UF faculty available for comment when 'God particle' news announced

July 2, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida physicists will be on hand to discuss their team’s contributions to the search for what some call “the God particle” as news breaks this week from the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.

With 40 members, the UF team constitutes one of the largest university groups involved with one of two major particle collision detectors at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. UF physics professors Guenakh Mitselmakher, Andrey Korytov and Darin Acosta helped to bring the detector, called the Compact Muon Solenoid, online and have led various aspects of the project for more than 17 years.

Officially dubbed the Higgs Boson, the particle for which the teams have been searching may shed light on how the universe works. Scientists say it could help explain why matter has mass.

The media is abuzz with speculation as to what will be announced at an upcoming joint meeting between CERN, and the International Conference on High Energy Physics held in Melbourne, Australia. However, researchers involved with the experiments at CERN warn that there is a difference between rumor and fact and that the real story is likely to be more nuanced and complicated than recent, splashy headlines would suggest.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 3 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The following UF researchers will be available via Skype or telephone beginning on the day of the announcement to provide analysis and perspective on the latest Higgs Boson observations.

Guenakh Mitselmakher
Cell: +41-76-487-5535
mitselmakher@phys.ufl.edu

Andrey Korytov
Office @ CERN: +41-76-487-1009
korytov@phys.ufl.edu

Darin Acosta
Cell: +41-76-487-5409
Acosta@phys.ufl.edu

Konstantin Matchev, a UF physics professor and theorist will be in Gainesville on Wednesday and available for interview beginning at 11 a m. EDT.

Office: 352-392-5709
matchev@phys.ufl.edu