What is the Higgs boson particle?

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Physicist Professor Peter Higgs theorised about, and gained the Nobel Prize for, the Higgs boson.

But what is the elusive subatomic particle –  which has additionally been referred to as the “God particle” – and what precisely did he must say about it?

– What did Prof Higgs win the Nobel Prize for?

In 1964 Prof Higgs predicted the existence of a brand new particle, which is now seen as elementary to the creation of the universe.

The particle’s existence wouldn’t be confirmed for nearly half a century, with experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, lastly confirming his idea in 2012.

One 12 months later he was collectively awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work, together with Francois Englert.

– What was the idea?

Prof Higgs proposed that the particle gave matter mass and held the bodily cloth of the universe collectively.

Everything we see round us is fabricated from atoms, inside that are electrons, protons and neutrons, and people are fabricated from quarks and different subatomic particles.

Prof Higgs’s ground-breaking proposal was that particles purchase mass by interacting with an all-pervading subject unfold all through the universe. The extra they work together, the extra huge and heavy they turn out to be.

– What is the significance of the Higgs boson?

The discovery of the Higgs boson was important to the Standard Model – the idea that describes the internet of particles, forces and interactions that make up the universe.

Without the Higgs boson to offer matter mass and weight, there could possibly be no Standard Model universe.

The particle is a part of many theoretical equations underpinning scientists’ understanding of how the world got here into being.

If the particle didn’t exist, then these theories would have wanted to be basically overhauled.

The indisputable fact that it does exist provides extra weight to the so-called Standard Model of particle physics, which explains how a lot of the universe works.

– What is nonetheless unknown?

Scientists say that though the discovery of Higgs boson was monumental, there are nonetheless a whole lot of unanswered questions like: can it work together with darkish matter and reveal the nature of this mysterious type of matter?

What generates the Higgs boson’s mass and self-interaction, and whether or not it has twins or family members, are different questions that stay unanswered.

New experiments are the particle in unprecedented precision, and researchers are learning the properties of matter underneath excessive temperatures and density.