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| John Ellis |
Qatar University’s professor of nuclear physics Ilham al-Qaradawi yesterday said that institution was looking to re-open its physics programmes and take advantage of its positron physics laboratory to participate in international research projects.
Al-Qardawi said the QU would like to participate in the European Organisation for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) antimatter and ISOLDE solid state experiments, which both require positron physics laboratories.
The physics department does not currently have any students other than engineering majors, and al-Qardawi said the university was considering looking outside of Qatar for students to re-establish the physics department if they cannot find recruits from within the country.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a seminar held by John Ellis, a physicist at CERN. He confirmed what the media has widely reported as possible evidence of the Higgs Boson particle. The Higgs Boson, according to our current understanding of physics, interacts with other particles, and this interaction is what gives them mass, meaning it is what makes solid objects solid.
Physicists working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland believe that they have identified the particle by its mass, which is estimated to be approximately 125x the mass of a proton, through high-speed atomic collisions.
Ellis said unlocking the secret of the Higgs Boson will confirm one of the missing elements of the Standard Model of nuclear physics, giving us a better understanding of how our universe works.
Ellis also defended the reported finding of neutrinos, a subatomic particle created by radioactive decay or a nuclear reaction, that travel faster than the speed of light. This finding by a joint collaboration between CERN and an Italian laboratory has caused a stir among the scientific community as it would, if proven to be correct, force us to reconsider our current theory that nothing can travel faster than light.
Ellis said that while it’s possible there may still be an unexplained error or cause for this phenomenon, the results have so far stood up to retesting and analysis, and is awaiting confirmation from other independent experiments.
