Peter Higgs, the renowned physicist who postulated the existence of the Higgs boson, has passed away at 94. His theory, confirmed by CERN in 2012, is a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics, explaining the universe at its most fundamental level. Higgs, along with Robert Brout and François Englert, proposed the Brout-Englert-Higgs field, which was crucial to the formation of matter in the early universe. Their work earned them the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. CERN’s Director-General Fabiola Gianotti praised Higgs as an inspiring figure and a great teacher. His legacy continues to shape research in fundamental physics.
The Legacy of Peter Higgs: A Pillar of Modern Physics
Peter Higgs, a luminary in the realm of modern science, passed away at the age of 94. Higgs, in 1964, proposed the existence of the Higgs boson, a cornerstone of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. The discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN in 2012 marked a significant milestone in our understanding of the universe at its most fundamental level.
Higgs, along with Robert Brout and François Englert, and building on the work of a generation of physicists, proposed the existence of the Brout-Englert-Higgs (BEH) field. This field, unique among known fundamental fields, is omnipresent throughout the universe. The BEH field played a crucial role in the formation of matter in the early universe, approximately 10-11 seconds after the Big Bang, through interactions between elementary particles and the ever-present BEH field. For their groundbreaking work, Higgs and Englert were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013.
The Higgs Boson: A Portal to New Physics
The Higgs boson, the observable manifestation of the BEH field, is tied to some of the most intriguing and critical unanswered questions in fundamental physics. This particle, still shrouded in mystery, represents a promising gateway to physics beyond the SM. Since its discovery in 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have made significant strides in constraining its properties. This meticulous scientific study will continue to be a central focus of research at the LHC, high-luminosity LHC, and future colliders for decades to come, offering insights into the many unanswered questions in fundamental science.
The Higgs boson, an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, is produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field. In the Standard Model, the Higgs particle is a massive scalar boson with zero spin, even (positive) parity, no electric charge, and no color charge that interacts with mass. It is also highly unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately upon generation.
The Higgs Field: A Fundamental Component of the Universe
The Higgs field is a scalar field with two neutral and two electrically charged components that form a complex doublet of the weak isospin SU(2) symmetry. Its “Sombrero potential” leads it to take a nonzero value everywhere (including otherwise empty space), which breaks the weak isospin symmetry of the electroweak interaction and, via the Higgs mechanism, gives a rest mass to all massive elementary particles of the Standard Model, including the Higgs boson itself.
Both the field and the boson are named after physicist Peter Higgs, who, in 1964, along with five other scientists in three teams, proposed the Higgs mechanism, a way for some particles to acquire mass. If these ideas were correct, a particle known as a scalar boson should also exist (with certain properties). This particle was called the Higgs boson and could be used to test whether the Higgs field was the correct explanation.
The Discovery of the Higgs Boson: A Milestone in Physics
After a 40-year search, a subatomic particle with the expected properties was discovered in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. The new particle was subsequently confirmed to match the expected properties of a Higgs boson. Physicists from two of the three teams, Peter Higgs and François Englert, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 for their theoretical predictions. Although Higgs’s name has come to be associated with this theory, several researchers between about 1960 and 1972 independently developed different parts of it.
Peter Higgs: A Tribute to a Visionary Physicist
Peter Higgs’ scientific legacy will extend far beyond the scope of current discoveries. “Besides his outstanding contributions to particle physics, Peter was a very special person, an immensely inspiring figure for physicists around the world, a man of rare modesty, a great teacher and someone who explained physics in a very simple yet profound way,” said CERN’s Director-General Fabiola Gianotti. “An important piece of CERN’s history and accomplishments is linked to him. I am very saddened, and I will miss him sorely.”
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