科學家確信已發現希格斯玻色子
Physicists said that, based on a review of new data, they are confident that they have discovered a Higgs boson, a long-sought particle crucial to explaining the universe.
物理學家說，根據對新數據的分析，他們現在確信已發現了長期以來一直在尋找的希格斯玻色子(Higgs boson)。該粒子在解釋宇宙方面至關重要。The Higgs boson is important because it is linked to a mechanism that confers mass to elementary particles─helping to explain the presence of stars, planets and all living things.
希格斯玻色子之所以重要，是因爲它與一種可賦予基本粒子質量的機制有關，而這有助於解釋恆星、行星和一切生物的存在。In July, the European particle-physics laboratory CERN, which runs an atom-smashing machine called the Large Hadron Collider, said it may have discovered a Higgs-like particle. Physicists have now analyzed 2? times the amount of the original data from CERN experiments. The latest findings were reported Thursday at a physics conference in Italy.
去年7月，擁有大型強子對撞機(Large Hadron Collider)的歐洲粒子物理實驗室CERN說，可能已經發現了類似希格斯的粒子。物理學家現已分析的數據量是CERN相關實驗原始數據量的2.5倍。最新研究發現已於週四在意大利舉行的物理學會議上公佈。
The latest data 'are magnificent and to me and it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is,' Joe Incandela, a CERN spokesman, said in a news release.
CERN發言人因坎代拉(Joe Incandela)在新聞發佈會上說，最新數據有偉大意義，我個人認爲，很明顯我們正在與希格斯玻色子打交道，儘管要弄明白它屬於哪種希格斯玻色子仍有很長一段路要走。The Higgs boson is the only particle theorized by the standard model of physics that hasn't been conclusively observed in an experiment. The model describes how matter is built and how particles interact.
希格斯波色子是唯一一種經物理學標準模型推理但還未在實驗中確鑿觀察到的粒子。這種模型描述的是物質如何積聚而成以及粒子之間如何相互作用。Particles like the Higgs have to be found indirectly, by hurtling them to near-light speed and then smashing them together to generate other subatomic entities. An analysis of these smash-ups indicates the mass of the particle being sought.
像希格斯波色子這樣的粒子只能被間接找到，方法是將粒子加速到接近光速，然後使其相互碰撞，從而產生其他亞原子微粒。對這些碰撞的分析顯示，有大量這種被人們尋找的粒子。Since the initial findings were disclosed in the summer, physicists have eagerly awaited fresh experimental data.
自從去年夏天披露了初步研究結果後，物理學家一直在熱切期待有新鮮的實驗數據出爐。The view back then 'was like seeing a person in a fog─you knew there was a person there but you weren't sure who it was,' said Andy Parker, a professor of high energy physics at the University of Cambridge who is involved in the CERN experiments. Thanks to the latest data, 'we're no longer going to call it a Higgs-like boson but a Higgs boson.'
劍橋大學(University of Cambridge)高能物理學教授、參與了CERN實驗的帕克(Andy Parker)說，當時的看法就像是在濃霧中看到了一個人，你知道有個人在那裏，但不確定他是誰。帕克說，得到最新數據後，我們不再把它稱作像希格斯的波色子，它就是希格斯波色子。
