- The Higgs field provides an explanation for elementary particle masses.
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is an elementary particle postulated by theorist Peter Higgs. This particle is a remnant of the sponanteous symmetry breaking of electroweak interactions. It is this symmetry breaking that gives a mass to elementary particles. The Higgs is the only particle in the Standard Model of particle physics which has not yet been observed experimentally.
Searches for the Higgs in former experiments have shown that the Higgs has a mass of more than 114 GeV.
Higgs search at LHC
- Peter Higgs visits the ATLAS-Detector at LHC, CERN
One of the Large Hadron Collider's purposes is the search for the Higgs boson. The picture shows theorist Peter Higgs visiting ATLAS, one of the experiments at the LHC that are utilized to hunt the Higgs boson.
Our research group in Bonn focuses its Higgs boson search on the low Higgs mass region between 115 GeV and 130 GeV. LHC data taken in 2010 and 2011 indicate that this mass range is the most interesting with most of the higher mass region excluded for Higgs bosons that are compatible with the standard model. In particular, we study Higgs decays into tau leptons and into pairs of b-quarks.
For further information contact Dr. Sonja Hillert, Dr. Jürgen Kroseberg, Dr. Eckhard von Toerne, Prof. Norbert Wermes.