Peter Higgs and Francois Engler this year for his contribution to research aimed at the identification and detection of particles, which is responsible for the mass of other elementary particles – the so-called “God particle” or Higgs boson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Prize winners were announced on the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at a special event in Stockholm. The award of $ 1.2 million, which they must share with each other, they will be presented during a ceremony to be held in Stockholm in December.
Peter Higgs, 84-year-old British professor at the University of Edinburgh, predicted the existence of the particle in 1964, describing a mechanism that answers the question: why do most elementary particles have mass. Francois Engler and Robert Brout, Belgian physics, the Higgs is actually ahead by two weeks, with a scientific document , in which they explained the existence of an invisible force field, endowing the elementary particles mass, but forgot to mention that the particle itself with respect to this force field.
Recall that the existence of the Higgs boson has been confirmed experimentally by the LHC at CERN in July 2012.
Many expected that the Nobel committee this year will not pass the Higgs boson, but until that time, there are many scenarios as to how he is going to mark the event. His contribution to the theory of the Higgs boson have a minimum of six physicists, not to mention the thousands of employees at CERN. Unfortunately, the Nobel Prize can not be awarded more than three winners. Robert Brout died in 2011, so there were still five potential nominees.
It is worth noting that Peter Higgs unlike Francois Engler never liked being the center of attention and always maintained that his role in the definition of the “God particle”, which bears his name, is exaggerated. One day, the New York Times even called it “Salinger physics.” He always praised all those who made the slightest contribution to the discovery of the particle, and did not even come to the press conference, timed the announcement of the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Prize in Physics is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, and has been awarded since 1901. Among the famous laureates in physics worth mentioning Pierre and Marie Curie (1903), Albert Einstein (1921) and Richard Feynman (1965). In last year’s Nobel Prize in Physics went to Serge Haroche and David Wineland for his contribution in technology that have made possible the measurement of individual quantum systems and their management.
At present it is difficult to estimate the contribution Higgs Engler in full, but most scholars agree that the discovery of the Higgs boson in the future can turn the usual perception of the world.
“When mankind discovered electricity, no one guessed that in no time the whole world will be covered with lights,” – wrote in 2011 for Newsweek theoretical physicist Dr. Lisa Randall. – “When was the quantum mechanics, no one expected that it will become the engine of the revolution in the semiconductor industry and electronics in general. It’s not clear that it is through the 10, 20 or 100 years will give humanity the Higgs boson, but civilization, pay due attention to science and trying to learn more about the world around them, in the end, we lived well. “
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