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Search for the Higgs boson: the problem of epistemic autonomy of experiment
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Search for the Higgs boson: the problem of epistemic autonomy of experiment
Annotation
PII
S2072-07260000616-6-1
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Vitaly S. Pronskikh 
Edition
Volume 13 Issue 3
Pages
82-96
Abstract
The article discusses experiments in particle physics that attempt to detect the last miss­ing element of the Standard Model of particle interactions, the Higgs boson. It critically analyzes the positivistic proposals according to which such experiments must be recog­nized as exploratory and crucial on the one hand and as relatively autonomous from the theory on the other. The author examines the role of the Higgs mechanism as an ad hoc hypothesis introduced initially to overcome the problem of the invariance of the theory. Theory-laden operations of preparation and measurement of Higgs boson in collider ex­periments are analyzed; methods for analysis of experimental data and methods of their theoretical interpretation are discussed. A special consideration is given to the role of such routes of theory-ladenness as the experimental background and triggers. The sugges­tions to view this experiment as relatively independent of the theory, as well as the under­lying concept of signatures (certain features in the interpreted data), in which theoretical models are “blackboxed”, are scrutinized. The paper shows that the role and functions of the signature in the experiment can be understood semiotically only taking into account the phenomenal theory and its determinant role in the formation of signatures. The author argues that the proposed criteria for the crucial experiment characterize not so much the experiment as the theory, while the experiment itself remains subject to the historical cri­terion of Lakatos. The author proposes that the beliefs about the critical and exploratory character of the Higgs Boson experiments are elicited by the neglect of the fact of laden­ness of signatures by the phenomenal theories and the insufficient selectivity of the col­lider experiments in relation to the theoretical models.
Keywords
Higgs boson, theory-ladenness, exploratory experiments, crucial tests, signature
Date of publication
01.09.2020
Number of purchasers
22
Views
483
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0.0 (0 votes)
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