Question: May you give me a short, basic description on the Higgs bosun?

Clare Taylor answered on 14 Nov 2012:

Hi elliop! I knew someone was going to ask this question! I’ve had to think about it quite a lot because it is difficult to understand but I will try and explain it as best as I can! Here goes…

Theoretical physicists have predicted something called the Standard Model which is a theory of the elementary particles called fermions and bosons. Fermions are particles that join together to make up “matter” and examples of fermions include protons and neutrons that we are already familiar with.

Bosons are the second type of elementary particle (elementary means it cannot be split into smaller components) and there are two types of bosons: gauge bosons and the Higgs boson. The gauge bosons move back and forth between the fermions carrying force, so they help to make the force of nature possible. The Higgs bosons also travel back and forth between the fermions but gives mass to those particles. This is because Higgs bosons obey the law of conservation of energy which says that energy cannot be created or destroyed – it can only be changed from one form to another, like when electrical energy is changed into heat energy. First of all the energy starts out in the gauge boson which interacts with something called the Higgs field. The energy in the gauge boson is in the form of kinetic energy (movement) but after the gauge boson interacts with the Higgs field, it slows down. The ‘spare’ kinetic energy resulting from the slowing down is converted into mass-energy, which is normal mass that comes from energy. The mass that is created is what we call a Higgs boson. Therefore, the Higgs boson gives mass to all of the particles that make up matter, which in turn make up the physical universe that we can see. The discovery of the Higgs boson (or what scientists think is the Higgs boson) really was pretty amazing!

Did you understand that? Let me know if not and I’ll see if I can make it simpler!