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https://theconversation.com/peter-higgs-was-one-of-the-greats-of-particle-physics-he-transformed-what-we-know-about-the-building-blocks-of-the-universe-227638>
"Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs
boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when
considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics – the area of
science concerned with the building blocks of matter.
In 1964, a few years after arriving from London to take up a position at the
University of Edinburgh, Higgs read a paper by the American theoretical
physicist Philip Anderson. At the time, physicists did not have a theory for
how subatomic particles got their mass. (Mass can be described as the total
amount of matter in an object, while weight is the force of gravity acting on
an object.)
Anderson’s paper showed that particles can have mass. When a system in physics
– such as two different subatomic particles – becomes changed, physicists
sometimes describe it as having “broken symmetry”. This can lead to the
emergence of new properties.
During a walk in the Scottish Highlands, Higgs had the idea of a lifetime. He
figured out exactly how to apply the symmetry breaking he had read about in
Anderson’s paper to an important group of particles called gauge bosons. It
would lead to an explanation for how the building blocks of matter acquire
their mass.
Two other groups of physicists had the same idea at around the same time:
Robert Brout and François Englert in Brussels, and Carl Hagen, Gerald Guralnik
and Tom Kibble at Imperial College London."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
