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Physics Encyclopedia Entry 1779336364

The Higgs boson is a fundamental subatomic particle discovered in 2012, responsible for giving other particles mass through the Higgs field. ## Overview The Higgs boson is a crucial component of the Standard Model of particle physics, a theoretical framework that describes the behavior of fundamental particles and forces in the universe. The existence of the Higgs boson was first proposed by physicist Peter Higgs and others in the 1960s as a way to explain how particles acquire mass. The Higgs boson is a scalar boson, a type of particle that carries a force, and is responsible for the interaction between particles and the Higgs field, a field that permeates all of space. The discovery of the Higgs boson was a major milestone in the history of physics, confirming a key aspect of the Standard Model and providing evidence for the existence of the Higgs field. The discovery was made possible by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a powerful particle accelerator located at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. ## History/Background The concept of the Higgs boson was first proposed in 1964 by Peter Higgs, a British physicist, and others, including François Englert and Robert Brout. They suggested that a new field, the Higgs field, could be responsible for giving particles mass. The Higgs field is a scalar field that permeates all of space and interacts with particles, giving them mass. The Higgs boson is the quanta of the Higgs field, the particle that carries the force associated with the field. The search for the Higgs boson began in the 1980s, with the construction of the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) at CERN. However, the LEP was not powerful enough to detect the Higgs boson, and the search was continued at the LHC, which was completed in 2008. The LHC is a circular tunnel, 27 kilometers in circumference, that accelerates protons to nearly the speed of light and then collides them at four points around the ring. ## Key Information The Higgs boson was discovered on July 4, 2012, by physicists working at the LHC. The discovery was announced on July 4, 2012, by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, two teams of physicists working at the LHC. The Higgs boson was detected in a process known as the Higgs decay, where the Higgs boson decays into two bottom quarks. The properties of the Higgs boson were measured in subsequent experiments, including its mass, which was found to be approximately 125 GeV (gigaelectronvolts). The Higgs boson is a scalar boson, meaning that it has zero spin, and is a boson, meaning that it carries a force. The Higgs boson interacts with other particles through the Higgs field, giving them mass. ## Significance The discovery of the Higgs boson confirmed a key aspect of the Standard Model and provided evidence for the existence of the Higgs field. The Higgs boson is a fundamental particle that plays a crucial role in the universe, giving other particles mass. The discovery of the Higgs boson has also opened up new areas of research, including the study of the Higgs field and its interactions with other particles. INFOBOX: - Name: Higgs boson - Type: Fundamental particle - Date: July 4, 2012 - Location: CERN, Geneva, Switzerland - Known For: Discovery of the Higgs boson and confirmation of the Higgs field TAGS: Higgs boson, Higgs field, Standard Model, particle physics, Large Hadron Collider, CERN, fundamental particles, scalar boson, boson, force carrier.