What Is the Higgs Field, and Why Call Its Particle the “God Particle”?

What is the difference between the Higgs field and the Higgs boson?

A quantum field is part of the physical description of the world at different places and times. A particle corresponds to an excitation of a field. Light offers a familiar example: photons are excitations of the electromagnetic field. The Higgs boson has that relationship to the Higgs field. CERN explains the field–particle connection.

The Higgs field has a distinctive feature. In the Standard Model’s description of today’s vacuum, it has a nonzero background value, even in empty space. A Higgs boson is an excitation around that background. Having a field present and producing a detectable particle excitation are different physical situations. ATLAS describes this background and its role in particle masses.

So removing air from a chamber can leave a very good vacuum while the Higgs field is still part of the physics there. For more on the different meanings of “empty,” see what empty space is actually made of.

How does the field give particles mass?

In the Standard Model, interactions with the Higgs field account for the rest masses of particles including electrons, quarks, and the W and Z bosons. Rest mass is a particle’s mass independent of the energy associated with its overall motion. Different interaction strengths help explain why different elementary particles have different masses. Photons have zero rest mass. Read the Department of Energy’s explanation.

Mass affects how a particle’s motion responds to a force. The field’s role is expressed in the particle’s mass and its interactions. It does not require a Higgs boson to accompany every electron as it moves.

Does the Higgs explain all the mass in your body?

Most of the mass of ordinary matter is in protons and neutrons. Inside these composite particles, most mass comes from the energy of quarks and gluons and their strong interactions. Adding up the quarks’ own masses accounts for a small part of a proton’s mass. The Higgs field is therefore one part of the mass story. DOE describes the strong-interaction contribution, and our Standard Model answer places both pieces in context.

How did scientists find such a short-lived particle?

At the Large Hadron Collider, energetic proton collisions can produce a Higgs boson. It decays extremely quickly into other particles. The detectors measure the products of those decays. The researchers then use their measured energies and directions to reconstruct a possible parent particle’s mass.

For example, two photons can come from a Higgs decay. Other processes also produce two photons, so one striking event is insufficient. Across many collisions, a Higgs signal appears as an excess of events clustered around a particular reconstructed mass, above the expected background. The shape and significance of that excess matter.

ATLAS and CMS announced a new particle consistent with a Higgs boson on 4 July 2012. Subsequent measurements of its properties strengthened the identification. The inference came from patterns in recorded decay products, compared with predictions. CERN walks through the discovery method.

Why is it called the “God particle”?

The nickname became widely known through The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?, the 1993 book by physicist Leon Lederman with writer Dick Teresi. University of Chicago’s account of Lederman’s life describes the title and his explanation that “God” was a metaphor for nature.

The scientific name, Higgs boson, identifies the specific particle whose properties experiments measure. The nickname belongs to the story of communicating the search.

What are scientists still trying to learn?

Measurements of how often Higgs bosons are produced and how they decay test the Standard Model’s detailed predictions. Researchers also search for additional kinds of Higgs boson and investigate Higgs self-interactions. These questions could help reveal a more complete description of nature. ATLAS sets out the measurements and open questions.

When you encounter a dramatic claim about the Higgs, ask is it about the field’s background, a particle excitation, or a pattern in detector data? Following that distinction makes the discovery easier to understand and the remaining questions easier to examine.