Rice U. physicist available to discuss Large Hadron Collider results

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jade Boyd
713-348-6778
jadeboyd@rice.edu

Rice U. physicist available to discuss Large Hadron Collider results
Padley can comment on direct coupling of Higgs boson, bottom quark

Rice University particle physicist Paul Padley, one of the scientific team leaders at the Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC) Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, is available to discuss the latest findings about the Higgs boson.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced today that both the CMS and ATLAS experiments — the same groups that jointly announced the discovery of the Higgs in 2012 — have each submitted scientific publications reporting definitive evidence of Higgs particles decaying into bottom quarks.

Padley, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice, said the find is extremely important because the direct decay of the Higgs boson to bottom quarks is actually the most frequent of all possible Higgs decays.

“We have to be able to measure the things that we’re pretty confident about before we can go around measuring things that are complete surprises,” Padley said. “The Higgs-to-bottom quark coupling was an extraordinary experimental challenge because many processes can mimic the signature we needed to find.”

Padley can discuss the science behind the Higgs decay and the role he and others from Rice, including students, played in the discovery, and he can explain the scientific challenges involved in finding and verifying the evidence of the decay.

The new observation, together with earlier evidence that the Higgs couples to both top quarks and tau leptons, represents important steps toward a full understanding of the Higgs boson, but Padley said it will likely take another decade to “really sort out, in detail, what is going on with the Higgs.”

Padley said physicists working at the LHC hope to find new physics that update our understanding of nature, and a detailed study of the Higgs boson may reveal that new physics.

“We have to be prepared to find new physics at any point along the way,” he said.

The LHC, a massive $6 billion machine that smashes together beams of particles traveling at nearly the speed of light, was built, in part, to find the Higgs, the last observed particle out of 18 that are contained in the set of equations known as the Standard Model that describes the fundamental forces and building blocks of atoms.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7. Rice also has a university backdrop and light kit for Skype interviews.

To schedule an interview with Padley, contact: Jeff Falk, 713-348-6775 or jfalk@rice.edu; or Jade Boyd, 713-348-6778 or jadeboyd@rice.edu.

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