Atom smasher closes in on elusive particle

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GRENOBLE, France (AP) — Physicists expect the world’s largest atom

smasher to find a long-sought theoretical new particle – or rule

out that it exists – by the end of 2012.

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Rolf Heuer, director of the European particle physics laboratory

near Geneva, predicted Monday that “toward the end of next year,

you will have an answer.”

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He told reporters at a major physics conference that new research

at the $10 billion collider under the Swiss-French border has

helped pinpoint the precise level of high energy where the new

particle is expected to be found.

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The Higgs boson isn’t just any particle.

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It’s the linchpin of the standard model of particle physics that

explains the Big Bang theory, and is believed to give mass to other

other objects and creatures in the Universe.

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