After the installation of the Large Andron Collider (LHC) was completed and the first failed attempts to start the installation, the opinion began to spread in the society that the LHC carries a potential danger. Nuclear physicists had hopes for studying particle behavior and new discoveries in physics, and many people unfamiliar with the topic, on the contrary, listened to science fiction writers who portrayed various disasters in their works (the appearance of a black hole, a destructive explosion, etc.). However, some time after the start of a series of experiments, it became clear that many of the dangers were unfounded.
But in the summer of 2012, when it was announced that during one of the experiments, the Higgs boson was registered with two sensors, even the most convinced skeptics reconsidered their attitude to the LHC project. Note that scientists are very cautious about their new particle, avoiding loud statements. The fact that it was the Higgs boson that was discovered is not directly claimed by anyone. It is indicated that the new particle is very similar to the proposed boson, but further studies are needed for final conclusions.
What is the Higgs boson? The standard model (SM) of elementary particle physics, with the help of which the properties of everything material is currently explained, is based on four fundamental laws. Absolutely everything in nature is subject to four types of interactions - strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational. Some carrier particles have been discovered and proven. So, a strong interaction is carried out through gluons; the bosons Z and W are responsible for the weak; and gamma rays are involved in the transfer of electromagnetic radiation. For gravity, in turn, ephemeral gravitons are responsible (maybe they will soon be discovered). Based on the calculations, it follows that in the early Universe, which appeared immediately after the Big Bang, all particles had no mass, and the interaction was symmetric electroweak. However, observations show that this does not exist - each particle (except gluons and photons) has a certain rest mass. The contradiction between practice and theory is obvious.
To agree on theoretical calculations, a hypothesis was put forward on the existence of another fundamental element, known as the particle of God or the Higgs boson. Due to its influence, the majority of elementary particles acquired a mass of rest registered now. It is believed that the Higgs boson forms a certain field around itself, affecting other particles. The Higgs field permeates the entire Universe, slowing down the particles and giving them mass. It can be imagined as a thick jelly in which particles convert part of their energy into mass. By the way, the boson got its name thanks to Peter Higgs, who is the “father” of the boson hypothesis.
Just register this particle - and the Standard Model will be fully confirmed. However, the difficulty lies in the fact that mathematical calculations do not provide accurate data on either the mass of the boson or its energy. In other words, when conducting experiments with high-energy particles, physicists have to cover a huge range of possible values (10 - 1000 GeV). In addition, based on the theoretical properties of the boson, it exists in a billionth of a second, almost instantly decaying into lighter constituent particles. Therefore, a particle of God can be registered only indirectly - according to the remnants. In the LHC, two particles were accelerated to speeds close to 300 thousand km / s and collided. At the same time, phenomena characteristic of the Higgs boson were recorded. However, a number of refinement experiments will be required before final conclusions can be drawn.