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Qmechanic ♦
Qmechanic ♦
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This is my mental picture on how we can make predictions from a theory (I'm not a physicist so this might be quite wrong) :

Typically, we solve a partial differential equation (analytically if we can, but often we can only do numerical calculations), where in the input of the problem we put the known quantities (or the quantities we don't know but want to simulate), and in the output, we get the numerical quantities that we can then confront to reality through experiments. It's really easy when we have a simple equation such as F=Ma (Newton), and the numerical input is just one quantity (say the intial position and speed of a particle, etc.), the numerical computation is simply a 2-order differential equation, and the numerical output is also one quantity (say the position of the particle at time t) and the experiment involves no statistical error, etc.

But I suppose things get much more complicated in reality with a huge theory such as the Standard Model of particle physics. My questionMy question is precisely this  : in the case of the LHC experiments in the discovery of the Higgs, what is the input ? What is the "numerical computation" (and where is it ? How is the theory implemented ? Do the experimentalists use specific software ? Does it require huge CPU power?) (I'm guessing it's not solving a partial differential equation ?) ? What is typically the output ?

  • in the case of the LHC experiments in the discovery of the Higgs, what is the input ?

  • What is the "numerical computation" (and where is it?

  • How is the theory implemented?

  • Do the experimentalists use specific software?

  • Does it require huge CPU power?) (I'm guessing it's not solving a partial differential equation?)?

  • What is typically the output ?

My mental picture on how they determined the mass of the Higgs is that they confronted whatever output the theory gives when there is a Higgs of mass X (a numerical variable in the computation), and they change the value of X in the numerical computation in order to fit the output with experimental data. Is my mental picture correct?

  • Is my mental picture correct?

This is my mental picture on how we can make predictions from a theory (I'm not a physicist so this might be quite wrong) :

Typically, we solve a partial differential equation (analytically if we can, but often we can only do numerical calculations), where in the input of the problem we put the known quantities (or the quantities we don't know but want to simulate), and in the output, we get the numerical quantities that we can then confront to reality through experiments. It's really easy when we have a simple equation such as F=Ma (Newton), and the numerical input is just one quantity (say the intial position and speed of a particle, etc.), the numerical computation is simply a 2-order differential equation, and the numerical output is also one quantity (say the position of the particle at time t) and the experiment involves no statistical error, etc.

But I suppose things get much more complicated in reality with a huge theory such as the Standard Model of particle physics. My question is precisely this  : in the case of the LHC experiments in the discovery of the Higgs, what is the input ? What is the "numerical computation" (and where is it ? How is the theory implemented ? Do the experimentalists use specific software ? Does it require huge CPU power?) (I'm guessing it's not solving a partial differential equation ?) ? What is typically the output ? My mental picture on how they determined the mass of the Higgs is that they confronted whatever output the theory gives when there is a Higgs of mass X (a numerical variable in the computation), and they change the value of X in the numerical computation in order to fit the output with experimental data. Is my mental picture correct?

This is my mental picture on how we can make predictions from a theory (I'm not a physicist so this might be quite wrong) :

Typically, we solve a partial differential equation (analytically if we can, but often we can only do numerical calculations), where in the input of the problem we put the known quantities (or the quantities we don't know but want to simulate), and in the output, we get the numerical quantities that we can then confront to reality through experiments. It's really easy when we have a simple equation such as F=Ma (Newton), and the numerical input is just one quantity (say the intial position and speed of a particle, etc.), the numerical computation is simply a 2-order differential equation, and the numerical output is also one quantity (say the position of the particle at time t) and the experiment involves no statistical error, etc.

But I suppose things get much more complicated in reality with a huge theory such as the Standard Model of particle physics. My question is precisely this:

  • in the case of the LHC experiments in the discovery of the Higgs, what is the input ?

  • What is the "numerical computation" (and where is it?

  • How is the theory implemented?

  • Do the experimentalists use specific software?

  • Does it require huge CPU power?) (I'm guessing it's not solving a partial differential equation?)?

  • What is typically the output ?

My mental picture on how they determined the mass of the Higgs is that they confronted whatever output the theory gives when there is a Higgs of mass X (a numerical variable in the computation), and they change the value of X in the numerical computation in order to fit the output with experimental data.

  • Is my mental picture correct?
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Jon-S
Jon-S
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How are the standard model and the Higgs boson actually confirmed experimentally in practice?

This is my mental picture on how we can make predictions from a theory (I'm not a physicist so this might be quite wrong) :

Typically, we solve a partial differential equation (analytically if we can, but often we can only do numerical calculations), where in the input of the problem we put the known quantities (or the quantities we don't know but want to simulate), and in the output, we get the numerical quantities that we can then confront to reality through experiments. It's really easy when we have a simple equation such as F=Ma (Newton), and the numerical input is just one quantity (say the intial position and speed of a particle, etc.), the numerical computation is simply a 2-order differential equation, and the numerical output is also one quantity (say the position of the particle at time t) and the experiment involves no statistical error, etc.

But I suppose things get much more complicated in reality with a huge theory such as the Standard Model of particle physics. My question is precisely this : in the case of the LHC experiments in the discovery of the Higgs, what is the input ? What is the "numerical computation" (and where is it ? How is the theory implemented ? Do the experimentalists use specific software ? Does it require huge CPU power?) (I'm guessing it's not solving a partial differential equation ?) ? What is typically the output ? My mental picture on how they determined the mass of the Higgs is that they confronted whatever output the theory gives when there is a Higgs of mass X (a numerical variable in the computation), and they change the value of X in the numerical computation in order to fit the output with experimental data. Is my mental picture correct?