A few days ago, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced the discovery of a particle that has more than a 99 percent probability of being the mythical Higgs Boson or ‘God particle’, a revolutionary discovery in physics that will explain the origin of mass.
What was never expected by Peter Higgs (Newcastle, United Kingdom, 1929), the physicist who predicted the existence of the famous boson in the 1960s, was that the discovery of the particle would occur while he was alive.“I’m surprised it came so fast”said the scientist in presenting the CERN data.
Although Higgs was always an outstanding student, his interest in physics came late, and he did so hand in hand withPaul Dirac, one of the most influential theoretical physicists of the 20th century and the father of modern quantum mechanics. Higgs obtained his doctorate in 1954 from King’s College London with his thesis entitled ‘Some problems in the theory of molecular vibrations’. Later he entered with a postdoctoral contract at the University of Edinburgh, an institution where he would develop his entire professional career and where he is currently Professor Emeritus.
The theory that explains the mass of all matter from what is known as the ‘Higgs field’ came to the physicist during a walk through the Cairngorms Mountains, in Scotland. His productive thoughts were reflected in two scientific articles, the first published inPhysics Lettersand the second, after being rejected in the same magazine, appeared inPhysical Review Letters. The latter described the theoretical model of the ‘Higgs mechanism’, which has gone down in the history of physics.
After the latest CERN findings, the British scientist, who formulated his theory from a few mathematical equations written on paper, is considered a strong candidate for the next Nobel Prize in Physics.
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