Higgs Boson or God Particle: What is it and Why is it Important?

Bose and Einstein together

Higgs Boson – or the “God’s particle” is in news these days.

Some have come to know that the Boson is a word that is based on the name of the Indian Science great Satyendranath Bose.  Bosons are elementary sub-atomic particles which were named after Bose, because of the work that was in the quantum physics area by him along with Einstein.  It is said that Bose’s research paper on Quantum Statistics was rejected by various journals, until it landed in the hands of Einstein.  Einstein recognized the merit of what Bose was saying and intervened by first getting it translated into German and then getting it printed.  It was the collaboration between Bose and Einstein that yielded the Bose-Einstein statistics and the Bose-Einstein Condensate principle.  This is what governs the Bosons.

Higgs Boson, also called Brout-Englert-Higgs Boson is also a hypothetical elementary particle and one type of Boson.

It was called God’s Particle because of a book written by Leon Lederman – a Nobel Physics Laureate.  The book was called “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the question?”  Although Leon had not wanted this title, the publisher insisted on calling it the “God Particle”.  Disliked by scientists and embraced by the popular culture, this name has stuck on.

What is God Particle or Higgs Boson

The world – entire Universe – is, at the sub-atomic level all but elementary particles and forces.  These are in “wave” form and can be observed to be “particles” only on observation.  In their unobserved and unengaged state, they are waves/energy.

The entire interaction of the elementary particles is understood using what is known as the “Standard Model”.

Strangely, the entire mathematics and the empirical evidence that confirmed all other characteristics of the elementary particles added a strange constraint – the elementary form of existence could not have mass.  That is, although it was clear as to how the Universes existed at the sub-atomic level, it wasn’t clear how it manifested the way it did at the gross level!

The theory that was forwarded was the impact of “Higgs Field”, which if were to permeate the space and interact with the elementary particles in a certain way, it would lead to what was called the “Higgs Mechanism”.  This interaction would end up creating the phenomenon of “Mass”.

However, for all this – Higgs mechanism – to work, there had to be a boson which was the counterpart of the Higgs field.  This unknown and undiscovered but theorized boson was called the “Higgs Boson”.

The excitement in the scientific field is because now they realize – now, that they have a better view of Higgs Boson – that the Standard Model is true after all!

How does Infinite manifest the Finite?

Both, Scientists and Spiritualists are in very similar quests.  They all are stuck with the question – How does the Infinite manifest the Finite?

While the Spiritualists call the Infinite as the “Creator”, and Finite as the “Creation”; Scientists call “Wave” (without mass) as the Infinite and Particle (with mass) as the Finite.

The link for solving the question in case of the Scientists was the “God Particle”.  Basically, mirroring the articulation of the Spiritualists.  And, this is what has probably irked many Scientists so much.  They do not see any “God’s Hand” in this entire thing.  While Spiritualists will be wont to say, that this IS God itself.  Just manifested differently.

Great! You’ve successfully signed up.

Welcome back! You've successfully signed in.

You've successfully subscribed to Drishtikone - Online Magazine on Geopolitics and Culture from Indian Perspective.

Success! Check your email for magic link to sign-in.

Success! Your billing info has been updated.

Your billing was not updated.