Back on July 4th of
this year, physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN
announced that they may have a found the much sought after particle called the
Higgs Boson. One of the main reasons scientists built the LHC was to look for
and hopefully find evidence of the Higgs. But what exactly is the Higgs boson
and why is it so important?
To put it simply,
the Higgs boson and the accompanying Higgs field are the reason why objects
have mass, or in other words, why we take up space. For example, an astronaut
in outerspace weighs nothing, as no large body is gravitationally attracting
him. But the astronaut still has mass, he still takes up space. But what entity
gives him mass, since it's not gravity that is responsible. The theoretical answer to this is the Higgs
field. Physicists think that a Higgs field pervades all of empty space, and
Higgs bosons fill this field. When a particle enters the Higgs field, the Higgs
bosons crowd around it, making it difficult for the particle to move and thus
it feels heavy or massive. Think of it like a celebrity walking into a party.
Everyone at the party crowds around the celebrity, making it hard for them to
move through the room and thus they feel more massive. The Higgs field
interacts with different types of particles in different ways, and the reason
for this is not very well understood. But, if we have evidence that the Higgs
boson does exist, then we can study it and hopefully answer this and many other
questions associated with its discovery!
For a great
explanation of the Higgs boson, check out this Ph. D. Comics movie!
Image Credit: Ph.D. Comics
