11 March 2004
Higgs boson: Reluctant debutant
Peter Higgs predicted the existence of the particle later named after him over 30 years ago. The 'zero spin' Higgs boson mediates a field that gives mass to the other subatomic particles. The Higgs boson is the last undiscovered component of the Standard Model of particle physics. Without it, the theory would require all particles to be strictly massless — which contradicts experimental results. The Higgs boson can be searched for directly, in very high energy electron-positron interactions, or indirectly, through quantum loop effects in which it affects other observable quantities. Peter Renton reviews the latest results from both methods and asks, "has the Higgs boson been discovered?" The answer is a definite maybe.
Has the Higgs boson been discovered?
PETER RENTON
Nature 428, 141–144 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02324
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