Why Is the Higgs Boson Called the “God Particle”?
Classical theories always found to be in good agreement with massive objects, such as the galaxies, planets, etc. but the classical mechanics or the classical theories always failed to explain how the atom works, in fact, according to classical theories atoms do not exist! In the early 20th centuries, physicists realised that they needed a completely new theory to account for atomic particles and it is known as quantum theory. The version that sums up the current knowledge of elementary particles and forces is known as the standard model. It has the leptons (the components of the matter), force particles (such as the gluon, photon, W and Z), and the Higgs Boson which is most essential and required to explain part of the masses of the other particles.
The Higgs Boson, which is also familiarly known as the god particle is one of the new age discoveries and top elementary particles available in nature. According to the standard model, the elementary particles are classified as Bosons and fermions and the Higgs Boson or the God particle belongs to Bosons. Let us have a detailed explanation and information about the Boson particle and the Higgs Boson.
Boson Particle
The fundamental particles or elementary particles are mainly classified into two types, fermions and Bosons. Fermions are the elementary particles that are designated with the odd half-integral spin and they are further classified into leptons and hadrons. Bosons are the integral spin particles and they do not obey Pauli’s exclusion principle. The fundamental particles that have an integral spin and obeys the Bose-Einstein distribution are known as the Bosons or Boson particles.
Higgs Boson Particle
The standard model of fundamental particles describes the fundamental forces (except gravitation force), the particles which transmit those forces and three generations of the particles. We know that the fundamental particles are massless or of negligible mass, but that does not mean they are completely massless.
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Then the question that arose was, why do elementary particles have masses? This question was answered by Higgs Boson. Higgs Boson explained why elementary particles have mass and this explanation is familiarly known as the Higgs Boson theory. The Higgs Boson particle is an elementary particle predicted by the standard model and its existence was proved in 1912 by ATLAS and CMS.
In 1964, one of the British physicists Peter Higgs was working on the particles at Edinburgh University, he predicted that in addition to the particles the scientists already knew, there must be another one. The new particle would give mass to the particles, and make sense of all the theories about them. Scientists looked for this new particle and named it the Higgs Boson or the Higgs particle for years. In 2012, LHC physicists noticed an interesting signal that brought a wave of curiosity and they thought this signal might be the missing particle. It was confirmed as the Higgs Boson particle in 2013.
What is Higgs Boson?
According to the Higgs Boson meaning, the Higgs Boson is that elementary half-integral particle related to the Higgs field, a field that provides mass to other fundamental particles like electrons and quarks. A particle’s mass determines what proportion it resists changing its speed or position when it encounters a force. Not all elementary particles have mass. For example, the photon, which is the particle of light and carries the electromagnetic force, has no mass at all.
The Higgs Boson particle is connected with a weak force. We know that electromagnetism describes particles interacting with photons, the basic units of the electromagnetic field. In an alternative way, the modern theory of weak interactions describes force particles (the W and Z particles) interacting with electrons, neutrinos, quarks and other particles. In many aspects, these force particles are almost similar to photons. But they are also strikingly different at the same time.
The photon probably has no mass (i.e., massless or negligible mass) at all. From experiments, we know that a photon can not be more massive than the thousand-billion-billion-billionth (10⁻³⁰) mass of an electron, and for theoretical reasons and assumptions, we believe it has exactly zero mass. The W and Z force particles, however, have enormous masses, around more than 80 times the mass of a proton, one of the constituents of an atomic nucleus.
Scientists are now studying and analyzing the Higgs Boson properties to determine if it precisely matches the predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics. If the Higgs Boson deviates from the model, it is going to provide clues to new particles that only interact with other Standard Model particles through the Higgs Boson and thereby lead to new scientific discoveries.
Did You Know?
Peter Higgs’ best-known paper on the new particle was initially rejected. But this was a blessing in disguise since it led Peter Higgs to feature an entire paragraph introducing the now-famous Higgs Boson particle. In 1964, Peter Higgs wrote two papers, each just two pages long, on what is now referred to as the Higgs field. The journal Physics Letters accepted and approved the first but sent the second back. Yoichiro Nambu, a highly regarded physicist who had reviewed the second paper, insisted Peter Higgs add a section explaining his theories' physical implications. Higgs added a paragraph predicting that an excitation of the field, like a wave in the ocean, would yield a new particle. He then submitted the revised paper to the competing journal Physical Review Letters, which published it and now one of the important discoveries.
FAQs on Higgs Boson: Meaning, Discovery & Impact in Physics
1. What is the Higgs boson, explained in simple terms?
The Higgs boson is a fundamental particle that is responsible for giving mass to other elementary particles, such as electrons and quarks. You can think of it as being linked to a universal energy field called the Higgs field. Particles that interact with this field gain mass, while particles that do not, like photons of light, remain massless.
2. How are the Higgs boson and the Higgs field related?
The Higgs field is an invisible energy field that permeates the entire universe. The Higgs boson is a quantum excitation, or a ripple, within this field. A simple analogy is to imagine the Higgs field as a calm ocean and the Higgs boson as a wave that appears on its surface. By discovering the boson, scientists were able to confirm the existence of the field itself.
3. Who is credited with the discovery of the Higgs boson?
The concept was first proposed in the 1960s by a group of physicists, most notably Peter Higgs. However, its physical existence was only confirmed on July 4, 2012, by scientists at CERN using the Large Hadron Collider. This groundbreaking discovery earned Peter Higgs and François Englert the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013.
4. Why is the Higgs boson often called the 'God particle'?
This popular nickname is not a scientific term. It came from the title of a book by physicist Leon Lederman. He used the name to highlight how the particle is so central to physics and fundamental to the universe's structure, yet was incredibly difficult to find. Most scientists prefer not to use this term because it can be misleading.
5. Why was finding the Higgs boson such an important event in physics?
The discovery was a monumental achievement because the Higgs boson was the final missing piece of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. This model is our best explanation for the fundamental particles and forces that make up everything. Finding the Higgs boson provided strong validation for the entire theory and confirmed the mechanism by which particles acquire mass.
6. What would our universe be like if the Higgs boson did not exist?
Without the Higgs boson and its associated field, the universe would be unrecognisable.
- Fundamental particles like electrons and quarks would have no mass.
- As a result, atoms could not form, meaning there would be no planets, stars, or life.
- All massless particles would simply travel through space at the speed of light.
7. Is there any connection between the Higgs boson and time travel?
No, there is no scientific evidence or accepted theory that connects the Higgs boson to time travel. Its function within the Standard Model is to explain the origin of mass. The idea of using it for time travel currently belongs in the realm of science fiction, not in established physics.
