On July 4, 2012, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider announced that they had found the last piece of a puzzle that had been incomplete for 48 years.

The Large Hadron Collider is a machine larger and more complex never built; The piece he finds is a particle of the subatomic world and is one of the fundamental blocks that make up everything we know.

that piece Higgs Bosonand confirmation of its existence is one of the greatest achievements of modern physics.

With the discovery of the Higgs boson, Standard Model, It describes the set of elementary particles that make up everything we know, and the forces that interact with each other to make them work like lego pieces put together.

The success of the Large Hadron Collider was the culmination of an adventure that began in 1964 when British physicist Peter Higgs published a theory. predicted that the boson must exist.

According to Higgs himself, this “only good idea” He had it in his life, and at first he believed that his theory was nothing more than useless calculations.

But what actually happened is the particle you theorized and the collider later discovered existed, revolutionized the understanding of our universe.

This good idea won Higgs the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics, and paradoxically, ruined your life as he told himself.

in 2022 tenth anniversary The Large Hadron Collider detected the Higgs boson.

We spoke with two experts at BBC Mundo how this tiny particle is celebrating a decade by helping us answer two big questions about humanity: Where did we come from and what are we made of?

Standard Model

For a long time, atoms were thought to be particles. the most basic What is everything made of?

Then we learned that these atoms are actually made up of even smaller particles: atoms. protons and neutrons those that make up the nucleus of the atom and the electrons orbiting this nucleus.

But today we know that even these protons and neutrons can be broken down into particles. even smaller.

In total, 17 elementary particles were detected, which, when interacting with each other under the influence of forces, make up the entire universe as we know it.

These 17 sets of particles and forces are known as the Standard Model.

These particles fall into two large families: fermions and bosons.

fermions: the bricks from which the entire universe is built. They are like Lego pieces that form different atoms depending on how they are put together. There are 12 fermions, six quarks and six leptons. In other words: all matter we know is made up of combinations of quarks and leptons. Or more generally: everything we see is made of fermions.

bosons: particles that carry the forces that bring fermions into interaction. In total, there are five types of bosons, each of which carries one of the three fundamental forces that interact with matter:

1. The gluon, which carries the strong force that holds the quarks together;

2 and 3. W boson and Z boson, which carry the weak force by splitting the nucleus of one atom and forming another atom;

4. Photons that carry the electromagnetic force.

There is also a fourth power, perhaps the most famous: Gravity.

Gravity at the subatomic level is so weak that its effect is largely negligible, so it is not part of the Standard Model.

In this way we have almost completed the standard model: the fermion family interacts with the boson family to form the universe.

But we still need to talk about the fifth boson…

What is the Higgs boson?

We’ve seen 12 fermions and 4 bosons before, 16 out of 17 parts of the Standard Model.

We’re just missing the part that completes the model: the Higgs boson.

The Higgs boson is necessary to answer a key question: particles like quarks and leptons have mass to form matter. But where do these particles get their mass from?

The answer is the call Higgs fieldan invisible medium that permeates the entire universe and fills the wandering particles with mass.

There are Higgs bosons in this Higgs field. smear particles with dough creates this item.

“The discovery of the Higgs boson has shown us that there is something strange that we all fall into, known as the Higgs field,” Frank Close, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University, told BBC Mundo. .

“Just as a fish should be submerged in water, so do we we need the Higgs field“Elusive: How Peter Higgs solved the mystery of the mass,” says Close (literal translation into Spanish).

In 1964, Peter Higgs was one of the first to theorize and theorize the existence of this field. guess that there must be a particle associated with that field.

But in 2012, thanks to the Large Hadron Collider, it was possible to observe that this particle, which we now know as the Higgs boson, is beyond theory.

Why was this finding so important?

According to Saúl Noé Ramos Sánchez, a researcher at the Institute of Physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, there are three important milestones that marked the discovery of the Higgs boson and left their mark on our understanding of the universe.

1. He gave complete information about the elementary particles that make up us.

“All the particles that make up our atoms are finally understood, including their relationship to other particles,” Ramos Sánchez told BBC Mundo.

2. A particle unlike any other was found

The Higgs boson is unlike electrons or protons and is responsible for certain interactions that lead to the mass of these particles being known.

So the Higgs boson is the key piece that tells us why other particles are the way they are.

3. The most definitive theory ever existed

Ramos Sanchez, Standard Model “This is the most definitive theory humanity has.”

It is the most well-known theory.

Close has a similar view: “with a few minor exceptions, explains very well everything we see,” says the teacher.

The future

Experts, that date after July 4, 2012, there was no other great discovery pertaining to particle physics.

Some recent experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and Fermilab, another particle accelerator in the United States, have provided clues as to what might happen. new particle or a new hitherto unknown force.

If so, it may raise questions about the Standard Model.

However, the results of these experiments are not conclusive.

“After the discovery of the Higgs boson, the Standard Model more strong more than anything,” says Ramos Sánchez.

But it is also true that there are several questions that the Standard Model cannot answer.

For example, it doesn’t explain what it is. dark matterA component mystery that 27% of the universe is made of.

Nor does it explain why it exists in the universe. more matter than antimatteror why the expansion of the cosmos is accelerating.

And another big gap: it doesn’t involve the gravitational force.

Concerning several of these enigmas, several theories have been developed, but Neither gives a convincing answer.

But experts say that doesn’t mean the Standard Model is wrong.

“I wish I was in crisis!” says Close.

“If he was in crisis, that would give us clues that we need to build a great theory that explains what all this is about,” the professor adds.

“The ‘problem’ with the Standard Model is: It works very well”.

“We know this is not a definitive theory, but a full disclosure everything we’ve ever had

math trick

According to Close, who interviewed him for years to write his biography, the Higgs boson “It’s the only good idea you’ve ever thought of.”

In fact, Higgs at first thought his discovery was something. “totally useless” According to Close account.

“He thought he was doing a simple mathematical trick that he could do in theory. gives the photon mass.

Also, the Higgs productive.

He wrote only 12 studies in his entire career, of which only three were related to the Higgs boson, had any relevance, others irrelevantAccording to Close.

“And he didn’t continue to work on it after that, practically nothing else In that sense,” says the professor, it was other people who took his ideas and continued to build knowledge on them and sparked all the enthusiasm that led to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider.

higgs changed his mind how it works It’s the universe and that’s all he’s done in his life,” says Close.

“So it may be true that the Higgs boson is the only good idea, but how many really good ideas do we have among us?”

beyond the paper

In 1964, the Higgs wasn’t the only one working on the idea of ​​the existence of what we now know as the Higgs field.

Simultaneous, other scientists presented studies pointing in this direction.

But Higgs was the only one who realized that his mathematical idea was correct, that is, it really was. available in nature and it wasn’t just a trick for solving theoretical problems.

“The math trick is assuming there’s something weird we call the Higgs field,” says Close.

So if this field is real, we able to detect and the way to detect it has to be what we now call the Higgs boson.”

“The Higgs was the only one who noticed it, so the boson was properly baptized in his name.

This explains why he fled the day the Nobel was announced.

But hiding, according to Close, adverse effect What the Higgs expected.

Close, “What’s more attractive to a journalist?” he asks. “A man who has won the Nobel and is ready to interview him, or the Nobel and To get lost?».

In 2022, Peter Higgs is 93 years old and lives retired in Edinburgh, Scotland.

He doesn’t use the internet, just a phone and lives in a building without an elevator, where he has to go down 84 steps to get to the street.

For close, all this shows: hard Who is Peter Higgs, tough as the famous boson who spent years hiding and showing off, forever changed our perception of the universe.