How the Higgs Mechanism Give Things Mass

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Fermilab physicists really care about the mass of the W boson. They spent nearly a decade recording collisions in the Tevatron collider and another decade analysing the data. This culminated in the April 7 announcement that this obscure particle’s mass seems to be heavier than expected. So why do we care? Because understanding why this particle even has mass was one of the most important breakthroughs in our understanding of the subatomic world. And because measuring its precise mass either doubles down on our current understanding or reveals a path to an even deeper knowledge. The FermiLab discrepancy is a tantalizing hint of the latter.

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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd

Written by Fernando Franco Félix, Graeme Gossel, & Matt O'Dowd

Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria

GFX Visualizations: Fernando Franco Félix

Directed by Andrew Kornhaber

Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour

Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

Executives in Charge (PBS): Adam Dylewski, Maribel Lopez

Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing

Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.

This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.

© 2022 PBS. All rights reserved.

End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg

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