Peter Higgs, discoverer of the ‘God particle’, dies at 94

Peter Higgs, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and discoverer of the Higgs Boson, died last Monday at the age of 94 at his home in Edinburgh after a brief illnessthe University of Edinburgh reported in a statement.

Higgs was born in 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne and won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for the theoretical prediction of a mechanism that contributes to the understanding of the origin of the mass of subatomic particles.

In 1964, the British Peter Higgs first assumed the existence of a particle that would give its mass to the others (later called god particle), answering one of the most disturbing questions for physicists: Why do some particles have mass?

At that time, three independent research groups were developing ideas around this issue: in the United States, the work was led by scientists Gerald Guralnik, Tom Kibble and Carl Hagen; in Belgium, by the physicists François Englert and Robert Brout and, in England, Peter Higgs.

In 2013, only Englert and Higgs received the Nobel Prize – Roberto Brout had died in 2011 – in a controversial decision by the committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm that left out three American physicists.

The award was granted after in 2011 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) confirmed that the Higgs boson of the model standard does exist.

According to the Standard Model, some atoms of matter are made up of tiny particles, such as quarks and electrons. Without the mechanism devised by Higgs and Englert, the Higgs field would have no mass, so there would be no accretions and, therefore, no stars, planets or human beings could form.

It is very nice to be right from time to time (…) it has certainly been a long waitsaid Higgs, after it was announced that CERN had confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson.

Interviewed after Higgs’ death, Gerardo Herrera Corral, particle physicist and author of the book Antimatter: The mysteries it holds and the promise of its applicationsexplained that the Higgs boson is one of the last missing pieces of the standard model to describe all the particles and forces in the universe.

His theoretical discovery was recognized after experiments at CERN’s large hadron collider discovered the existence of the field that today bears his name. It is perhaps the most important thing that has happened in the physics of the microscopic world in the last 40 yearshe noted and added that It represents a way of understanding the world from a very small perspective. It is the realization in nature of a subtle mathematical mechanism; It also represents the culmination of the fundamental idea according to which the symmetries of the universe are behind its own structure..

In the University of Edinburgh’s statement on the death of Peter Higgs, the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, Peter Mathieson, said: He was an extraordinary individual: a truly gifted scientist whose vision and imagination have enriched our knowledge of the world around us. His pioneering work has motivated thousands of scientists and his legacy will continue to inspire many more for generations to come..

Brian Coix, a physicist at the University of Manchester and a scientist at CERN, wrote on his X social network account: I was lucky enough to meet him several times. Beyond being a famous physicist (I think sometimes to his own shame), he was always charming and modest. His name will be remembered as long as we continue to do physics in the form of the Higgs boson..

Stuart Galloway, a professor at the University of Strathclyde, wrote on the same social network: Very sad to hear about the passing of Peter Higgs. I had the privilege of meeting him while studying in Edinburgh, including some very nice Mathematics Department parties. He was always willing to chat and learn about our graduate research..