One of the most significant discoveries in the field of physics was made a decade ago. The particle was the missing piece in the Standard Model of particle physics. There were signals of a new fundamental bit of nature that matched expectations for the particle that was found in the Large Hadron Collider.
Peter Higgs proposed the existence of this tiny object in 1964. The significance of the prediction was lost on most scientists for a long time. The main event of the particle circus became clear as time went on. The structure of the universe and our species can be traced back to the creation of the particle and its associated field. Physicists believed this story for a long time, but it wasn't proven until July 4, 2012 when researchers from two experiments at the LHC announced their discovery.
The finding pushed Peter into the public eye. The prize committee couldn't reach him on the day of the announcement so he camped out at a pub across town. Frank Close is a Physicist and author of Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass. Scientific American talked to Close about the search for the particle and the man who started it all.
The transcript of the interview has been changed.
The title of your book is Elusive. Physicists spent decades and billions of dollars trying to find the missing piece of the particle physics puzzle. The man in your book is an elusive one.
When I interviewed him, he said that the discovery of the bosonruined his life. I thought, "How can it ruin your life when you have done some beautiful mathematics, and then it turns out you had mysteriously touched on the pulse of nature, and everything you've believed in has been shown to be correct?" These things can ruin. He said that his existence was coming to an end. I like to work in isolation and have bright ideas. He was being thrust into the spotlight due to his retirement.
I have known Peter for 40 years but he is still elusive to me.
The only original idea I have ever had is this one. Do you believe that is the case?
How many of us have had a really great idea? He had a great idea. People who have done big things tend to do a lot of smaller things. The only thing that is unique about this being once and once only is the fact that he is. It was obvious that luck was part of it. You have to know when to be in the right place. The man had been trying to understand a problem for two to three years. When a paper posed a related question on his desk, he was able to have the answer because of the hard work he had put in. He says he is mostly known for three weeks. I tell Peter that he spent two years preparing for that moment.
He said he didn't think it would be found in his lifetime after 50 years. The particle was finally detected, what did he think about it?
He told me that he was relieved that it was confirmed. He was moved by the fact that the particle was the way it was in nature, but he was worried that his life would change.
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Why was the discovery so significant?
Mass is not a part of particles. It's a result of the entire universe. There is something out there that does this. The strange aspect of it is that if the vacuum was completely empty, it would be less stable than if you filled it with something. I wonder if that is the reason it took so long for this idea to come to fruition. We now know it's true.
People know about the field. Adding energy to the field can cause it to emit light. There is something called the Higgs field. If we could apply enough energy to that, we would be able to excite it and produce the particle that gives rise to the theory of mass causality. The field and field of particles are similar to the field and field of things.
We have to concentrate 125 billion electron volts into one spot, which is what they did at the LHC, if we want to produce a single particle. For 100 years, we have known about the existence of photons and the recent discovery of the Higgs boson.
Ten years have passed since the discovery of the Higgs boson, and some people are decrying the lack of a similarly exciting finding. Is it disappointing that there hasn't been more high-profile discoveries after the Higgs?
The discovery was a turning point in human culture. The discovery is similar to the discovery of the nucleus and the atom. The discovery of the Higgs field leads to the creation of the universe. It is pointless to expect other discoveries to meet this standard.
What do you think about the next decade at the LHC?
It was like going up a mountain. We had no idea where the mountain range was or how tall it was. There wasn't a Standard Model of particle physics. There was a vague idea that there was a proof that this whole structure was there. We knew how high the mountain was. It wasn't until 2012 that we reached that peak.
We are going down the other side of the mountain, across the plains, and they will take us to the minimum limit of the universe. There are other mountain ranges on the plains where there are particles of supersymmetry or dark matter. We don't know how far you have to travel to see these mountain ranges. Where we are now and where we have been in the past are different. There is no way to tell how far we have to go. It's hard to find.
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