Peter Higgs
| Peter Higgs | |
|---|---|
3.jpg) Higgs at birthday celebration for Michael Atiyah, April 2009
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| Born | Peter Ware Higgs 29 May 1929 Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Physics (theoretical) |
| Institutions | University of Edinburgh Imperial College London University College London |
| Alma mater | King's College London |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles Coulson |
| Doctoral students | Christopher Bishop Lewis Ryder David Wallace |
| Known for | Broken symmetry in electroweak theory Higgs boson Higgs field Higgs mechanism |
| Notable awards | Wolf Prize in Physics (2004) Sakurai Prize (2010) Dirac Medal (1997) |
Peter Ware Higgs, FRS, FRSE, FKC (born 29 May 1929) is an English theoretical physicist and emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh.[1]
In the 1960s, he proposed broken symmetry in electroweak theory. This explains the origin of mass of elementary particles in general. It also shows the origin of the W and Z bosons. The theory known as Higgs mechanism was proposed by several physicists at the same time. It proposes the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson. This particle was often described as "the most sought-after particle in modern physics"[2][3] On 4 July 2012, CERN announced they had found a new particle much like the Higgs bosonin experiments,[4] but that more work was necessary to analyse its properties and see if it had the properties expected from the Standard Model Higgs boson.[5]
The Higgs mechanism is generally accepted as an important part of the Standard Model of particle physics, without which particles would have no mass.[6]
Higgs has received a number of awards. These recognise his work as a scientist and include the 1997 Dirac Medal and Prize for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics from the Institute of Physics, the 1997 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize by the European Physical Society, the 2004 Wolf Prize in Physics, and the 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics. The recent discovery of the Higgs boson prompted fellow physicist Stephen Hawking to note that he thought that Higgs should receive the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.[7][8]
References[change]
- ↑ Griggs, Jessica. "The Missing Piece" from Edit the University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine Summer 2008, Page 17
- ↑ Griffiths, Martin (20070501) physicsworld.com The Tale of the Blog's Boson Retrieved on 2008-05-27
- ↑ Fermilab Today (20050616) Fermilab Results of the Week. Top Quarks are Higgs' best Friend Retrieved on 2008-05-27
- ↑ "Higgs boson-like particle discovery claimed at LHC". BBC. 4 July 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18702455.
- ↑ "CERN Press Release: CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson". Cdsweb.cern.ch. http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2012/28/News%20Articles/1459454?ln=en. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
- ↑ Rincon, Paul (20040310) Fermilab 'God Particle' may have been seen Retrieved on 2008-05-27
- ↑ "Higgs boson breakthrough should earn physicist behind search Nobel Prize: Stephen Hawking". National Press. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/04/higgs-boson-stephen-hawking. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
- ↑ Stephen Hawking on Higgs: 'Discovery has lost me $100'. BBC. Retrieved on 6 July 2012.
