# Help me get a hard on for hadron **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391 "2010-03-30T22:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/61 "2010-04-13T05:09:45Z")
> [@xash](#): > > Heh 🙂 I used the ctrl-v beam to post that… Is that like a zeta-beam? Hey, wait! How do we **know** that the radiation from the LHC _ **won’t** _ change Dr. Banner into the Hulk? Or make Reed Richards all stretchy? Or bring Adam Strange to Earth? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/62 "2010-04-13T06:21:14Z")
Dumb question. Higgs bosons will be created. These will not be virtual particles, but actual four dimensional Higgs bosons. Gravity is carried by Virtual Higgs bosons. So, my dumb question. What is carried by actual Higgs bosons, and where is it carried to? How fast do Higgs bosons move? Some speed less than, but never equal to c? Always and precisely at c? Some speed always greater than but never equal to c? Ok, these putative created Higgs bosons are brand new. Are new Higgs bosons being created a whole lot, all around us by extremely high energy particle collisions occurring naturally? Do they have an antiparticle? Do they have . . . and expected half life? Hmmm. Too many questions, and the answers are only going to give me more questions. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/63 "2010-04-13T06:46:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Gravity is carried by Virtual Higgs bosons. No, gravity is carried by massless gravitons. The Higgs is a completely different particle. > [@](#): > > So, my dumb question. What is carried by actual Higgs bosons, and where is it carried to? Particles only act as force carriers when they’re virtual. A real Higgs would do basically the same things as a real particle of any other sort. > [@](#): > > How fast do Higgs bosons move? Some speed less than, but never equal to c? Always and precisely at c? Some speed always greater than but never equal to c? Always less than c, like any other massive particle. What their speed is will depend on their energy, but since the ones at the LHC will have only just enough energy to exist at all, their speed will be relatively low. > [@](#): > > Ok, these putative created Higgs bosons are brand new. Are new Higgs bosons being created a whole lot, all around us by extremely high energy particle collisions occurring naturally? Do they have an antiparticle? Do they have . . . and expected half life? Naturally-occurring cosmic rays with greater energy than the LHC strike the Earth about once a day. Presumably some of these collisions produce Higgses, but we’d never notice, since the lifetime of the Higgs (like that of most subatomic particles) is extremely short. I’m pretty sure that the Higgs, like the photon and a few other particles, is its own antiparticle, but I’m not certain on that. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/64 "2010-04-13T07:12:32Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > These will not be virtual particles, but actual four dimensional Higgs bosons. Why/how will they be four dimensional? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/65 "2010-04-13T22:53:10Z")
> [@xash](#): > > Why/how will they be four dimensional? length, breadth, depth, and duration. T ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/66 "2010-04-13T23:21:02Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m pretty sure that the Higgs, like the photon and a few other particles, is its own antiparticle, but I’m not certain on that. In the minimal picture (a single scalar Higgs boson), it would be its own antiparticle. In the minimal supersymmetric extension (a.k.a. MSSM), one requires a richer Higgs sector, including a charged Higgs that would (of course) not be its own antiparticle. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/67 "2010-04-13T23:24:39Z")
Thanks. I’m learning. Sort of. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/68 "2010-04-13T23:36:15Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Dude…you coulda stopped at 1.67. > > As for lows temps, this is the dirty little secret of how its actually done. > > They take all the male nerd physicists and put them at one end of the tube. > > They put all the female nerd physicists and put them at the other end of the tube. > > The male nerds then yell really lame sexist jokes into their end of the tube. The female nerds hear the jokes, and then they direct their icy cold stares of disapproval back down the tube. And then, before things warm back up, they quickly seal the thing back up and power that baby up. Not female nerds. You want more mainstream gals. The nerdettes would roll their eyes and tease back with “Oh, that’s so funny, I forgot to laaaagh!” Then they would go 😛 at them, not realizing the double-tongue-tendre involved. The male nerds would think of it immediately, though. Pretty soon they would all rush over, each grab a nerdette in a playful wrestling lock and give her a noogie while she squealed in mock protest. Then the nerdettes would invite all the guys over to their sorority house, reminding them that “We’re a very spontaneous sorority.” Pretty soon the whole house would be shaking. – Well, after all, the next generation of nerds has to come into being somehow. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391/69 "2010-04-13T23:39:12Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > [Higgs]…expected half life? This depends on the mass of the Higgs, but the ballpark is 10[sup]-25[/sup] seconds. For things that last for such a short time, you can’t measure the time itself. In fact, the mass (think: energy) of the particle isn’t even a specific value, thanks to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. That is, if the particle is only present for time [symbol]D[/symbol]t, then its mass can vary by [symbol]D[/symbol]m=(hbar)/[symbol]D[/symbol]t without violating any conservation laws. So, you actually measure the lifetime by measuring the (real and true) spread in mass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-a-hard-on-for-hadron/534391.md?page=3)