The Higgs boson is a particle of God.
For a long time, the standard model of particle physics could not explain the phenomena associated with the accelerating expansion of the universe and gravity. Moreover, it is known that for the emergence of matter, the presence of atoms alone is not enough, there must be fundamental physical forces that hold these atoms together. Therefore, for the development of science, it became urgently necessary to have a unified model that could cover all known physical phenomena in nature.
And in 1964, the Scottish physicist Peter Higgs, in his fundamental works, theoretically predicted the existence in the Standard Model of a subatomic particle, which is a field quantum and is responsible for creating the mass of other elementary particles – bosons. If it was possible to experimentally prove the presence of such a Higgs boson, then scientists could become completely happy, since this discovery would explain how matter appeared and why some elementary particles received mass during the formation of the Universe. Others, such as photons, do not.
So, to complete the Standard Model, it was necessary to find the main missing particle – the field quantum, which is capable of creating mass in matter. The best minds of mankind, consisting of more than 20,000 scientists and engineers from all over the world, began their work at Cern, the world’s largest laboratory for high-energy physics, where the many kilometers of the Hadron Collider is located underground. In the 27-kilometer tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider, which consists of super-powerful electromagnets, charged particles were accelerated to a speed close to the speed of light and collided with each other. During this process, it was possible to create a deformation of the space around the point of impact. The purpose of the experiment was to break the boson into pieces and determine its components as a result of the released energy from the collision of particles. The energy generated by the observation was so high that some participants even suggested that they had the opportunity to create an alternate dimension.
In general, it is worth noting that the scientists themselves do not undertake to even assume what might happen if something goes wrong. The consequences of an unforeseen accident at the Hadron Collider can be most dire. But let’s not talk about sad things. Yet the magical boson predicted by Higgs was caught almost fifty years later! The greatest discovery was made for humanity, which made it possible to find out: how energy turns into matter. And the theory about the structure of our Universe, the Standard Model of physics, finally got its missing link. Thus, it was found out how elementary particles interact with each other and the transformation of energy into matter occurs, how our material world was created with the help of the Higgs field.
It has been proven that there is the Higgs boson, which plays the role of a weighting agent and the Higgs field that surrounds us and determines our mass. At the moment, the main part of the scientific community believes that the Standard Model has been confirmed. It included 12 types of elementary particles, the characteristics and features of the interaction of which determine the basic laws of the universe. Emphasizing the value and importance of this discovery, Nobel laureate Leon Lederman in his book called the Higgs boson – a particle of God. In fact, he originally planned to call this boson – a damn particle, but the editor of the book insisted on the first name. Now, with the light hand of Lederman, the Higgs boson is usually called the particle of God in many media. Peter Higgs and his associate François Engler received the Nobel Prize in 2013 for the scientific prediction of the Higgs boson. But what this incredible discovery promises us in the future, what prospects it opens, is still unknown. But one thing is for sure – we will most likely have to rewrite physics textbooks.