God particle
The Higgs boson is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics . It is the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, a fundamental field of crucial importance to particle physics theoryfirst suspected to exist in the 1960s. Unlike other known fields such as the electromagnetic field , it has a non-zero constant value in vacuum . The question of the Higgs field's existence became the last unverified part of the Standard Model of particle physics, and for several decades was considered "the central problem in particle physics". The Higgs boson is often referred to as the "God particle" in popular media outside the scientific community. The nickname comes from the title of the 1993 book on the Higgs boson and particle physics, The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? by Nobel Physics prizewinner and Fermilab director...