Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva,
Switzerland, have revealed a new subatomic particle that could
be the long-sought Higgs boson. A University of Alberta
researcher who helped design and build equipment used in the
experiment is cautious about the results but bullish on the
future of particle physics research. "We can say we are entering
the Higgs era of the LHC, says James Pinfold, a professor of
physics who says the chances that the finding is a blip in the
system is about 1 in 1.7 million. "If this new particle is not a
Higgs boson, it would herald revolutionary new physics, beyond
the Standard Model. We are in that best of all situations—a win-
win situation." Pinfold is one of two professors in the U of A’s
Department of Physics who has been with the ATLAS experiment
since its inception. Along with Doug Gingrich, Pinfold brought
construction of parts of ATLAS to the University of Alberta.
Associate professor Roger Moore joined the effort when he
arrived at the university in 20