Posted by Mark Silberer ● Partner: Paul Kallenbach
The following is something many of you will have heard about in the news over the last few days. Some of the reports have been a little bit confusing and I thought this might help.
Context
The Higgs boson particle has been 'discovered'.
Trigger
"That's all well and good, but I'm a lawyer not a particle physicist. I don't really know why you're telling me this or why I should care."
Question
Why should you care?
Answer
The 'discovery' of the Higgs boson demonstrates the existence of the Higgs field without which the universe would not exist as we see it today. It is one of the greatest and most important discoveries in science in the past 100 years.
The 'discovery'
A group of scientists working in Europe and the US 'discovered' a particle known as the Higgs boson particle. The particle was first theorised almost 50 years ago by physicist Peter Higgs but its existence has never been proven until now.
By 'discovered' I mean that a particle has been discovered consistent with the Higgs boson but further data and analysis are required before it can be completely identified.
An explanation
The 'discovery' of the Higgs boson particle demonstrates the existence of the Higgs field. The Higgs field is a quantum field that permeates the vacuum of space and interacts with some elementary particles giving them mass. These particles that have acquired mass make up the universe we see around us.
A quark (several of which make up protons and neutrons which make up the nucleus of the atom) interacts relatively strongly with the Higgs field. An electron (which revolves around the atom's nucleus) doesn't interact very strongly with the Higgs field and is therefore less massive than the quark. A photon (which is like a particle of light) doesn't interact with the Higgs field at all and therefore has no mass.
The Higgs field is not observable and its existence cannot be proved via experimentation directly. However all quantum fields have an associated particle, in this case the Higgs boson. Another example is that the particle associated with the electromagnetic field (a quantum field like the Higgs field which includes the spectrum of light that we can see) is the photon which I mentioned earlier. The discovery of the Higgs boson demonstrates the existence of the Higgs field.
An analogy
The best analogy I can use to describe the Higgs field and Higgs boson is as follows:
Imagine a pool of water. In that pool of water is my dad, a large fat man, and a moray eel, a fast swimming fish snake thing. My dad can't move quickly through the water because he is experiencing a lot of resistance from the water, however the eel is streamlined and can zip through the water quickly without much resistance.
My dad is like a quark, the eel is like an electron, the water is like the Higgs field and the individual water molecules (i.e. H2O molecules) are like the Higgs boson particles.
Why is this important?
The Higgs field is important because without it the universe would not exist as we see it. There would be no planets, no stars, no laws, no lawyers, no clients, no money, no ice cream, no footy, no Game of Thrones, no techno music, no Greek islands and no people. There would only be massless particles flying around the universe at the speed of light. The Higgs field gives our universe order and this is perhaps why the Higgs boson has often been referred to as the 'God particle'.
I'm sure many of you have seen this in the news but many reports have been confusing and not clear on what the discovery means. I hope this little explanation has helped in some way. For more information go to http://public.web.cern.ch/public.
If you are not too busy on this chilly Friday afternoon take a moment to consider the wonder that is the universe we live in. Well done to Peter Higgs and the other scientists who have made this exceptional and important discovery.
Yay science!
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