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Higgs particle

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Higgs particle
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Carrier of an all-pervading fundamental field (Higgs field) that is hypothesized as a means of endowing mass on some elementary particles through its interactions with them. It was named for Peter W. Higgs (born 1929) of the University of Edinburgh, one of those who first postulated the idea. The Higgs mechanism explains why the carriers of the weak force are heavy, while the carrier of the electromagnetic force has a mass of zero. There is no direct experimental evidence for the existence of either the Higgs particle or the Higgs field.

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Higgs boson (hypothetical)
Peter Ware Higgs (British theoretical physicist)
Field theories (essay)

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