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Theoretical Subatomic Particle Higgs Boson and itsRole in the Complete Understanding of the UniversePhysics is the foundation of all sciences and quantum physics is the foundation of thestudy of the structure of matter. In physics, force is defined as the way particles interact. Both theelectromagnetic force and the gravitation explains how two particles with mass interact. Forcemediating particles, according to the standard model are particles that exchange particles becauseof interactions. A particle is said to be ‘mediated’ when a force mediating particle is exchanged ata macro level and the effect is equivalent to a force that influences both particles (Wikipedia.org2009).The belief that protons and neutrons were elementary particles lasted up to approximatelytwenty years ago. However, because of experiments that involved collisions between protons andelectrons at high speed have shown that smaller particles exist. Caltech physicist Murray Gell-man called these particles quarks and won a Nobel Prize in 1969 (Hawking 1988).As of now, we have different kinds of quarks. These categories are called ‘flavours’ Thereare six flavours and they are up, down, top, bottom, charmed and strange. Each flavour is said tocome in three colours, red, green and blue. These colours are merely labels since a quark issmaller than the wavelength of visible light. For instance, a proton is made up of two up quarksand one down quark while a neutron is made up of two down quarks and one up quark. By usingother flavours of quarks, we can create other particles, but these particles have greater mass andhas a faster decay rate (Hawking 1988).In the standard model, we have four forces or interactions. The first force is theGravitational Force. Every particle feels the force of gravity and thus, it is called the ‘UniversalForce.’ The force of gravity has two special properties. One is that it can act over large distances1

and the other is it is always attractive. Because of these properties, Gravity has a significanteffect even though it is the weakest among the four. The other three forces, compared to gravity,are repulsive, attractive or short ranged (Hawking 1988).The electromagnetic force is much stronger than the force of gravity. This force interactswith electrically charged particles like electrons and quarks, but does not interact with uncharged particles. Approximately, the magnetic force between two electrons is about a million millionmillion million million million times stronger than gravity. However, because of its two chargesthe force tends to cancel out. It is only in the small scales of atoms and molecules that theelectromagnetic force dominates (Hawking 1988).The force responsible for radioactivity is the weak nuclear force. The force acts on allmatter particles of spin ½, but not on particles with spin 1, 0 and 2. Because of Abdus Salam andSteven Weinberg’s theories that unified electromagnetic force and this force, the nature of theweak nuclear force is understood (Hawking 1988).The force responsible for holding the quarks together is the strong nuclear force. Thespin-1 particle, the gluon is believed to carry this force during interactions. The gluon onlyinteracts with quarks and itself. One notable property of the strong nuclear force is theconfinement property. It always binds subatomic particles into combinations that have a colour (Hawking 1988).The subatomic particles in charged with the interactions are called ‘bosons.’ These forcecarriers are grouped according to the force that they carry and the particles with which theyinteract. These categories were done for the convenience in constructing concepts and theoriesabout them, The ultimate goal of the Physicists is to find one single theory that can explaineverything, a grand unification theory (Hawking 1988).2

In quantum mechanics, the force of gravity is carried by a particle of spin-2 called thegraviton. Since the graviton has no mass on its own, it is able to carry the force at a long range.Because of these interactions between gravitons and the force, the earth is able to orbit aroundthe sun. Though the concept of the graviton is accepted, they haven’t been observed yet(Hawking 1988).The particles that carry the electromagnetic force are massless spin-1 particles called photons while the particles that carry the weak nuclear force are photons, W plus bosons, Wminus bosons and Z naught bosons. The W and Z bosons were believed to have a mass of approximately 100GeV. Because of spontaneous symmetry breaking, particles at low energy arefound to be all the same type of particle but only in different states (Hawking 1988).A quark cannot be on its own because it would have a colour. Instead, a green and a bluequark should be combined with a red quark and must be bound by a string of gluons, the bosonsof the strong nuclear force. These combinations produces a proton or a neutron. A quark and anantiquark produce a meson. However, mesons are very unstable because the quark and theantiquark can annihilate each other (Hawking 1988).In the standard model, the only fundamental particle predicted to exist but has not been proven yet is the Higgs Boson. The higgs boson is a hypothetical scalar elementary particle thathas no intrinsic spin and is classified as a boson. The role of the higgs boson in the standardmodel is very crucial. Its existence can help explain and understand how the elementary particlesgot its mass. It can explain the difference between a massless photon and the very heavy W andZ bosons. It can explain the nature of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force. In a theorycalled the ‘electroweak theory,’ the higgs boson is the one that generates the masses of leptonsand quarks (Wikipedia.org 2009).3