Will we find the Higgs boson particle?
The Higgs boson is a sub-atomic particle whose existence is theorised but not yet proven. A boson is a particular type of particle and Higgs is Peter Higgs, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Edinburgh, who first postulated the existence of this particle in 1964.
Why is the particle important? It is the only particle in the Standard Model of particle physics not yet observed, but would help explain how otherwise massless elementary particles still manage to construct mass in matter.
How might it be discovered? This could come out of the operation of the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, in a tunnel under France and Switzerland. The LHC opens to the public this weekend.
In this article in today’s “Guardian”, Peter Higgs expresses the hope that the existence of the particle will be proven by his 80th birthday on 29 May 2009. If it is, he will no doubt win a Nobel Prize.