Manhattan researchers to explore Higgs boson

Posted

The Large Hadron Collider will be getting a visit from researchers at Manhattan College. 

Physics professor Rostislav Konoplich and undergraduate students from the college have received a $226,446 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct research on the Higgs boson — the subatomic particle that accounts for the creation of mass. 

Dr. Konoplich travels to Geneva, Switzerland each summer to work with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — the world’s most powerful particle accelerator — located at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. 

He is a member of ATLAS, one of two international teams that worked to pinpoint the Higgs boson in 2012. Scientists theorized the particle in 1964, but its discovery was only officially announced in July of 2012. 

“The National Science Foundation grant will offer promising undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in leading research on the recent discovery of the Higgs boson,” Dr. Konoplich said. 

Over the course of three years, students will develop an undergraduate research journal and visit the CERN laboratory. From Manhattan College’s campus, they will keep tabs on the LHC’s collisions, analyzing properties like the masses and spins of exploding particles.

Dr. Konoplich said that in 2015, the LHC will begin running at higher energy than ever before. 

 “A lot of work will be required from all of us to analyze new data,” he said.  “But at the end we hope to make new discoveries.”

Manhattan College, Large Hadron Collider, Rostislav Konoplich, CERN, Higgs boson, National Science Foundation, research

Comments