In a popular-science book by Leon Lederman, the Higgs boson
was nick-named the God particle. This name is strongly disliked by both physicists
and priests, because it could give the false impression that God has something
to do with it. That’s not the case.
Science deals with theoretical predictions and experimental confirmation (or rejection) of the theories. Religion is just a question
of belief (or lack of it), and is outside the scope of science.
Lederman, in his book, first wanted to call it the Goddamn particle,
because of the enormous efforts and billions of dollars spent in the search for
the Higgs boson. But the publisher didn’t approve it
I thought it was really cool when the Higgs particle was found,
because I used to work with this kind of stuff when I was a physics student.
Elementary particles are the basic building blocks of everything, all kinds of
matter, and even light. The weird part of theoretical physics known as “quantum
field theory” is the mathematical description of elementary particles and their
interactions.
For every particle there is a field, and for every field
there is a particle, the observable quantum of the field. Even light has a particle;
the photon. And of course, there is a Higgs field, associated with the Higgs
particle.
In fact there are many Higgs fields, at least four. Three of
the Higgs fields are busy, giving mass to other particles, by so-called spontaneous
symmetry breaking. The 4th Higgs field is free (because light, the photon, didn't acquire a mass), and is observable as the Higgs particle.
More than 20 years ago, I wrote my master thesis on an even
crazier part of quantum field theory, something called super-symmetry. In super-symmetry, there are more Higgs-like particles, and a myriad of other new particles, none of which have been observed in the labs so far.
Working with super-symmetry was very entertaining, but I’m
not sure it’s useful. I was in doubt if I should continue with this, or switch
to something else. Once, I discussed this with a professor I knew (he was an
outstanding teacher). The advice he gave me is probably the best I ever got:
“It doesn’t really matter which wave-equation you solve, but
for some you get better paid.”
So, I swapped field (literally speaking), from elementary
particles to acoustic and electromagnetic waves. I did my PhD in applied geophysics, and started to
work for BigOil. I never regretted, and I even think I’m useful to society,
sometimes >:)
(The picture is a random page from my master thesis, written back, in 1992. I still have a copy of the thesis in my bookshelf. I haven't opened it for more than 10 years, until recently, when I wanted to refresh my mind on the Higgs stuff.)
