Higgs boson in fiction

The Higgs boson has appeared in several works of fiction in popular culture. These references rarely reflect the expected properties of the hypothetical elementary particle, or do so only vaguely, and often imbue it with fantastic properties. Some examples are shown below.

God's Spark

In Dr. Norman P. Johnson's God's Spark, Science-based fictional novel, the Higgs Boson and the search for other fundamental elementary particles at the Large Hadron Collider beyond the Standard Model are an integral part of the plot. In the not too distant future,the LHC will be upgraded with more energy and intensity along with scintillating fiber optic detectors and super quantum computers that will push the discovery energies as close as possible to the Planck limit. This novel suggests that accidental discoveries of new super particles representing gigantic forces present only at the first few seconds of the Big Bang might be entirely possible and unpredictable. The story is fictional but it contains discussions of extensions to the Standard Model along with new astronomical problems such as Dark Matter and Dark Energy that clearly demonstrate significant discoveries beyond the Higgs sector is tantalizingly just beyond current technology. It also includes aspects of the current political conflict between fundamental religious dogma and fact-based science.

Lexx

In the science fantasy series Lexx, it is said that planets which develop on a path similar to Earth are type 13 planets which are sometimes destroyed by all-out nuclear war, but it is much more common for such planets to be obliterated by physicists attempting to determine the precise mass of the Higgs boson particle. The particle colliders used to perform the calculations reach critical mass at the moment the mass of the particle is known, causing an implosion which destroys the planet and then collapses it into a nugget of super-dense matter "roughly the size of a pea."[1] The mass of the particle was a repeating 131313 matching the name "type 13 planet"[2] and this also is in the predicted range of the particle's mass.[3]

Solaris

In Steven Soderbergh's 2002 adaptation of Stanisław Lem's novel Solaris, the script has a reference to Higgs bosons, absent in the original book: "So, if we created a negative Higgs field, and bombarded them with a stream of Higgs anti-bosons, they might disintegrate."

White Mars

In Brian Aldiss's White Mars, an expedition is established to go to Mars to find Higgs bosons which is believed to hold the key to solving the question of where mass comes from. The reason that Mars is considered is that Earth and the Moon are "too noisy" from all the human activity for the experiment. The way they go about it is by having a ring of superconductive fluid, Argon 36, and waiting till they see an error which will signify a Higgs particle has passed through the fluid.

Flashforward

In Robert J. Sawyer's Flashforward, an experiment at CERN to find the Higgs particle causes the consciousness of the entire human race to be temporarily sent twenty-one years into the future. Later, the experiment is repeated with the specific intention to view the future – however this time it instead creates the Higgs Boson.[4]

Into the Looking Glass

In John Ringo's Into the Looking Glass, the University of Central Florida is destroyed by a 60 kiloton explosion that is first thought to be a nuclear weapon, but turns out to be a mishap from a Higgs boson research experiment. Following the explosion, gateways to other worlds are opened and a war with the aliens on the other side of the gates begins.

The God Particle

In Richard Cox's The God Particle, American business man Steve Keeley is thrown out of a window and falls three stories, then wakes up and begins to see the world in a different way; he is able to accurately predict future events, read others' thoughts, and manipulate his environment.[5]

A Hole In Texas

In Herman Wouk's A Hole In Texas, the real science behind the Higgs boson is used as a backdrop for a satire on Washington politics, the chase for funding in scientific communities, and Hollywood blockbusters. In fact, the Hollywood portion of the satire has much to do with the wild flights of fancy in evidence in many of the other entries on this list. Much of the plot is based on the aborted Superconducting Super Collider project.[6]

Others

The particle also appears in other, non-narrative art forms:

on their album Push the Sky Away, their fifteenth album, released in 2013.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Little Blue Planet". Lexx.
  2. ↑ "Yo Way Yo". Lexx.
  3. ↑ This upper bound for the Higgs boson mass is a prediction within the minimal Standard Model assuming that it remains a consistent theory up to the Planck scale. In extensions of the SM, this bound can be loosened or, in the case of supersymmetry theories, lowered. The lower bound which results from direct experimental exclusion by LEP is valid for most extensions of the SM, but can be circumvented in special cases. G. Bernardi et al. Higgs bosons: theory and searches. pdg.lbl.gov. Updated May 2010
  4. ↑ Sawyer R., Flashforward, Tor Books, 1999, ISBN 0-312-86712-3
  5. ↑ Cox R., The God Particle, Random House, 2005, ISBN 978-0-345-46285-5
  6. ↑ Wouk H., A Hole in Texas, Little, Brown and Company, 2004, ISBN 0-316-52590-1
  7. ↑ Joshua Topolsky (2008-08-08). CERN rap video about the Large Hadron Collider creates a black hole of awesomeness. engadget.com
  8. ↑ Will Barras. CERN Rap. video. vimeo.com
  9. ↑ Dilbert comic strips archive at the official Dilbert website. Dilbert.com. Retrieved on 2012-07-06.
  10. ↑ Arlo and Janis comic strips archive. GoComics.com.
  11. ↑ "Google launches "Ingress" its first mobile game augmented reality".
  12. ↑ "ingress - What determines where XM is generated? - Arqade".
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