CERN released hints that the elusive Higgs particle, the last missing link in the Standard Model of elementary particle physics, may have been seen with a mass of 126 GeV.  The Higgs is thought to be responsible for the masses of all other elementary particles. It is too early to be called a discovery, but it is interesting that both detectors, ATLAS and CMS, see an excess of photons that could be attributed to Higgs decay at about the same energy, and there are signs of a signal in other decay channels as well.  The collider has shut down until March 2012, but it is expected that next year's run, in which the proton collision energy may be boosted to 8 TeV, will settle the issue of whether the Higgs really exists, and what its mass is. At The Citadel, Dr. Yost contributes to calculations supporting CERN analyses, and interested students can learn about some of the physics being investigated at CERN, and work with some of the computational tools.

ATLAS Detector	Excess Events at 126 GeV

On July 18-20, 2011, four students from The Citadel, Wofford College, and Clemson University completed a Suborbital Scientist Training Program at the National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center in Southampton, PA. The students are all doing summer research with the Atsa Suborbital Observatory Project. The students were accompanied by The Citadel's Dr. Sollitt and scientists from the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) in Tucson, AZ. The Atsa Project is a joint venture between The Citadel and PSI. This is just one of the exciting space science projects in which Citadel Physics undergraduates have participated with Dr. Sollitt.   Read The Whole Article