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Higgs bosons are hypothetical elementary
particles predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. These bosons may
play a rather fundamental role: they may be the carrier particles of the
Higgs field which is thought to permeate the universe and to give mass to
other particles. They have not yet been observed but constitute what is known as the Higgs field. The Higgs field is the same perceived from every direction and is mostly indistinguishable from empty
space.
A special article is dedicated to the Higgs mechanism, a physical
phenomenon that is responsible for the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry.
The Higgs boson, sometimes called the God particle, was first predicted in the 1960s by the British physicist Peter Higgs. The Higgs mechanism
for giving mass to particles was actually first proposed in the context of solid state physics to explain how particle-like structures in metals can act as if they had an
effective mass.
The Higgs boson itself has mass. Theory gives an upper limit for this mass of about 200 GeV (update: As of 10 June 2004, best
estimate is 96—117, upper limit is 251 (95% confidence). As of 2002, particle accelerators have probed energies up to 115 GeV. While a small number of events have been
recorded that could be interpreted as resulting from Higgs bosons, the evidence so far is inconclusive. It is expected that the
Large Hadron Collider, currently under construction at
CERN, will be able to confirm the existence of Higgs bosons.
Since the Higgs field is a scalar field, the Higgs boson has spin zero.
A recent (June 2004) announcement was made by experimenters at Fermilab that the
mass of Higgs Boson may be greater than previously thought. Read more at New Scientist .
Reference
- The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?, by Leon Lederman, Dick Teresi, ASIN
0395558492, Houghton Mifflin Co; (January 1993)
See also: list of particles
External links
- Higgs physics at the LHC
- The Higgs Boson by the CERN exploratorium
- The God Particle and the Grid by Richard Martin
- How Particles Acquire Mass by Mary and Ian Butterworth, et. al.
- Higgs boson on the horizon
- Fermilab Results Change Estimated Mass Of Postulated Higgs Boson
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