Higgs Boson Discovery

Sergio Bertolucci, Director for Research and Computing, CERN

The Higgs particle has for for more than 40 years remained the unobserved missing link of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. It explains the mechanism responsible for giving particles mass. If electrons had no mass, they could not form atoms. There would be no Chemistry. Without mass, the reactions that control energy conversion in the Sun would proceed very much faster.

Two experiments at CERNs Large Hadron Collider, CMS and ATLAS, announced this summer the discovery of a particle consistent with being the Standard Model Higgs particle. Its properties are presently being explored with more data, it could also be consistent with models that contain dark matter. Groups from Bergen and Oslo are involved in the ATLAS collaboration.

More info:
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/science/higgs-en.html
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR17.12E.html
http://angelsanddemons.web.cern.ch/video/higgs-boson