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What is Higgs boson and why it is named so?

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What is Higgs boson and why it is named so?
posted Mar 9, 2015 by Vikram Luthra

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Lets first see why it is named as Higgs Boson

Higgs comes from Physicist Peter Higgs and boson is named after Indian scientists Satyendra Nath Bose who worked with Albert Einstein in the 1920s.

What is Higgs Boson

The Higgs boson (or Higgs particle) is a particle that gives mass to other particles. Peter Higgs was the first person to think of it, and the particle was found in March 2013. Its existence was predicted in 1960s, to explain why the tiny particles that make up atoms have mass. Physicist Peter Higgs and 5 other theoretical physicists proposed that an invisible field lying across the universe gives particles their mass, allowing them to clump together to form stars and planets. Prof. Higgs predicted that this field, the Higgs Field, would have a signature particle, a massive boson. Finding it would point towards the existence of the field.

Higgs bosons obey the conservation of energy law, which states that no energy is created or destroyed, but instead it is transferred. First, the energy starts out in the gauge boson that interacts with the Higgs field. This energy is in the form of kinetic energy as movement. After the gauge boson interacts with the Higgs field, it is slowed down. This slowing reduces the amount of kinetic energy in the gauge boson. However, this energy is not destroyed. Instead, the energy is converted into mass-energy, which is normal mass that comes from energy. The mass created is what we call a Higgs boson. The amount of mass created comes from Einstein's famous equation E=mc2, which states that mass is equal to a large amount of energy and energy is conserved.

Why God particle?

The Higgs is the last missing piece of the standard model, the theory that describes the basic building blocks of the universe. The other 11 particles predicted by the model have been found and Higgs is the last jigsaw piece. If the particle was not shown to exist, it would have meant tearing up of the standard model and going back to the drawing board.

answer Mar 9, 2015 by Salil Agrawal
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The Higgs boson is named after Peter Higgs, one of six physicists who, in 1964, proposed the mechanism that suggested the existence of such a particle.

answer Mar 9, 2015 by Shivaranjini
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