Higgs Boson - The God Particle

Good news! Scientists find the signs of the Missing particle the Higgs boson. Scientists of CERN Physics Research Centre, Geneva said that they had found the signs of Higgs boson, the elementary particle believed to have played an important role in the creation of universe after the Bing Bang occurred 14 billion years ago. The scientists at the CERN, claimed that they have tried to find the traces of the boson by smashing particles together in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at very high speed. The Higgs boson, named after the British Physicist Peter Higgs is believed to be the agent that gave mass and energy to all forms of matter. The term boson was taken from the name of the Indian physicist Sathyendranath Bose who worked with Albert Einstein to find out the concepts of particle physics. Higgs boson is often referred to as the “God particle” after the title of the book The God particle: If the universe is the Answer, What is the question, written by Leon Lederman.

As per the scientific concept, Bing bang collision resulted in the formation of Plasma and there were no solid, liquid or gaseous forms at that time. It is believing that the Higgs boson gave mass to all forms of matter like solid, liquid and gas forms. The LHC was designed to collide the Protons from the opposite sides at light speed to re- create the conditions of the Bing bang. Scientists at CERN claim that they got the signs of Higgs bosons after the proton collision. If the finding becomes a truth, it will fill the hole in the Standard Model.

What is Higgs boson?

Higgs boson is the subatomic particle long thought to be the fundamental building block of the universe. Higgs boson is the hypothetical elementary particle that gives mass to all matter. It forms an integral part of the Higgs mechanism. The Standard Model of Particle physics explains how the elementary particles interact together in the universe .Subatomic particles like Protons, Neutrons and Electrons make up the atom while the Higgs boson is believed to be the particle that gives mass to all matter. The concept of Peter Higgs (1960) says that Higgs energy exists in the universe and as the particles zoom around in their field, they interact and attract Higgs boson which finally accumulates around the particles. The particles that attract large number of Higgs bosons will get higher mass.

Large Hadron Collider

The experiments to find the particle are being performed in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest energy particle accelerator lies in a tunnel 27 kms in circumference and as deep as 175 meters located beneath the Franco- Swiss border near Geneva. It was designed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to test the predictions of high energy physics including the existence of Higgs boson. It is designed to collide opposing particle beams of either protons at energy of 7 teraelectron volts or 7TeV per nucleon at an energy of 574 TeV per nucleus. Hadron means the particles of Quarks.

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Higgs Mechanism

It is the process by which the vector bosons get mass. The Higgs mechanism was proposed in 1964 by three groups of Physicists. The Higgs mechanism explains how the electroweak vector bosons get mass. It also predicts the ratio between W boson and Z boson masses and their interactions.

Higgs boson is believed to be the quantum of the theoretical Higgs field. According to the hypothesis, the Higgs field has an amplitude of Non zero vacuum that gives mass to every elementary particles that collide with the Higgs field. The acquisition of the Non zero vacuum, breaks the electro weak guage symmetry that gives mass to the guage bosons. As per the standard Model, the Higgs field has two charged and two neutral fields. Both the charged components and one neutral component are the Goldstone bosons. The quantum of the remaining neutral component corresponds to the Higgs boson. Since the Higgs field is Scalar, the Higgs boson has no spin and no angular momentum.