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The Higgs boson or Higgs particle is a theoretical elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics.Experiments to detect the Higgs boson resulted in the discovery of a new, previously unknown boson during 2012; however, contrary to widespread misreporting,[12]  the new particle is still being studied as of 2013 to learn whether it is the Higgs boson or not.[13] [14]  Confirmation that the Higgs boson exists would be monumental[15] [16]  since it would finally prove the existence of the Higgs field,[17] [18]  the Standard Model's explanation of why some fundamental particles have mass when 'naive' theory says they should be massless, and - linked to this - why the weak force has a much shorter range than the electromagnetic force. Its discovery would validate the final unconfirmed part of the Standard Model, guide other theories and discoveries in particle physics, and – as with other fundamental discoveries of the past – potentially over time lead to developments in "new" physics,[19]  and new technology.

This unanswered question in fundamental physics is of such importance[17] [18]  that it led to a decades-long search for the Higgs boson and finally the construction of one of the most expensive and complex experimental facilities to date, the Large Hadron Collider[20]  able to create and study Higgs bosons and related questions. On 4 July 2012, two separate experimental teams at the Large Hadron Collider announced that they had each independently confirmed the existence of a previously unknown particle with a mass between 125 and  127 GeV/c2, which physicists suspect is the Higgs boson,[16]  and whose known behaviour (up to December 2012) closely matches a Standard Model Higgs boson.

The Higgs boson is named after Peter Higgs, one of six physicists who, in 1964, proposed the mechanism that suggested such a particle. Although Higgs' name has become ubiquitous in this theory, the resulting electroweak model (the final outcome) involved several researchers between about 1960 and 1972, who each independently developed different parts. In mainstream media the Higgs boson is often referred to as the "God particle," from a 1993 book on the topic; the sobriquet is strongly disliked by many physicists, who regard it as inappropriatesensationalism.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ISample29052009_23-0" style="line-height:1em;">[21] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NatPost_24-0" style="line-height:1em;">[22]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In the Standard Model, the Higgs particle is a boson with no spin, electric charge, or color charge. It is also very unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately. It is a quantum excitation of one component of the four component Higgs field–a scalar field with two neutral and two electrically charged components that forms a complex doublet of the weak isospin SU(2) symmetry. The field has a "Mexican hat" shaped potential with nonzero strength everywhere (including otherwise empty space) which in its vacuum state breaks the weak isospin symmetry of the electroweak interaction. When this happens, three components of the Higgs field are "absorbed" by the SU(2) and U(1) gauge bosons (the "Higgs mechanism") to become the longitudinal components of the now-massive W and Z bosons of the weak force. The remaining electrically neutral component separately couples to other particles known as fermions (via Yukawa couplings), causing these to acquire mass as well. Some versions of the theory predict more than one kind of Higgs fields and bosons. Alternative "Higgsless" models would need to be considered if the Higgs boson is not discovered.