GENEVA (AP) – To cheers and standing ovations from scientists, the world's biggest atom smasher claimed the discovery of a new subatomic particle Wednesday, calling it "consistent" with the long-sought Higgs boson — popularly known as the "God particle" — that helps explain what gives all matter in the universe size and shape.

"We have now found the missing cornerstone of particle physics," Rolf Heuer, director of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), told scientists.

He said the newly discovered subatomic particle is a boson, but he stopped just shy of claiming outright that it is the Higgs boson itself — an extremely fine distinction.

"As a layman, I think we did it," he told the elated crowd. "We have a discovery. We have observed a new particle that is consistent with a Higgs boson."

The Higgs boson, which until now has been a theoretical particle, is seen as the key to understanding why matter has mass, which combines with gravity to give an object weight. The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton's discovery of it: Gravity was there all the time before Newton explained it. But now scientists have seen something very much like the Higgs boson and can put that knowledge to further use.

CERN's atom smasher, the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border, has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to investigate dark matter, antimatter and the creation of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.

Two independent teams at CERN said Wednesday they have both "observed" a new subatomic particle — a boson. Heuer called it "most probably a Higgs boson, but we have to find out what kind of Higgs boson it is. "

Asked whether the find is a discovery, Heuer answered, "As a layman, I think we have it. But as a scientist, I have to say, "'What do we have?'"

"It is consistent with a Higgs boson as is needed for the standard model," Heuer said. "We can only call it a Higgs boson — not the Higgs boson."

The leaders of the two CERN teams — Joe Incandela, head of CMS with 2,100 scientists, and Fabiola Gianotti, head of ATLAS with 3,000 scientists — each presented in complicated scientific terms what was essentially extremely strong evidence of a new particle.

Incandela said it was too soon to say definitively whether it is the "standard model" Higgs that Scottish physicist Peter Higgs and others predicted in the 1960s — part of a standard model theory of physics involving an energy field where particles interact with a key particle, the Higgs boson.

The phrase "God particle" was coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman but is used by laymen, not physicists, as an easier way of explaining how the subatomic universe works and got started.

【新聞快訊】

?歐洲核子中心4日舉行新聞發(fā)布會，宣布已經(jīng)觀測到“類似‘上帝粒子’特性的一顆新粒子”。該中心總主任羅夫·赫爾博士稱，人類在理解自然世界上跨越了一個嶄新階段。

?歐洲核子中心人員在臺上伴著泣聲，眼含淚花，激動地宣布，ATLAS和CMS兩個通用大型實驗結(jié)果顯示，在125吉電子伏特（GEV） 的質(zhì)量附近發(fā)現(xiàn)了一顆新粒子，其特性類似于粒子物理學(xué)界一直努力于尋找的“希格斯玻色子”，也被稱為“上帝粒子”。

這一重大新聞的宣布贏得現(xiàn)場熱烈的掌聲。對“上帝粒子”作出預(yù)言的英國著名物理學(xué)家彼得·希格斯也參加了現(xiàn)場的新聞發(fā)布活動。參與實驗值班的北京大學(xué)錢思進(jìn)教授無比激動地對記者表示，這是50年來全球數(shù)千名科學(xué)家的艱辛努力所等待的結(jié)果。

新聞發(fā)布會上，CMS實驗的新聞發(fā)言人饒·安崗德拉稱，新發(fā)現(xiàn)的粒子應(yīng)該是人類從未觀測到的最重的一個玻色子，科學(xué)家們在研究和驗證中極為謹(jǐn)慎。ATLAS實驗的新聞發(fā)言人法彪拉·吉阿諾迪表示，這一驕人業(yè)績令人興奮。

錢思進(jìn)教授表示，CMS實驗的科研人員在2012年6月前記錄數(shù)據(jù)上尋找標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模型中的希格斯玻色子終于取得了初步結(jié)果，分析顯示新粒子的部分特性與“標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模型”中“上帝粒子”的預(yù)期一致，但這還仍需不斷確認(rèn)；大型強子對撞機目前在以引人注目的進(jìn)度提供新數(shù)據(jù)。希望到2012年底數(shù)據(jù)樣本總量翻3倍多，這些數(shù)據(jù)將使CMS能進(jìn)一步闡明這種新粒子的本性；無論如何，今日新聞發(fā)布內(nèi)容至少向世界表明，人類又發(fā)現(xiàn)了一顆新粒子，這也是粒子物理學(xué)界的又一重大發(fā)現(xiàn)。

據(jù)介紹，歐洲核子中心對過去兩年積累的大量數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行了細(xì)致分析，今年的部分?jǐn)?shù)據(jù)仍在處理之中以待7月底發(fā)布；目前該中心還在等待后續(xù)的實驗數(shù)據(jù)，估計年內(nèi)會有更加全面的觀測分析結(jié)果。

今年3月，歐洲核子中心決定提高歐洲大型強子對撞機的對撞能量，使得質(zhì)子束流運行能量達(dá)到4萬億電子伏特，旨在對“上帝粒子”的存在空間盡快獲得更清晰的和決定性的表述。