The Higgs field was originally proposed as a way to unite two of the four fundamental forces: the electromagnetic force and weak force. But the Higgs field only lets a particle interact with the Higgs field. The other four fundamental forces allow particles to interact with one another. The Higgs field is different from other forces. The universe exists and the God Particle suddenly seems like an appropriate name for the Higgs boson. In other words, space is no longer empty. “When the Higgs field turns on, it changes the environment for all particles it changes the nature of empty space itself.”
“The way the Higgs field gives masses to particles is its own unique feature, which is different from all other known fields in the universe,” says Matt Strassler, a Harvard University theoretical physicist.
The more a Higgs boson interacts with a particle, the greater it slows down the particle and the more massive the particle is observed to be. The Higgs boson does not interact with all particles in the same way. If we know there is a Higgs field, then we understand how matter gets mass. So, if we can detect Higgs bosons, then we know that there is a Higgs field. We can’t see it but we can detect it with sophisticated equipment.Īs a particle moves through the Higgs field, it generates Higgs bosons as the field becomes ‘excited’ and the particle gets mass. The Higgs field is an invisible and theoretical force field the fills the entire universe. And this is where we need to understand another thing called the Higgs field. We understand bosons and fermions relatively well, as well as the four fundamental forces that result from these particles.īut we don’t really understand why matter has mass or the amount of mass it has. There are two groups of elementary particles: fermions (particles that make up matter) and bosons (particles that carry forces). The most basic building blocks of the universe are called elementary particles (particles that can’t be broken down any further). The Higgs boson was predicted in 1965 and first detected with confidence on 4 July 2012. It is responsible for all the mass in the universe and, as a result, is sometimes refered to as the ‘God Particle’. The Higgs boson is a tiny, fundamental particle with some massive implications.