http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/science/physics-particles-cern.html 2016-10-17 19:38:17 Physicists Recover From a Summer’s Particle ‘Hangover’ The history of science has shown that setbacks, like the exotic new particle that wasn’t, give way to renewed quests, and theorists lean on experimenters. === As I sat last month in the cafeteria at Judging from their enthusiasm, they had recovered from the summer’s “diphoton hangover,” the nickname given to the disappointment that followed the coming apart, weeks earlier, of a striking observation — an excess number of photons hinting that some Could it be a cousin of the Higgs, or a long sought particle of A victim of its own success, particle physics has come to a turning point. For decades, the theorists have been calling the shots, predicting particles like the Higgs for the experimenters to find, plugging the holes in the cosmic puzzle. Now, with the pieces in place, in the form of the As plates and utensils clattered around me, I thought of an earlier changing of the guard. In 1962 in this same cafeteria, a 32-year-old theorist named During the early decades of the 1900s, swashbuckling experimenters had run the show. Launching their instruments in balloons and carrying them to mountaintops, they brought back snapshots of cosmic ray particles that made no sense. “Who ordered that?” Just three particles — electrons, protons and neutrons — seemed like enough to make the world. What were all of these extras? They didn’t fit into any existing scheme. With pencil and paper, Dr. Gell-Mann devised one, doing for physics what Among the rows and columns of Mendeleev’s table there had been empty spaces — place holders for elements like If Dr. Gell-Mann’s math was right — a pretty good bet — there had to be a particle he called the Two years later, Dr. Samios, one of the great experimenters of his generation, discovered the particle at From then on, the theorists were ascendant. With its bona fides established, the Eightfold Way led to quarks, gluons and ultimately the Standard Model, a chart with its own holes to fill. One by one, the experimenters obliged until the keystone, the Higgs, was put in place, And that, for the theorists, led to a postpartum depression. Though now complete, the Standard Model (available on a T-shirt at the CERN gift shop) lacks the elegance one might like in a well-made universe. There are matter particles and force particles with masses ranging from zero (photons and gluons) and near zero (neutrinos) to the top quark, which is as hefty as an entire atom of tungsten — an element whose name, in Swedish, means “heavy stone.” The Higgs explains how particles acquired mass, but not why they were spit forth with such a hodgepodge of different values. Least satisfying of all, the Standard Model leaves out the most salient of forces, gravity, which is described by an entirely different theory. Is this how the universe just happens to be? Or is there a grander theory that would demand that things be precisely this way? And so the search goes on. There is no reason other than sheer stubbornness for human brains to assume that they are neurologically equipped to understand the finest details of creation. But those vibrant physicists in the CERN cafeteria didn’t seem burdened with existential angst. As they lined up to bus their lunch trays, placing the dishes on a conveyor belt, I wondered for a moment about the fate of all those discarded napkins. All it might take is one, marked in pencil or ink with a unique scribble, to set particle physics off on its next adventure. Beneath our feet, particles collided silently in the tunnels, striking more sparks to puzzle over.