One of the important ways in which the Higgs boson was detected at the Large Had

Question

One of the important ways in which the Higgs boson was detected at the Large Hadron Collider was by observing a type of decay in which the Higgs-which decays too quickly to be observed directly-is immediately transformed into two photons emitted back to back. Two photons, with momenta 3.31×1017 kgm/s , were detected. Hint: The relationship between energy and momentum applies to photons if you treat a photon as a massless particle. What is the mass of the Higgs boson? Give your answer as a multiple of the proton mass.

Explanation / Answer

kinetic energy of the two photons=2*momentum*speed of light=2*3.31*10^(-17)*3*10^8 =1.986*10^(-8) J

this will be the rest mass energy of the higgs boson.

if mass of the boson is m, then m*speed of light^2=1.986*10^(-8)

==>m=1.986*10^(-8)/(3*10^8)^2=2.2067*10^(-25) kg

mass of proton=1.67*10^(-27) kg

then mass of boson/mass of proton=132.14

so boson has a mass of 132.14 times mass of proton.

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