The 'God Particle' May Not Have Actually Been Discovered: Higgs Boson May Remain Elusive

Last year, CERN announced that it had discovered a new elementary particle, the Higgs particle, also long known as the 'God particle.' Now, scientists are taking a second look at the finding and believe that this particle wasn't the Higgs particle at all and may just look like it.

Many calculations indicate that the particle found last year in the CERN particle accelerator was indeed the Higgs particle. And physicists agree that the particle is one that has never been seen before. Yet new research seems to show that there is no conclusive evidence that definitively proves that the particle is indeed the Higgs particle.

"The CERN data is generally taken as evidence that the particle is the Higgs particle," said Mads Toudal Frandsen, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It is true that the Higgs particle can explain the data but there can be other explanations; we would also get this data from other particles. The current data is not precise enough to determine exactly what the particle is. It could be a number of other known particles."

That said, this doesn't mean that CERN didn't find the Higgs particle. It just means that it's possible that it didn't. If the particle wasn't the Higgs particle, though, what was it?

"We believe that it may be a so-called techni-higgs particle," said Frandsen. "This particle is in some ways similar to the Higgs particle-hence half of the name."

A techni-higgs particle isn't an elementary particle. Instead, it's made up of techni-quarks, which are elementary. Techni-quarks can bind together to form, for example, techni-higgs. Other combinations can, in theory, form dark matter. And if techni-quarks do exist, then that means that there must be a new type of force to bind them together, named the Technicolor force.

Currently, more data from CERN needs to be collected in order to determine whether the particle is actually the Higgs particle or a techni-higgs particle. Either way, it's likely that the findings could change the face of physics and research for years to come.

The findings are published in the journal Physical Review D.