Why is the Higgs Boson So Important to Physicists?

akouta (41)in #steemstem • 6 years ago

Introduction:

Particle physics is the field of physics which is dedicated to understanding the enigma of the universe by breaking it down into smallest building blocks. All this is done in order to comprehend the phenomenon operating inside these building blocks. Thus, particle physics is trying to study the properties, relationships, and interaction of the sub-atomic particles which reside inside these blocks. "Standard model" is the most famous theory presented by particle physicists in order to explain the cosmos. This model was developed in 1970's. Moreover, according to this model, our entire universe is made up of twelve particles and four types of forces in total. All the twelve particles consist of six quarks and six leptons.
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The Standard Model of Elementary Particles
Source: Wikimedia Commons, Author: MissMJ, License: CC BY 3.0

According to the Standard Model, our entire Universe is made up of 12 particles which are 6 quarks and 6 leptons including 4 types of forces which are the electromagnetic, strong, weak, and gravitational forces.

However, in addition to this standard model, it also states the presence of four forces. These are electromagnetic, strong, weak and the gravitational force. The standard model gives logical explanations of all the first three forces employed in cosmos which are electromagnetic, strong interaction and weak interaction. However, the model is totally unsuccessful in explaining the third force named as gravity. Much of the late research in particle physics is just about to find the empirical evidence of its existence because the standard model is incomplete without it.

What is Higgs Boson?

Particle physics provides us with the means to understand this universe by reducing it to a single atom. Moreover, the famous standard model is supposedly providing us the basic framework to understand the particles and the forces attached to it in an atom. All the inherent sub-atomic particles and field forces which interact in an atom have been explored by this standard model. However, in all this empirical explanation, one dominant constituent force of the atom still remains hypothetical and was still under investigation. The only aspect which was known about that unknown force is that it somehow belongs to the quantum field or it is somehow similar to it. Moreover, this field is unexpectedly responsible for procuring masses to the particles gone through it. This unexplained quantum field which is supposed to give masses to the particles was considered as "Higgs field." Moreover, above that, the particles belonging to this field were considered as Higgs boson. Now the intriguing part is that scientists were not yet sure about the fact that whether Higgs boson actually exists. Resultantly, it’s all because of this hypothesis that all the mass exists. And this made us assume that definitely, a particle exists in Higgs field which is responsible for all this. The name of this particle is Higgs Boson which is also referred to as GOD PARTICLE.

Higgs Boson, first proposed by the physicist Peter Higgs, is a particle which poses as an explanation of why other particles have mass. Therefore, a Higgs Boson is responsible for other particles' mass. Without the Higgs Boson there would be no gravity and no universe.

Peter Higgs working on his chalkboard.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, Author:Hans G, License: CC BY-SA 2.0

A scientist named Peter Higgs was the first one to propose the theory of Higgs Boson in 1960’s. He claimed that the Higgs field exists everywhere in the universe. When any kind of particles passes by this Higgs Field, both of them interact with each other. During this time, the particles attract Higgs Boson. The number of Higgs Bosons which are attracted towards the particles depend on the particle itself. It can vary in numbers. Some particles attract more Higgs Bosons while others attract less. The amount of Higgs Bosons attracted by a particle determines it's mass. When a particle attracts a more significant number of Higgs Bosons, it will have a higher mass. While the one which will fail to attract a sufficient number of Higgs Bosons will have less mass.

Why is it called as a God particle?

Source: Flickr, Author: mykhal, License: CC BY 2.0

Leon Lederman is a world-renowned physicist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his phenomenal work in his book titled "God Particle." Years later it was discovered that this god particle referred in Lederman book was, in fact, the Higgs Boson. Thus, the existence of Higgs Boson was predicted way before, even when it was yet to be discovered. The author of the book says that as this tiny particle took us more than forty years to be discovered at its full, he named the book as ‘Goddamn particle’. However, when the book was delivered to the publisher, he didn’t agree with the name for several reasons. Thus, he proposed to either change the name or to change its title to ‘God Particle’. And then, the book was published as ‘God particle’. Later on, when this particle was actually empirically confirmed it was referred to by the same name. This is how Higgs Boson was termed as God Particle. Even though, no physicist likes to claim Higgs boson as god particle. It was only the media who made it so notorious. However, the name got hype in 2012, by all the media outlets sensationalizing it for generating TRP’s.

The author announced several times that the name has nothing to do with religion or God at all. He didn’t have any intention of doing so. The only similarity which can be pulled out is that Higgs Boson is present everywhere in this universe as God is supposed to be present everywhere. This name God Particle seeks so much media buzz which Physics have never ever thought of in its entire history.

Whereas talking of its technical name, Higgs Boson was named after the scientist who discovered it – Peter Higgs. Higgs part of the name is to accredit his greatest contribution to particle physics. The word Boson is derived from the common language which means light particle.

Discovery of Higgs Boson:

The photo illustrates a Higgs boson produced and decayed into 2 jets of hadrons and 2 electrons. The lines represent the possible paths of particles produced by this proton-proton collision in the LHC detector while the energy these particles deposit is shown by the blue color.
Source: CERN Document Server, Author: Lucas Taylor, License: CC BY-SA 4.0

It took almost four decades for exploration and rigorous research all around the globe to reach the secrecy of the Higgs Boson. Finally, on the 4th of July 2012, a physicist at CERN observed the presence of a particle in the mass region of an atom. Moreover, the properties of this observed particle are consistent to the Higgs boson as proposed by the standard model. On the 8th of October 2013, the scientists named François Englert and Peter Higgs who were the brains behind this discovery were awarded the noble prize for adding up such a substantial addition to physics and to the whole scientific community in general. The latest development regarding this discovery was on March 19th, 2018 where new measurements of the characteristics of Higgs Boson were presented by the ATLAS and CMS.

What is its significance?

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Author: MissMJ, License: CC BY 3.0

It is only because of the Higgs field that all the loose and transient particles wander around in the universe. They only gain weight and character because of the Higgs field. Thus it can't be an exaggeration to say that all the matter in this universe weights due to Higgs Field. Thus, without the Higgs Field, there could be no stable structures, and the universe could be a dark, cold and lifeless like other planets.

One of the biggest contributions of the discovery of Higgs Boson is indeed the fact that it has filled out all the loopholes in the standard model. Now Standard Model can be understood in its eternity and scientists could be confident in predicting and analyzing the cosmos in depth.
Addition to capping the standard model it is also direly necessary for the mathematical consistency of the theory. High energy scattering of particles doesn't make sense without Higgs Boson, so there is a necessity for the validation of the standard model theory.
Secondly, the discovery of Higgs Boson allowed us to understand that how particles and in fact every single object in this universe gain mass.
It has opened up ways for future physics endeavors.
All-in-all, the discovery of the Higgs boson was a critical step for verifying the Standard Model, but the particle might not be there or have properties that are radically different than the ones predicted. Ultimately, the foundations of the Standard Model rest upon the Higgs boson and discovering its exact nature could easily lead to a revolution in the way we view the laws of nature.
Wichita State University physics professor Nick Solomey is excited about the discovery. He says that now it is possible that we might control the Higgs field as we can manipulate the electromagnetic field so it might become possible in the future that we can control mass.
Darin Acosta, a physicist from the University of Florida, is of the view that discovery of the Higgs Boson is such a significant discovery in the science field because it can lead to an entirely new physics.
Recapitulating, it can be said that the significance of the Higgs Boson can be truly assumed by the fact that it proudly seals in one of the elusive holes in theoretical physics. It took forty years to discover this and billions of dollars to reach this success.

Conclusion:

Higgs Boson is yet the most magnificent discovery after the discovery of electromagnetic field. At the time when the electromagnetic field was discovered, it was not even imagined that this field could be manipulated at any cost. The control over the electromagnetic field leads to the invention of transistors, which yet brings a total transformation in the telecommunication industry. It is all due to this innovation that we all have a smartphone is our hands which consists an intricate web of transistors installed inside it. Same is the case with the Higgs Boson; right now it is providing the backbone to Standard Model and Particle Physics in general. However, in the near future, it could be possible, and the implications it can have are yet to be known.