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All About Higgs Boson God Particle {Explained}

large hadron collider

The Higgs boson is an elementary particle formed by the Higgs field. These Higgs boson particles are also called God Particle, discovered by physicist ‘Peter Higgs’. 

Here in this article, you can know all about God particle:- 

General terms for God Particle

Higgs fields are the responsible factor for mass in every particle, atom, matter, and in everything that contains mass, even in other elementary particles. The Higgs field also gives mass to Higgs boson or God particles. For the invention of God Particles in 2013 AD, two physicists Francois Englert and Peter Higgs awarded by Nobel prize

Here we will read about God Particles but before it, we have added the basics of the elementary particles that are also called fundamental particles.

Elementary particles

Elementary particles have no other smaller particles and it generates every matter in the universe. According to the standard model of particle physics, Elementary Particles are divided into 2 categories:

1. Fermions

It is responsible for giving shape to any matter present in the universe. Example- Quarks and Leptons.

2. Bosons 

It is responsible for the fundamental forces in the universe. These particles work as a carrier for fundamental forces. Example- Photons, W/Z Boson, Gluons, Higgs Boson, Gravitons.

The basic principle of Quantum Field Theory

The discovery of the god particle brought remarkable changes in the ‘Quantum Field Theory (QFT)’. According to quantum field theory at every place, one or more fields exist in the universe like a magnetic field, electric field, gravitational field, electrons field, Higgs field, quarks field, etc. 

Here you will find about the ‘Higgs field’ and ‘how the Higgs field generates mass’ in other elementary particles as well as in God particles.

Higgs Field

Every elementary particle has its own fields where it is formed. In 1964 physicist Peter Higgs and some other researchers predicted that there is a uniformly distributed field in the universe that gives mass to the elementary particles.

According to them, this field is the scalar field and has a non-zero constant value in the vacuum. They called it the Higgs field after the name of one researcher Peter Higgs.

This prediction did not get any initial support and attention until 1980. But there was a question “why elementary particles like Quarks have mass whereas elementary particles like Photons do not have any mass”???

This question makes scientists think about Higgs fields. For the investigation and study of the Higgs field, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) develop the largest machine in the world. This machine is the highest-energy particle collider known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). 

large hadron collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC): (Image: Anna Pantelia/CERN)

How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

The purpose of the Higgs field is to provide mass to elementary particles by getting the amount of interaction (contact) with it. Initially, every elementary particle has zero mass, but they get mass after the interaction of the Higgs field. The development of this mass depends on the amount of interaction with the Higgs field.

For example- Quarks interact more with the Higgs field so it has more mass, whereas photons do not interact with it so it has zero mass.

The Higgs boson particle or god particle does not generate mass in any elementary particles. It is the Higgs field that generates mass in the particles.

higgs boson mass
Higgs Boson and Higgs Field

God particle discovery

In July 2012 the discovery of a new field and its particle was announced in the world. This field was the Higgs field and it develops the particle known as the Higgs boson particle which has the nickname God particle. It takes around 40 years time to find the existence of the Higgs field and Higgs boson particles. 

It was not easy to detect the existence of God-Particles. Because it needs very high energy and it is very rare to develop. They discovered this particle by excitations in a large hadron collider (LHC) machine.

However, the discovery of the particle still has a lot of mystery to solve. If scientists knew more about it in the future, it would be very beneficial for solving the mystery of dark matter and dark energy. 

How the god particle is made?

The development of every elementary particle has a basic principle, “When a field gets very high energy than the ground state it reaches its excited state and develops ripples in the system. These ripples are called particles.” This is called the excitation of a field

For example- when ripples are developed in an electron field by excitation in its energy level, then it creates electron particles.

Field Excitations
Field Excitations

Same as the above example, when ripples are developed in a Higgs field by excitation in its energy level then it creates Higgs boson particle (God particles). But the development of the god particle was not easy because it takes very high energy for excitations and is very rare in production even after getting proper energy. 

Properties of the God particles

How much energy is required to generate particles is proportionally dependent on the mass of the particle. Since the generation of god particles needs more energy than the generation of electrons. So basically the mass of the God particles would be higher than the mass of the electrons. Every elementary particle has divided into some categories according to its properties.  

  • The mass of the god particle is around 125 GeV/c2.   (1GeV/c2 = 1.783 10-27 kg)
  • Unlike the other elementary particles, it has zero spins.
  • It is the 1st scalar elementary particle.
  • God particle contains a uniform non-zero constant value all over the universe.
  • It gets decayed immediately and has a very short lifetime of around 10-22 sec

Why is it called the God particle?

The name god particle does not have anything to do with God. It is taken from a physics book named “The Goddamn Particle” written by physicist Leon Lederman. Initially, it has the title name of the book but unfortunately, it gets more popular by the name “The God Particle”. Many physics researchers did not like this name including Peter Higgs. So basically, it got adopted because it was more popular with the public.



1 thought on “All About Higgs Boson God Particle {Explained}”

  1. This is really interesting about Higgs Boson, You’re a very skilled astronomer, I guess. I’m looking forward to seeking more of your wonderful post. Also, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!

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