What has the nickname 'god particle' and is crucial to standard theories of physics; quark, neutron, K-meson, or Higgs boson?

Son of The Household Cavalry

The Higgs Boson made simple Now consider a rumour passing through a room full of uniformly spread political workers. Those near the door hear of it first and cluster together to get the details, then they turn and move closer to their next neighbours who want to know about it too. A wave of clustering passes through the room. It may spread to all the corners or it may form a compact bunch which carries the news along a line of workers from the door to some dignitary at the other side of the room. Since the information is carried by clusters of people, and since it was clustering that gave extra mass to the ex-Prime Minister, then the rumour-carrying clusters also have mass. The Higgs boson is predicted to be just such a clustering in the Higgs field. We will find it much easier to believe that the field exists, and that the mechanism for giving other particles is true, if we actually see the Higgs particle itself. Again, there are analogies in the physics of solids. A crystal lattice can carry waves of clustering without needing an electron to move and attract the atoms. These waves can behave as if they are particles. They are called phonons and they too are bosons. There could be a Higgs mechanism, and a Higgs field throughout our Universe, without there being a Higgs boson. The next generation of colliders will sort this out. Now it is all clear. http://www.hep.yorku.ca/what_is_higgs.html [Added reference link - McG] Dec 16 01, 7:03 PM

Tabby Tom

The Higgs boson http://www.allanstime.com/News/Backup/GodParticle.htm http://www.sciam.com/news/092100/2.html Sun Dec 16 12:27:04 CST 2001 (To fix link - McG) May 27 03, 7:36 AM