British physicist Peter Higgs, who discovered the existence of the ‘Higgs Boson’ particle while searching for the source of the mass of superatomic particles, has died. The scientist breathed his last at his home in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, on Monday. He was 94 years old.
The University of Edinburgh announced his death in a statement on Tuesday. Higgs taught at the University of Edinburgh for almost five decades.
Peter Higgs said in his theory that everything in the universe got ‘mass’ due to the goodness of an unidentified particle, and the universe is stable because of that particle. His theory changed the course of science. Almost half a century later, another groundbreaking study proved that the ‘Higgs boson’ particle does exist. Peter Higgs won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 for his recognition.
According to scientists, everything in this universe is a collection of particles. But these tiny particles would not attract each other unless they had mass. If there was no mass, these particles would just run around, and the universe would look different. But the question of who is adding mass to these particles has haunted scientists for ages. In 1964, two articles in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters presented a theoretical explanation for the origin of the mass of elementary particles. One of its authors was Francois Englert and Robert Braut. Another theory was given by Peter Higgs.
Their proposed ‘Standard Model’ calls for a particle named after Peter Higgs and the Bengali scientist Satyondranath Bose. According to this view of theoretical physics, everything in the universe is given ‘mass’ by this Higgs Boson particle. Because of this, the name of that particle later became ‘God particle’ in the media.
In 2012, evidence that the Higgs-Boson particle of the theory actually exists was found in Europe’s CERN laboratory.
Scientists announced the Higgs-Boson power by creating a ‘mini version’ of the Big Bang at CERN, the European nuclear research center on the border of France and Switzerland near Geneva.
Then in 2013, Peter Higgs and Francois Englert won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Robert Braut would also have shared the prize had he not died two years earlier.
In his immediate reaction after receiving the Nobel, the shy Peter Higgs said, “What I did 48 years ago, today proved that it was right. That’s about it for me personally. I was right, it was a pleasure to prove it.”
However, he was not sure that the proof would be seen in his lifetime.
