Higgs boson (redirected from Higgs)

Higgs boson: see elementary particles.

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Higgs boson

An elementary scalar particle in the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam theory of electromagnetic and weak interactions. At present, there is no direct experimental evidence for its existence. It is closely associated with the origin of mass for all known elementary particles, as described in the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam theory. This gives the Higgs boson distinctive properties which shape the search for it. See Electroweak interaction, Standard model

The mass of the Higgs boson is uncertain theoretically, being determined by the parameters of the scalar self-interactions. It is strongly suspected, however, that the Higgs mass is between about 114 and 200 GeV/c² (where c is the speed of light).

The fact that the Higgs particle is closely related to the origin of mass endows it with special properties crucial in its production and detection. The illustration shows how the decay pattern of a standard-model Higgs boson depends on its mass.

Dependence of the decay probabilities of a standard-model Higgs boson on its mass

The first extensive searches for the Higgs boson were carried out at the Large Electron Positron Storage Ring (LEP) and Stanford Linear Collider (SLC), e⁺e^- machines with sufficient center-of-mass energy to operate at the Z resonance. The LEP was subsequently upgraded, and there were signs that experiments at center-of-mass energies up to 208 GeV/c² might be seeing the Higgs boson, but these were not sufficient to delay the machine's shutdown in November 2000 to make way for the construction of the Large Hardon Collider (LHC) in the same tunnel.

The next particle accelerators to extend the Higgs boson search will probably be hadron colliders (proton-proton or proton-antiproton), particularly the LHC. See Elementary particle, Particle accelerator