Helium-3
experimental cell and extract of data showing creation of light Higgs mode
(analog of 125 GeV Higgs boson). Illustration: Dr. Vladislav Zavyalov, Low
Temperature Laboratory, Aalto University.
(January 9, 2016) Recent
study predicts that these particles are much heavier than earlier observation.
In 2012, a proposed observation of the Higgs boson was
reported at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN.
The observation has puzzled the physics community, as the mass of the
observed particle, 125 GeV, looks lighter than the expected energy scale, about
1 TeV.
Researchers at Aalto University in Finland now propose that
there is more than one Higgs boson, and they are much heavier than the 2012
observation. The results were recently
published in Nature Communications.
'Our recent ultra-low temperature experiments on superfluid
helium (3He) suggest an explanation why the Higgs boson observed at CERN
appears to be too light. By using the
superfluid helium analogy, we have predicted that there should be other Higgs
bosons, which are much heavier (about 1 TeV) than previously observed', says
Professor (emeritus) Grigory E. Volovik.
ROTA cryostat used
in the helium experiments of the Low Temperature Laboratory.
Prof. Volovik holds a position in the Low Temperature
Laboratory at Aalto University and in Landau Institute, Moscow. He has received the international Simon Prize
in 2004 for distinguished work in theoretical low temperature physics, and the
Lars Onsager Prize in 2014 for outstanding research in theoretical statistical
physics.