俄罗斯富豪尤里·米尔纳设立的基础物理学奖12月11日颁发了两个特别奖，各奖300万美元（比NB奖高三倍啊）。 一个给霍金，因为他发现黑洞的霍金辐射、对量子引力以及早期宇宙量子性质的贡献。 一个由大型强子对撞机及CMS和ATLAS两个实验的7名领导人分享，包括Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS); Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela (CMS) and Lyn Evans (LHC)，因为他们在发现疑似希格斯粒子的实验中的领导作用。 获得物理前沿奖的还有一名华人，斯坦福大学的张首晟，因为发现拓扑绝缘体。 Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation Announces Physics Frontiers and New Horizons in Physics Prizes Along with Two Special Prizes Two \$3,000,000 special Fundamental Physics Prizes have been awarded to Stephen Hawking and to seven scientists who led the effort to discover a Higgs-like particle at CERN's Large Hadron Collider The winner of the 2013 Fundamental Physics Prize will be announced at a ceremony at CERN on March 20, 2013 New York and Geneva, 11 December 2012. The Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation Selection Committee, which is comprised of prior recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize and includes Nima Arkani-Hamed, Alan Guth, Alexei Kitaev, Maxim Kontsevich, Andrei Linde, Juan Maldacena, Nathan Seiberg, Ashoke Sen and Edward Witten, is pleased to announce: 1. The laureates of 2013 Physics Frontiers Prize are: Charles Kane, Laurens Molenkamp and Shoucheng Zhang for the theoretical prediction and experimental discovery of topological insulators. Alexander Polyakov for his many discoveries in field theory and string theory including the conformal bootstrap, magnetic monopoles, instantons, confinement/de-confinement, the quantization of strings in non-critical dimensions, gauge/string duality and many others. His ideas have dominated the scene in these fields during the past decades. Joseph Polchinski for his contributions in many areas of quantum field theory and string theory. His discovery of D-branes has given new insights into the nature of string theory and quantum gravity, with consequences including the AdS/CFT correspondence. 2. Laureates of the 2013 Physics Frontiers Prize will become nominees for the 2013 Fundamental Physics Prize. The winner of the Fundamental Physics Prize will be announced by the Selection Committee at a prize ceremony that will take place at CERN on March 20, 2013. 3. The Physics Frontiers Prize laureates who do not go on to be awarded the Fundamental Physics Prize will each receive \$300,000 and will automatically be re-nominated for the Fundamental Physics Prize each year for the next 5 years. 4. The laureates of 2013 New Horizons in Physics Prize are: Niklas Beisert for the development of powerful exact methods to describe a quantum gauge theory and its associated string theory. Davide Gaiotto for far-reaching new insights about duality, gauge theory, and geometry, and especially for his work linking theories in different dimensions in most unexpected ways. Zohar Komargodski for his work on the dynamics of four-dimensional field theories. In particular, his proof (with Schwimmer) of the "a-theorem" has solved a long-standing problem, leading to deep new insights. Each of the laureates will receive \$100,000. 5. In addition, the Selection Committee, foregoing the regular nomination process, announces the laureates of two Special Fundamental Physics Prizes of \$3,000,000 each: One to Stephen Hawking for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes, and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe. One to be shared by the leaders of the LHC project, CMS and ATLAS experiments from the time the LHC was approved by the CERN Council in 1994, including: Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS); Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela (CMS) and Lyn Evans (LHC) for their leadership role in the scientific endeavour that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. 6. All prizes will be funded by the Milner Foundation "Choosing this year's recipients from such a large pool of spectacular nominations was a very difficult task," said Nima Arkani-Hamed, a member of the Selection Committee. "The selected physicists have done transformative work spanning a wide range of areas in fundamental physics. I especially look forward to future breakthroughs from the first recipients of the New Horizons in Physics Prize." "It is a great honour for the LHC’s achievement to be recognised in this way," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "this prize recognizes the work of everyone who has contributed to the project over many years. The Fundamental Physics Prize underlines the value of fundamental physics to society, and I am delighted that the Foundation has chosen to hold its first award ceremony at CERN." "I am very much pleased with the decisions of the Selection Committee," commented Yuri Milner. "I hope that the prizes will bring further recognition to some of the most brilliant minds in the world and the great accomplishments they have produced."
为什么在找到希格斯粒子之前，不能确定它的大致质量，而要在大范围扫描？ 【补充：回复一楼评论涉及到的链接和图： Closing in on the Higgs Boson http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/03/13/closing-in-on-the-higgs-boson/ 】
1）保密工作不怎么样 看来大亚湾中微子结果的保密工作做得还不错，大家都守规矩，公布消息时确实让所有人都吃了一惊。 CMS和ATLAS都是三四千人的合作组，让每个人都守规矩可不容易。高能所物理的规模发展到这份儿上，不知道是登峰造极了，还是前进路上的小高峰？ 2）定调子 对这两个合作组的几千人，以及他们的好朋友，应该有上万人事先知道消息，知道信号的显著度在5倍标准偏差（或者说统计涨落的概率是一千万分之一）。所不知道的是官方公布的调子是什么，用什么词。大亚湾公布结果时，我们讨论了Evidence，Observation，Discovery几个词用哪个，最终用了Observation。ATLAS昨天晚上的排练也在讨论用什么词，最终用了Observation，标准表达是： 发现了一个新的粒子，其性质与希格斯粒子相符。 可能是临时讨论，人多口杂的原因，欧核中心的主页、新闻稿、学术报告中用的词还是比较混乱。 首页上说：Both ATLAS and CMS gave the level of significance of the result as 5 sigma on the scale that particle physicists use to describe the certainty of a discovery. One sigma means the results could be random fluctuations in the data, 3 sigma counts as an observation and a 5-sigma result is a discovery. 3倍标准偏差定义成observation，这叫我怎么向全国人民交待？大亚湾的结果5.2倍标准偏差叫成了Observation。 但是在CMS和ATLAS的学术报告中，还是都用了Observation，并没有如上文说的，叫成discovery（本来就应该差不多的意思）。还有的地方写成“observation of excess”，发现超出，而不是发现了新粒子。据我所知的共识，3倍应该叫Evidence，不够格叫Observation。估计是欧核中心主页笔误。 3）希格斯粒子长什么样？ 挺象过年时放的电光花炮。另几张图象高纺织物，密密麻麻的粒子径迹。 正反质子在7TeV的能量下相撞，撞出一堆乱七八糟的粒子，有可能有希格斯粒子。其中有一小部分比较干净，可以重建出清楚的不变质量峰，适合用来寻找希格斯，如下文。 4）为什么不直接说发现了希格斯粒子？ 希格斯粒子不能稳定存在，在对撞机中只是昙花一现。寻找希格斯粒子，是通过探测它衰变后产生的粒子。比如，它可以衰变到两个伽马光子。伽马光子是可以探测到的。通过探测到的伽马光子的能量和动量，可以重建出这个事例的不变质量。假如不存在希格斯粒子，那么把探测器看到的每个双光子事例的不变质量画出来，就是一条光滑的线。如果存在希格斯粒子，由它衰变而来的两个光子在希格斯的质量附近就存在共振峰，原来光滑的曲线上就会出现一个小鼓包，鼓包的峰值就是希格斯的质量。寻找希格斯粒子，就是寻找这个小鼓包。 希格斯粒子人缘不错，可以衰变成很多很多种粒子。其中有五个道（即5种衰变模式）有可能看出鼓包来。这五个中$H\rightarrow \gamma\gamma$和$H\rightarrow ZZ \rightarrow llll$最干净，$H\rightarrow WW \rightarrow l\nu l\nu$差点儿，因为中微子$\nu$看不见。另外两个更差，本底很大。将这五个道加起来，这次公布的信号显著度都在5倍标准偏差左右。 ATLAS的局部显著性图，横坐标是质量，纵坐标是p-value，即该能量处不存在新粒子导致的事例超出的几率。右边的纵坐标为换算成标准偏差。从图中可以看出在125GeV左右p-value为一千万分之一，对应5倍标准偏差。其它地方小于1.5倍标准偏差，与无新粒子的统计涨落一致。 2011年公布的分析结果，$\gamma\gamma$和$ZZ$看到了鼓包存在的迹象，但WW没看到。假如延续这种现象，前两个道有很清楚的信号表明有新粒子鼓包，但是有一个该有的地方没出现，那么我们只能说，找到了一个新粒子，但这个新粒子也许不是我们想找的，因为它的性质与我们预期的不太一样。 另一张图，一个希格斯粒子衰变成4个电子（即$H\rightarrow ZZ \rightarrow llll$，这里$l$可以是电子也可以是$\mu$子）。中间有很多弯曲的迹径（低能带电粒子）。象一只黑暗中的眼睛，是你在找我，还是我在看你？ 这次的结果，据说在最后一段时间才终于找到了WW道的信号，说明“与希格斯粒子相符”。不过，由于还没有仔细研究这个新粒子的性质，还不能完全断定它的性质与希教授预言的一样，出于高能物理学家的谨慎，没有直接说发现了希格斯粒子，而是说： 发现了一个新粒子，其性质与希格斯粒子相符。 到今年底，LHC的数据量会再增加一倍，那时候应该不会再含糊了。 5）今年的诺贝尔物理奖内定了？ 报告会完后请Peter Higgs讲话，希教授热泪盈眶：我终于活着见着它了。倘若发现了希格斯粒子，那么应该赶紧发个奖给希教授，免得夜长梦多，毕竟岁月不饶人。做出了好的工作，就要争取活得长，但也不可能无限长。不过从现在看来，大概还缺点把握。同时，理论家（希教授）应该得，做实验的就很难说是谁的功劳了，估计大家都搞不成。ATLAS的发言人Fabiola（意大利人，女）一头黑发，远看上去很年轻，我有点惊讶一个三四十岁的女人怎么镇得住一个三四千人的、组织松散的国际合作组。不过据同事说应该也差不多五十了。 6)专业报告 新闻发布会没有科普版。欧核中心的发布会现场和我所在的墨尔本的国际高能物理大会现场都没有。上来就是两个非常专业的学术报告。不知道请来的记者做何感想。
标签: 希格斯
