Higgs boson: Pakistan’s contribution to a major breakthrough

[Karachiite]

KARACHI:
Few Pakistanis know what the Higgs boson is and even fewer realise that some of the earliest theoretical groundwork that led to this discovery was laid by Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate, Dr Abdus Salam.
The Higgs boson is a subatomic particle whose existence was confirmed by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (known by its French acronym, CERN) on July 4. The discovery of the particle provides the last remaining bit of empirical evidence necessary for the Standard Model of physics, which seeks to explain the existence of all forces in the universe except gravity.
In the 1950s, physicists were aware of four different types of forces in the universe: gravity, electromagnetic force, the force that attracts an electron towards the nucleus of an atom (weak nuclear force), and the force that keeps the nucleus of the atom together (strong nuclear force). The Standard Model can offer an integrated explanation for the latter three of those forces. Its origins lay in the discovery in 1960 by American physicist Sheldon Glashow of the fact that the weak nuclear force and electromagnetic force are the same thing.
Of the many discoveries that later solidified the Standard Model of physics was work done in 1967 by Dr Abdus Salam and American physicist Steven Weinberg in unifying the Higgs mechanism to Glashow’s theory, giving the “electroweak theory” its current form. But Dr Salam’s contributions to particle physics do not end there. Collaborating with Indian physicist Jogesh Pati, he proposed the Pati-Salam model in 1974, which further moved forward the theoretical underpinnings of the Standard Model.
It was for this body of work that Salam, along with Weinberg and Glashow, was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1979.
While this work in theoretical physics may seem obscure and with little practical application, the tools created by physicists engaged in this research are ones we all live with today. For instance, in order to assist the thousands of physicists around the world collaborating on this project, European scientists helped develop the internet. The need to crunch massive amounts of data led to the development of what is now known as cloud computing.
Research like this does not come cheap: it cost the Europeans about $10 billion to build the Large Hadron Collider, the atom-smashing machine that allowed for the discovery of the Higgs boson. But the economic payoffs for any country that invests in them seem to be several orders of magnitude higher, making it well worth it. Imagine: the thousands of internet companies – worth trillions of dollars – would not exist, were it not for the innate curiosity of particle physicists seeking what seems an outlandish goal: one theory that explains everything in the universe.
It is this curiosity to seek out the truth through empirical evidence, to seek explanations for the inexplicable, to unmask the unknown, to venture into the uncharted, that forms the basis for the fundamental drive of moving humanity forward. It is at the frontier of discovery that the future is born, and new industries and new avenues of wealth created, allowing millions – even billions – to lead better lives than they did before.
A Pakistani was at the fore of this frontier of discovery in the 1960s and 1970s. But rather than encourage and celebrate his magnificent achievement, he was maligned and sidelined for his faith. An ironic fact: most physicists are staunch atheists but Salam was one of the few firm believers in God.

Higgs boson: Pakistan

 

[buddyboyyash]

hey listen...any idea about pakistani scientists CURRENTLY representing pakistan at CERN??...if u find...pls lemme know

nice informative article...

 

[Bhai Zakir]

The above article says it was effort of Abdus Salam in Collaborating with Indian physicist Jogesh Pati:

1. Then its a joint effort of a Indian+pakistani

2. Dr. Abdus Salam was a Ahmadiya and pakaitan have expelled him for this reason.

As famous pakistani writer Hasan Nisar says "Hamare mulk main ek hi, aleem-fazil, intellectual tha aur humne usko thudde mar kar, mulk se bahar nikala" This is what we do with the intellectuals.




3.

 

[Karachiite]

The above article says it was effort of Abdus Salam in Collaborating with Indian physicist Jogesh Pati:

1. Then its a joint effort of a Indian+pakistani

2. Dr. Abdus Salam was a Ahmadiya and pakaitan have expelled him for this reason.

As famous pakistani writer Hasan Nisar says "Hamare mulk main ek hi, aleem-fazil, intellectual tha aur humne usko thudde mar kar, mulk se bahar nikala" This is what we do with the intellectuals.




3.

Other then trolling what purpose do you serve on this forum? Your a waste of bandwidth.

 

[amidamaru]

xford, United Kingdom - The sighting of the Boson, possibly the Higgs Boson, by scientists experimenting with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, has received an extraordinary amount of media coverage, particularly for a difficult, if fundamental topic in particle physics that most people do not understand.

These reports are good news for science, which deserves more and better quality coverage than it typically gets. However, while there has been a burst of information about sub-atomic particles, the Standard Model, five sigma benchmark or dark matter, some fairly obvious pieces of information that would be of interest to the general public seem to be rather hard to find.

In the coverage of any major news, it is always interesting to note what is left out or overlooked, and whether there is any pattern or particular reason for such differences. The reasons need not be some kind of nefarious conspiracy - they might just reflect historical or political realities. But they usually tell us something about our societies, priorities and power structures.

For instance, many reports on the probable sighting of the Higgs Boson, a theoretical proposition that existed until now only in the minds of physicists, mention that the prediction of this sub-atomic particle was proposed by six theoreticians in 1964, including Professor Higgs of Britain.


Inside Story: Is the search over for the Higgs Boson?

So who were the other five? Most reports make no mention of them at all. After some hunting around it transpires that they were François Englert, the late Robert Brout, Gerald Guralnik, CR Hagen, and Tom Kibble. Brout, though born in New York, was Belgian - as is Englert. Guralnik and Hagen are American, and Kibble is British (though born in Madras, India).

If the six of them are acknowledged to have proposed the theory, surely the names of all six should be mentioned every time? It's unclear - at least to non-scientists - why the particle is named only after Higgs. This is no disrespect to Professor Higgs. There might be a perfectly good reason, but it would be nice to know what it is.

It has been reported that what has been sighted is certainly a Boson, and probably a Higgs Boson. The word "Boson" is often written as "boson", as though it is an everyday word that all of us should be familiar with. But of course that is not the case. Bosons are also from the exotic world of particle physics - and they are named after someone too. Most reports over the past several months, building up to the excitement of the possibility of sighting the Higgs Boson, neglected to explain how Bosons got their name.

In fact, the worldwide publicity over the imminent proof of "the god particle" may be a good occasion to remember Satyendra Nath Bose (no relation, as far as I know) - the Indian physicist and mathematician after whom "Bosons" were named. SN Bose (1894-1974) was a Bengali from Calcutta. The physics of his discovery and its impact on science is better explained by others. However, I was intrigued to find that Professor Bose also played the esraj, the beautiful string instrument from Bengal and one that is fast becoming extinct - perhaps another important reason to remember him and draw inspiration.

Ironically, this does not seem to be the only time that this Indian scientist and his fundamental contribution have been overlooked. Indeed, SN Bose appears to have had a hard time getting his original paper - on a different derivative of Planck's Law - published at all, back in the 1920s. So he sent it to Einstein, who was persuaded of its importance, translated it into German and got it published in Zeitschrift fur Physik ("Planck's Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis" [PDF], for those really keen).

Perhaps it is naïve to assume that theoretical physics is an area of knowledge in which truly important contributions would be more easily recognised, regardless of the politics and power structures of the day. One wonders how many other fundamental theoretical contributions by those outside some magic circle of influence have gone unnoticed because the authors did not send their papers off to the Einstein of their times, or the recipient did not help bring them to the light of day.

The collaboration between Bose and Einstein and the latter's generalisation of Bose's method gave rise to what is known as "Bose-Einstein statistics" and "Bose-Einstein condensation". Subsequent developments by Fermi led to the categorising of fundamental particles - Bosons after Bose, Fermions after Fermi. In 2001, the Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Eric Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl Wieman "for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates".

There are calls now to award the Nobel to those who predicted the Higgs Boson.

The excitement generated by the hunt for the Higgs Boson using the Large Hadron Collider is a great opportunity to disseminate news about fundamental theoretical and experimental advances in science to the general public. But we need to be told more, and to be given a fuller picture, including what Bosons are and who discovered them, the contributions of all the physicists who predicted the existence of the Higgs Boson, and why these advances are critical to our understanding of the universe.

Ours is an era of rapid scientific and technological inventions. But great moments such as finding the experimental proof of the Higgs Boson are still rare. Now that the researchers in Geneva believe that they have finally achieved a darshan ["divine sighting"] of "the god particle", could the scientists please seize the moment to communicate to the rest of us a fully comprehensive account of those behind one of science's most important discoveries.

 

[Meesna]

Now, Pakistan Claims its Contribution to Higgs Boson
Now, Pakistan Claims its Contribution to Higgs Boson - India Real Time - WSJ

 

[Cloakedvessel]

Pakistan Shuns Physicist Linked to 'God Particle'

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT Associated Press
ISLAMABAD July 8, 2012 (AP)

The pioneering work of Abdus Salam, Pakistan's only Nobel laureate, helped lead to the apparent discovery of the subatomic "God particle" last week. But the late physicist is no hero at home, where his name has been stricken from school textbooks.

Praise within Pakistan for Salam, who also guided the early stages of the country's nuclear program, faded decades ago as Muslim fundamentalists gained power. He belonged to the Ahmadi sect, which has been persecuted by the government and targeted by Taliban militants who view its members as heretics.

Their plight — along with that of Pakistan's other religious minorities, such as Shiite Muslims, Christians and Hindus — has deepened in recent years as hardline interpretations of Islam have gained ground and militants have stepped up attacks against groups they oppose. Most Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims.

Salam, a child prodigy born in 1926 in what was to become Pakistan after the partition of British-controlled India, won more than a dozen international prizes and honors. In 1979, he was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for his work on the so-called Standard Model of particle physics, which theorizes how fundamental forces govern the overall dynamics of the universe. He died in 1996.

In this picture taken on May 29, 2010, people from a minority Muslim Ahmadi Community stand guard as others preparing to bury the victims of attack by Islamic militants, in Rabwa, some 150 kilometers (93 miles) northwest from Lahore Pakistan. The first Pakistani Nobel Prize laureate Professor Abdus Salam, the country’s greatest scientist, who passed away in 1996, has been disowned by many of Pakistan’s 190 million citizens because he was a member of a minority Muslim sect that has been persecuted by the government and targeted by Taliban militants who view Ahmadis as heretics. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Salam and Steven Weinberg, with whom he shared the Nobel Prize, independently predicted the existence of a subatomic particle now called the Higgs boson, named after a British physicist who theorized that it endowed other particles with mass, said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani physicist who once worked with Salam. It is also known as the "God particle" because its existence is vitally important toward understanding the early evolution of the universe.

Physicists in Switzerland stoked worldwide excitement Wednesday when they announced they have all but proven the particle's existence. This was done using the world's largest atom smasher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, near Geneva.

"This would be a great vindication of Salam's work and the Standard Model as a whole," said Khurshid Hasanain, chairman of the physics department at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Salam wielded significant influence in Pakistan as the chief scientific adviser to the president, helping to set up the country's space agency and institute for nuclear science and technology. Salam also assisted in the early stages of Pakistan's effort to build a nuclear bomb, which it eventually tested in 1998.

Salam's life, along with the fate of the 3 million other Ahmadis in Pakistan, drastically changed in 1974 when parliament amended the constitution to declare that members of the sect were not considered Muslims under Pakistani law.

Ahmadis believe their spiritual leader, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908, was a prophet of God — a position rejected by the government in response to a mass movement led by Pakistan's major Islamic parties. Islam considers Muhammad the last prophet and those who subsequently declared themselves prophets as heretics.

All Pakistani passport applicants must sign a section saying the Ahmadi faith's founder was an "impostor" and his followers are "non-Muslims." Ahmadis are prevented by law in Pakistan from "posing as Muslims," declaring their faith publicly, calling their places of worship mosques or performing the Muslim call to prayer. They can be punished with prison and even death.

Salam resigned from his government post in protest following the 1974 constitutional amendment and eventually moved to Europe to pursue his work. In Italy, he created a center for theoretical physics to help physicists from the developing world.

Although Pakistan's then-president, Gen. Zia ul-Haq, presented Salam with Pakistan's highest civilian honor after he won the Nobel Prize, the general response in the country was muted. The physicist was celebrated more enthusiastically by other nations, including Pakistan's archenemy, India.

Despite his achievements, Salam's name appears in few textbooks and is rarely mentioned by Pakistani leaders or the media. By contrast, fellow Pakistani physicist A.Q. Khan, who played a key role in developing the country's nuclear bomb and later confessed to spreading nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, is considered a national hero. Khan is a Muslim.

In this picture taken on Oct 15, 1979, the first Pakistani Nobel Prize laureate Professor Abdus Salam, pictured in London, England after he heard the news that he was joint winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics. Salam, who belongs to a minority Muslim sect , helped develop the theoretical framework that led physicists to discover the ?God particle? this week, stoking worldwide excitement, yet he is not celebrated by his country and schoolchildren are rarely even taught his name.(AP Photo)

Officials at Quaid-i-Azam University had to cancel plans for Salam to lecture about his Nobel-winning theory when Islamist student activists threatened to break the physicist's legs, said his colleague Hoodbhoy.

"The way he has been treated is such a tragedy," said Hoodbhoy. "He went from someone who was revered in Pakistan, a national celebrity, to someone who could not set foot in Pakistan. If he came, he would be insulted and could be hurt or even killed."

The president who honored Salam would later go on to intensify persecution of Ahmadis, for whom life in Pakistan has grown even more precarious. Taliban militants attacked two mosques packed with Ahmadis in Lahore in 2010, killing at least 80 people.

"Many Ahmadis have received letters from fundamentalists since the 2010 attacks threatening to target them again, and the government isn't doing anything," said Qamar Suleiman, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community.

For Salam, not even death saved him from being targeted.

Hoodbhoy said his body was returned to Pakistan in 1996 after he died in Oxford, England, and was buried under a gravestone that read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate." A local magistrate ordered that the word "Muslim" be erased.

Page 2: Pakistan Shuns Physicist Linked to 'God Particle' - ABC News

 

[MilSpec]

^^"gravestone that read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate." A local magistrate ordered that the word "Muslim" be erased.'
" So it reads "First Nobel Laureate" That doesn't make any sense,