Higs-Boson Particles Discovered

[Collective Foal]

The Higs-Boson particle, and I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject, is supposedly a subatomic particle that, essentially, gives things mass. Think of your atom. The electrons are virtually weightless. But your neutrons are like atoms in themselves. They contain a number of different subatomic particles, one of them being, in theory, the Higs-Boson. This particle basically is everything, so it's kind of a big deal. Here's an article on what is thought to be the discovery of this particle at the large Hadron collider out in Europe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18702455

[Wheatley]

The Higgs Boson itself isn't supposed to be contained in any other subatomic particle. Basically, the prediction is of a field that's known as the Higgs field which would give particles their mass. The Higgs Boson would be an excitation of this field. There are several different models of this, and there are some models that do not include the Higgs, but the big news is that the LHC found a particle that is consistent with the predicted properties of the Higgs.

[Collective Foal]

So are you saying they are subatomic partucles that exist outside of the neutrons/protons and give them mass? I don't think I can quite grasp the concept. Is there some sort of Lamens analogy you can give me?

[Wheatley]

A good simplistic explanation of the Higgs was made by MinutePhysics here: ASRpIym_jFM

 

I'm not quite knowledgeable enough on the subject to say exactly how accurate the video is in terms of what's actually going on in the Standard Model, but you probably won't find a better explanation for a layman.