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SUMMARY:The Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism and its scalar boson - Professor
  François Englert - Université libre de Bruxelles
DTSTART:20130513T134500Z
DTEND:20130513T150000Z
UID:TALK45276@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Amanda Stagg
DESCRIPTION:The impressive developments in physics during the first half o
 f the 20th Century made it then conceivable that ALL phenomena\, from the 
 atomic scale to the edge of the visible universe\, be governed solely by t
 wo known laws\, that of classical general relativity\, Einstein's generali
 sation of Newtonian gravity\, and quantum electrodynamics\, the quantum ve
 rsion of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory.\n\nBut gravitational and electr
 omagnetic interactions are long range interactions. The discovery of subat
 omic structures revealed the existence of other fundamental interactions t
 hat are short range\, that is\, negligible at larger distance scales. At t
 he beginning of the 1960s\, the theoretical interpretation of short range 
 fundamental interactions seemed to pose insuperable obstacles.\n\nIn 1964\
 , Brout and Englert\, and independently Higgs\, postulated the existence o
 f "scalar bosons" (or BEH bosons)\, which condense to produce a field perv
 ading the universe. The condensation provides a mechanism for generating s
 hort range forces\, leads to a dynamical origin for the elementary particl
 e masses and opens new perspectives on the unity of the laws of nature.\n\
 nThis BEH mechanism\, its consequences and the properties of its scalar bo
 son\, whose impressive discovery at CERN confirmed its validity\, will be 
 explained.\n\n
LOCATION:MR2\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Cambr
 idge
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