Higgs-Particle
Up to now, the Higgs-particle is just an hypothetical elementary particle which is required by the standard model of particle physics. The Higgs-boson is responsible for the fact that particles have an inert mass which is not one of their basic characteristics. It would also explain why the force carriers (also called gauge bosons) of the weak interaction have a mass.
The Higgs-particle is uncharged. According to current computations the mass of the Higgs-particle must be between 117 and 153 GeV/c², for comparison a proton's mass is only of about 1 GeV/c². The Higgs-particle has not yet been directly observed and so, it is the only particle in the standard model which has not yet been experimentally proven to exist.
In August 2012 scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN could prove that they found a new particle with a mass of 126 GeV/c². The propability that this is only a fluctuation of the background is rather small with 1.7 x 10-7. The decay of the new particle indicates that it is a neutral boson.
Even though this neutral boson with a mass of 126 GeV/c² is compatible with the Higgs particle of the Standard Model it cannot be identified with it. To support this theory more data are needed to be examined.
Last update: November 2012
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