Many years ago, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider finally found evidence of the Higgs boson that was crucial to the development of later physics.
History
In 1960, Peter Higgs predicted the existence of an entirely new type of particle. Higgs was trying to solve a major problem in physics, concerning the relationship between the two fundamental forces in nature, the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force. Physicists have suggested that at energies as high as in particle colliders, these two forces merge and form a unified force known as the electroweak force.
How can these two forces merge and then separate at different energies? Higgs proposed a new type of particle. At high energies this particle will unify the two forces and at low energies will split into two separate forces.
During his research, he found something quite special about this new grain. The elementary particles like protons, electrons… why have different masses. Higgs found the answer: different particles interact with this new type of particle in different ways, so they will have different masses.
Peter Higgs with the world’s largest particle collider.
From there, the Higgs particle was born and is known as a very important particle. Half a century has passed and the collaboration of more than 3,000 scientists used the world’s largest particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to find evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson and were awarded the Nobel Prize for the work.
There are still many questions surrounding the Higgs particle
The confirmation of the Higgs boson reinforced the Standard Model of particle physics, our modern view of the fundamental interactions of the universe. But as is often the case with science, for every new thing a dozen questions arise. The Standard Model is flawed and will take a long time to perfect.
The Standard Model does not explain why mysterious particles called neutrinos have mass and are composed of dark matter and dark energy that make up more than 95% of the energy density of the universe. It also does not include gravity in the quantum mechanical model.
The Large Hadron Collider with many new innovations hopes to solve these mysteries.
LHC scientists are preparing to return to research with greater intensity this summer. They use an upgraded system that will push the energy even higher in the hope of solving these mysteries and bringing new surprises.