Chinese scientists to build new machine to hunt "God particle"

Chinese scientists plan to build a faster electron-positron collider to speed up the exploration of the Higgs boson, a particle that explains the existence of mass and holds the key to understanding the universe.

The scientists plan to construct a machine that is 60 times faster than the existing one.The machine is aimed at accurately measuring the nature of the Higgs boson or "God particle" and explore the regularity of fundamental physics, said scientists attending a symposium held by Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Only by learning the nature of the Higgs particle can we possibly understand the future focus of particle physics," said Wang Yifang, head of the institute. The planned collider is capable of producing 60 times more energy than the current collider, which is in operation in Beijing, Wang said.

"In the long run, it can be revamped into a large proton collider, which would generate seven times more energy than the Large Hadron Collider in operation in the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) based in Geneva," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying.

David Gross, American physicist and a Nobel Prize winner, said China's proposal to build the next-generation accelerator will enable it to stand at the centre of fundamental sciences.The hunt for the Higgs boson has been a focus of particle physics research for decades.Scientists believe the particle does exist and its discovery is merely a matter of time.