On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 126 GeV. This particle is consistent with the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model. The Higgs boson, as proposed within the Standard Model, is the simplest manifestation of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism. Other types of Higgs bosons are predicted by other theories that go beyond the Standard Model.
On 8 October 2013 the Nobel prize in physics was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider."
Collision events* recorded by ATLAS (left) and CMS (right) showing characteristics of a Higgs produced in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV (Image: left – ATLAS/CERN, right – Tom McCauley/CMS/CERN)
Peter Higgs has passed away at the age of 94. An iconic figure in modern science, Higgs in 1964 postulated the existence of the eponymous Higgs boson. Its discovery at CERN in 2012 was the crowning achievement of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics – a remarkable theory which explains the visible universe at the most fundamental level.
Alongside Robert Brout and François Englert, and building on the work of a generation of physicists, Higgs postulated the existence of the Brout-Englert-Higgs (BEH) field. Alone among known fundamental fields, the BEH field is “turned on” throughout the universe, rather than flickering in and out of existence and remaining localized. Its existence allowed matter to form in the early universe some 10-11 s after the Big Bang, thanks to the interactions between elementary particles (such as electrons and quarks) and the ever-present BEH field. Higgs and Englert were awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2013 in recognition of these achievements.
“Besides his outstanding contributions to particle physics, Peter was a very special person, an immensely inspiring figure for physicists around the world, a man of rare modesty, a great teacher and someone who explained physics in a very simple yet profound way,” said CERN’s Director-General Fabiola Gianotti, expressing the emotion felt by the physics community upon his loss. “An important piece of CERN’s history and accomplishments is linked to him. I am very saddened, and I will miss him sorely.”
Peter Higgs’ scientific legacy will extend far beyond the scope of current discoveries. The Higgs boson – the observable “excitation” of the BEH field which he was the first to identify – is linked to some of most intriguing and crucial outstanding questions in fundamental physics. This still quite mysterious particle therefore represents a uniquely promising portal to physics beyond the SM. Since discovering it in 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have already made impressive progress in constraining its properties – a painstaking scientific study which will form a central plank of research at the LHC, high-luminosity LHC and future colliders for decades to come, promising insights into the many unanswered questions in fundamental science.
The Higgs Discovery Explained - Episode 1Here’s a simple recipe in 3 steps. Episode 1 explains how to make THE particle in the lab. |
The Higgs Discovery Explained - Episode 1
|
The Higgs Discovery Explained - Episode 2The lifetime of the Higgs is so short that you can't in any conceivable way "see" it. How do physicists detect it then? |
The Higgs Discovery Explained - Episode 2
|
Gradcracker webinarRaymond Veness explains his involvement in the Higgs boson discovery. |
GC Webinar – Raymond Veness explains his involvement in the Higgs boson discovery
|
