Higgs Boson

Higgs Boson Stats

  • Symbol: H0
  • Type: Scalar Boson
  • Antiparticle: Own
  • Mass: 125300 MeV/c²
  • Charge: 0
  • Colors: None
  • Lifetime: 1.56×10−22 seconds
  • Decays to: W± and Z0 Bosons & Photons, still being observed

The Higgs Boson

The Higgs Boson (symbol: H0 ) is a recently discovered fundamental particle that was first recorded by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the summer of 2012. By March of 2013, enough affirmative data had been analyzed to tentatively confirm that the newly discovered particle behaved in accordance with characteristics of the Higgs Boson as predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

The Higgs Boson is a fundamental particle with integer* spin (*"scalar"= 0 spin) and is therefore considered a boson. The Higgs Boson is a quantum excitation of the Higgs Field; it has no spin, electric charge, or color charge. It is also very unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately. The Higgs Boson is considered to be its own antiparticle. The Higgs Boson mediates the Higgs Field, and only experiences one of the four fundamental interactions: gravitation.

The discovery of the Higgs Boson is monumental in that it appears to confirm the existence of the Higgs Field. The Higgs Field is an energy field that transmits mass to particles that travel through it. The Higgs Field is significant in that it is a solution to the previously unexplained mystery of why some elementary particles have mass and others do not. Proof of this field’s existence, explains mass at the smallest scale, and therefore plays an important role in explaining the existence of all matter in the universe.

To explain how the Higgs Field gives other particles mass, the best analogy is to imagine a giant crowd of people (the Higgs Field); then imagine an average person (massless particle such as the photon) walking through the crowd; this average person would cause little disturbance and pass through the crowd with relative ease, picking up little or no mass at all. In contrast if a celebrity (massive elementary particle such as the W or Z boson) were to pass through the crowd, that person would draw attention and experience resistance trying to pass through—thus picking up mass along the way.

Compared to other fundamental particles, the Higgs Boson is extremely massive (125300 MeV/c²)and has an extremely short lifetime (a mere 1.56×10−22 seconds), which makes it hard to detect. This is why, although the Higgs Boson was originally theorized in 1964 by Peter Higgs and others, its existence could not be explored until technology powerful enough to simulate conditions necessary to generate Higgs particles were created. The LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built, and one of its core reasons for construction was to prove or disprove the existence of the Higgs Particle, which makes the Higgs Boson’s recent discovery all the more extraordinary.

History

The Higgs boson is named after Peter Higgs, one of six physicists who, in 1964, proposed the mechanism that suggested the existence of such a particle. Although Higgs's name has come to be associated with this theory, several researchers between about 1960 and 1972 each independently developed different parts of it. In mainstream media the Higgs boson has often been called the "God particle", from a 1993 book on the topic; the nickname is strongly disliked by many physicists, including Higgs, who regard it as inappropriate sensationalism.

After tenative confirmation of the Higgs Boson's discovery in 2013, two of the original researchers, Peter Higgs and François Englert, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work and prediction (Englert's co-researcher, Robert Brout had died in 2011).