smith)
The Zero-mass Renormalization Group Differential Equations and Limit Cycles in Non-smooth Initial Value Problems (by Xiao-Jun Yang)
Doppler Effect of Time and Space (by Giovanni Zazella)
Poll
Who Will/should Get the Nobel Prize for the Higgs Boson? (by Philip E. Gibbs)
News
Post-Higgs LHC Update (by Philip E. Gibbs)
Is the Master Formula for the U-matrix Finally Found? (by Matti Pitkänen): Abstract: In zero energy ontology U-matrix replaces S-matrix as the fundamental object characterizing the predictions of the theory. U-matrix is defined between zero energy states and its orthogonal rows define what I call M-matrices, which are analogous to thermal S-matrices of thermal QFTs. M-matrix defines the time-like entanglement coefficients between positive and negative energy parts of the zero energy state. M-matrices identifiable as hermitian square roots of density matrices. In this article it is shown that M-matrices form in a natural manner a generalization of Kac-Moody type algebra acting as symmetries of M-matrices and U-matrix and that the space of zero energy states has therefore Lie algebra structure so that quantum states act as their own symmetries. The generators of this algebra are multilocal with respect to partonic 2-surfaces just as Yangian algebras are multilocal with respect to points of Minkowski space and therefore define generalization of the Yangian algebra appearing in the Grassmannian twijstor approach to N = 4 SUSY. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/227
Is there a Scaled up Variant of Hadron Physics at 0.5 TeV Energy (by Matti Pitkänen): Abstract: p-Adic length scale hypothesis strongly suggests a fractal hierarchy of copies of hadron physics labelled by Mersenne primes. M89 hadron physics whose mass scales relates by a factor 512 to that of ordinary M107hadron physics was predicted already for 15 years ago but only now the TeV energy region has been reached at LHC making possible to test the prediction. Pions of any hadron physics are produced copiously in hadronic reactions and their detection is the most probable manner how the new hadron physics will be discovered if Nature has realized them. Neutral pions produce monochromatic gamma pairs whereas heavy charged pions decay to quark pair or intermediate gauge boson and quark pair. The first evidence -or should we say indication- for the existence of M89 hadron physics has now emerged from CDF which for more than two years ago provided evidence also for the colored excitations of tau lepton and for leptohadron physics. What CDF has observed is evidence for the production of quark antiquark pairs in association with W bosons and the following arguments demonstrate that the interpretation in terms of M89 hadron physics might make sense. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/229
Comparing Combos (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: The Tevatron Higgs Combination is up, so time to compare with my prediction. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/222
Higgs Combination and Fits Revisited (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: Now that the Tevatron Higgs combination is public and I can see how much error there is in the direct combination process, it seems like a good idea to redo my earlier combinations. I know lots of people are interested to see these now to give information about where we stand. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/223
Higgs Combos, Global Fit, the Dead, the Alive & the New (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: If we accept the combination uncertainty estimate and the statistical validity of combining all direct searches with electroweak fits: We indirectly rule out a lone standard model Higgs boson of any mass with no additional BSM physics at 90% confidence, i.e. a fair bit short of conclusively. We directly rule out any standard model Higgs boson at 95% confidence except in the mass ranges 114GeV to 144GeV or 240 GeV to 265 GeV or above 480 GeV. We do not rule out other BSM Higgs-type mechanisms including composite Higgs, technicolor Higgs, Higgs doublets, SUSY Higgs etc. We do not rule out high-mass Higgs bosons above 480 GeV in combination with other BSM physics that could explain electroweak fits and cure theoretical limitations of the SM at higher energies. We see excesses at around 130 GeV to around 160 GeV that could be between two and three sigma level. It might suggest some new physics such as some kind of Higgs particle(s) in this region. However, these are not high levels of statistical significance. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/224
Big Day for Higgs Boson (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: Today at the EPS conference in Grenoble the world’s largest hadron colliders will be revealing the results of their latest searches for the Higgs boson, using data collected up until the last few weeks. We will be posting the plots here as they appear. The individual experiments Dzero, CDF, ATLAS and CMS will each show their all channel combined plots. There will also be separated plots for individual channels and some separate searches for a charged Higgs as predicted in some models such as MSSM. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/218
Higgs Combos (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: Some people have been asking if confidence level plots can be combined now that we have the individual data from Dzero, CDF, ATLAS and CMS. The answer is of course not. You need to combine the underlying event data and all the backgrounds etc., and re-derive the levels from that. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/219
Global Fit Kills (or at least Wounds) the Standard Model (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: A few days ago I showed how to combine the Higgs confidence level plots by adding in inverse square. At the time I did not understand why this worked (I am a bit slow at statistics.) Since then I have looked again at the work on electroweak precision tests and the global fit where you can find the same calculation being done. The inverse square of the 95% confidence level limits is just one-quarter of the Δχ2 estimator. For independent variables these can be directly added to give an overall Δχ2 which can then be mapped back to an overall confidence level limit. This is exactly what I was doing in my combinations. So now I know that these combo plots are essentially correct, neglecting any correlations which should be zero. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/220
Higgs Update from D0 and CDF (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: This is a Higgs Update from D0 and CDF. The small amount of additional data helps to extend the exclusion range, but we will need to see a combination with CDF to get the best limits. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/214
CDF Report 327 GeV Anomaly in 4l Channel (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: In a presentation at EPS-HEP today CFD will show a surprising cluster of 4 events in the 4 lepton “golden channel” consistent with a particle at 327GeV. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/215
Highlights of EPS First Morning (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: Undoubtedly the most talked about presentation so far will be the CDF search for ZZ resonances (Robson) with the below striking peek at 327 GeV. This is the only talk so far that has not seen everything consistent with standard model. The talks themselves have not been broadcast so we only have the slides to go by. It would be nice to know what questions were asked at this one. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/216
The Dawn of a Brave New World in Particle Physics (by Huping Hu, Maoxin Wu): Abstract: This issue of Prespacetime Journal celebrates the great success of LHC and Tevatron through a series of Special Reports written by Philip Gibbs, several Editorials and other regular pieces. All people associated with LHC and Tevatron deserve our special thanks. We are in the super-connected Age of Internet and technological wonders made possible through science. There is no doubt that we are also at the dawn of a brave New World in particle physics and science overall. Every genuine truth seeker should seize this moment. Here we briefly discuss: (1) the great unknown in light of the great success of LHC and Tevatron, (2) Higgsless models published in this journal; and (3) the search for the genuine “God Particle.” What we have witnessed so far is the rise of collaborative spirit in physics. We urge all genuine truth seekers to work together to make the brave New World a reality. We conclude with a poem “A Praise to Prespacetime.” http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/210
Physics in a Higgsless World (by Lawrence B. Crowell): Abstract: The ATLAS and CMS data is giving a 2-σ exclusion on the light Higgs fields in the 110 -140GeV energy scale. This is a 95% probability of no signal from the Higgs field. The data so far is lack luster for those who promote Higgsian theories, but we are at about 1/1000 the total data expected, so there are lot more to come. In light of the foregoing, the author discusses here Higgsless alternatives. Clearly the time we live in currently is interesting, and we may be in a time where our understanding of the foundations of physics might radically change. The one advantage of living in a time where a lot of physical theory is falsified is that it clears the way for different modes of thought. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/211
The Aftermath of Europhysics 2011 (by Matti Pitkänen): Abstract: In this Guest Editorial, some alternative visions about the physics after Europhysics 2011 are discussed. http://prespacetime.com/index.php/pst/article/view/212
[Note: This piece is from 2011 but still relevant] The Dawn of a Brave New World in Fundamental Physics (by Huping Hu, Maoxin Wu) : Abstract: Max Planck once said “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” The current issue of Prespacetime Journal V2(7), is celebrating the great successes of LHC and Tevatron through a series of Special Reports written by Philip Gibbs, several Editorials and other regular pieces. Here we share some of that excitement with the dear readers of SGJ. We are in the super-connected Age of Internet and technological wonders made possible through science. There is no doubt that we are also at the dawn of a brave New World in fundamental physics and science overall. Every genuine truth seeker should seize this moment. Here we briefly discuss: (1) the great unknown in light of the great success of LHC and Tevatron, (2) Higgsless models published in Prespacetime Journal; and (3) the search for the genuine “God Particle.” What we have witnessed so far is the rise of collaborative spirit in science. We urge all genuine truth seekers to work together to make the brave New World a reality. We conclude with a poem “A Praise to GOD.” http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/121
