2013 Nobel Prize in Physics: Higgs and Englert

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The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider"

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2013/

Here is some information on all those who were working on this topic:

1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers

In 1964 three teams proposed related but different approaches to explain how mass could arise in local gauge theories. These three, now famous, papers were written by Robert Brout and François Englert,[1][2] Peter Higgs,[3] and Gerald Guralnik, C. Richard Hagen, and Tom Kibble,[4][5] and are credited with the theory of the Higgs mechanism and the prediction of the Higgs field and Higgs boson. Together, these provide a theoretical means by which Goldstone's theorem (a problematic limitation affecting early modern particle physics theories) can be avoided. They show how gauge bosons can acquire non-zero masses as a result of spontaneous symmetry breaking within gauge invariant models of the universe.[6]

As such, these form the key element of the electroweak theory that forms part of the Standard Model of particle physics, and of many models, such as the Grand Unified Theory, that go beyond it. The papers that introduce this mechanism were published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) and were each recognized as milestone papers by PRL's 50th anniversary celebration.[7] Additionally, all of the six physicists were awarded the 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics for this work.[8]

On 4 July 2012, the two main experiments at the LHC (ATLAS and CMS) both reported independently the confirmed existence of a previously unknown particle with a mass of about 125 GeV/c2 (about 133 proton masses, on the order of 10?25 kg), which is "consistent with the Higgs boson" and widely believed to be the Higgs boson.[9]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_PRL_symmetry_breaking_papers

Here are some animated views of some of the data from CERN:

Here is Higgs' original paper: http://prl.aps.org/pdf/PRL/v13/i16/p508_1

Here is Englert's and Brout's original paper: http://prl.aps.org/pdf/PRL/v13/i9/p321_1

Here is Guralnik's, Hagen's and Kibble's original paper: http://prl.aps.org/pdf/PRL/v13/i20/p585_1


Regarding all the experimentalists working at CERN (who also deserve tremendous credit):

Nobel prize: well done Higgs theorists but what about the experimenters?
Full credit to Higgs and Englert for Cern Large Hadron Collider discovery, but the Nobel falsely promotes view of 'lone genius'

I'm sitting in the meeting hall in Marrakesh, looking at a screen where the webcast of the Nobel physics prize has just been broadcast. Around me are a few hundred colleagues, members of the Atlas collaboration. Atlas, along with CMS, is one of the two big experiments at the Cern Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which announced the discovery of a Higgs boson on 4 July last year.

When the prize was announced, in Swedish, the cheers drowned out the Swedish version of the citation, but we could see Atlas, CMS and the LHC mentioned in the text and that felt good. All went quiet again for the English version and Gunnar Inglemann's quick summary, followed by a longer presentation, including one of those excellent animated gifs (ok they showed the CMS one, but here's the Atlas one and more explanation).

Prizes, eh? I guess they serve a purpose, and François Englert and Peter Higgs certainly deserve this. I, and the rest of Atlas, congratulate them wholeheartedly – and I hope Prof Higgs is enjoying his caravan holiday too!

But (and there is a "but&quot prizes only give one view of how science is done. They encourage the idea that the typical manner of progress in science is the breakthrough of a lone genius. In reality, while lone geniuses and breakthroughs do occur, incremental progress and collaboration are more important in increasing our understanding of nature. Even the theory breakthrough behind this prize required a body of incrementally acquired knowledge to which many contributed.

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http://www.theguardian.com/science/life-and-physics/2013/oct/08/nobel-higgs-boson-experimenters

Perchance all those in the groups at CERN who are responsible for underpinning the above theory with experimental data deserve next year's Nobel Prize in Physics.