Scale: 10^-18 meters = 1 am = 1 attometer

How Big is the Higgs Boson?

Physicists have experimentally determined (based on the highest energy particle collisions currently attainable) an upper limit for the size of quarks and electrons: they must be smaller than 10^-18 meters. How much smaller is currently unknown. Superstring theory suggests that these elementary particles could be as small as a Planck length (10^-35 m), or perhaps several powers of ten larger. The largest particle accelerator in the world (at CERN) is being modified to perform experiments at energies greater than 1 TeV (10¹⁵ eV) and possibly up to 14 TeV. The Tevatron at CERN is planned to be completed and begin testing in 2007. Data collection is expected to begin in 2008. According to theoretical calculations and expectations, the reality of the Higgs boson could be established with this early data.

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