Matter really matters. Everyday matter
consists of electrons, protons, and
neutrons. Protons and neutrons are made
up of up quarks and down quarks, and,
collectively, up quarks, down quarks, and
electrons make up matter. But these three
fundamental particles are not the only
particles in the entirety of the known
and unexplored universe.  Physicists are
currently working to organize the
fundamental particles in a table similar
to the periodic table, which categorizes
fundamental particles based on similar
characteristics like charge. Physicists
used the trends established by this
table to learn more about the
interactions between fundamental
particles in terms of three of the four
fundamental forces of the universe -
electromagnetism, the strong force, and
the weak force. However, the standard
model was flawed, in that it concluded
that the fundamental particles were
mass-less. This is true of photons, but
contradicts the existence of the W and Z
bosons, which have masses approximately
100 times that of a proton. In 1964, three
theorists, Peter Higgs, Robert Brout, and
Francois Englert formulated a theory to
account for the mass of the W and Z
bosons. They proposed the idea that
particles derive their mass from the
interactions with the Higgs field. Mass
is often defined as the "amount of stuff"
that an object contains. However, in terms
of particles, mass is a characteristic,
like charge. Mass varies from particle-to-
particle, and some have no mass, like the
photon and gluon. Shortly after the Big
Bang, the Higgs field was non-existent (zero). However, as
the temperature of the universe dropped
below a critical point, the field grew
instantaneously. The Higgs field
permeated the universe and interacted
with the fundamental particles, hence,
giving them mass. To get a better
understanding of how the Higgs mechanism
works, picture a swimming pool filled
with molasses. When a person with greater
mass attempts to swim in the pool, he or
she will experience greater resistance.
Conversely, when a person with less mass
attempts to swim in the pool, then he or she will
experience reduced resistance. Similar to
the viscous pool of molasses, the Higgs
field creates different levels of
resistance, through its interactions with
different particles. The larger the
resistance the object experiences while
moving through the Higgs field, the
greater the mass the object will have. If
the object experience no resistance
while moving through the Higgs field,
then it won't have any mass. Higgs also
predicted the existence of the Higgs
boson, a physical manifestation of the
Higgs field. While Higgs and Englert were
awarded the Nobel Prize for their
theoretical explanation of the origin of
particles' mass, scientists lacked
tangible, scientific evidence, due to the
rarity of producing a Higgs Boson as an
intermediate collision output. In July of
2012, Atlas and CERN's Large Hadron
Collider machine observed a high energy
collision between protons producing a
125 Giga electron volt boson that
matched the description of the boson
predicted by Peter Higgs. The observation
validated the Higgs mechanism in July of
2012, leading to a more complete
understanding of the Standard Model. The
discovery of the Higgs Boson divulges
in a world of possibilities ranging from the
discovery of new elementary particles to
the potential unstable nature of the
universe. Most importantly, it gives us
insight into the origins of the mass of
fundamental particles, possibly providing
further insight as to how the universe
began.
