How all particles and fundamental forces except gravity interact

 The Standard Model is a physics theory that explains how all particles and fundamental forces except gravity interact. In the 1970s, scientists realized that the accepted theories of the time predicted that elementary particles could not have mass. Except that they knew that wasn’t true; experimeThe sun helped prove Einstein right...nts had already shown that these particles did have mass. Something was missing.

Three physicists (Robert Brout, François Englert, and Peter Higgs) developed a mechanism that explained this apparent conflict. This mechanism was later an essential ingredient of what is now the Standard Model of particle physics. They proposed that the Standard Model was missing a field that would interact with elementary particles and that the interaction gives these particles mass. Weinberg, Salam, and Glashow later constructed a complete theory explaining the known interactions of particles, along with their masses. This theory contained an essential ingredient – the Higgs field. As a particle, the Higgs Boson is the part of the field that we can “see.”

My past work focused on describing how physical processes interact in a way that could act as a map to find the Higgs. Starting at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, then going on to DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and now at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, my work contributed to predictions that helped experimental scientists locate the Higgs Boson in 2012.

Now, we’re using the Higgs to search for new properties in nature. We know that despite finding the Higgs, much  of the subatomic world is still unknown. Studying the Higgs will provide us with insights into these possible new interactions.

To tackle these issues, particle physicists are continuing a tradition we started back in 1982. Every few years, we gather together to hash out the state of our field and discuss future directions. As we come up on another round of what we call the “Snowmass Process,” the particle physics community needs to develop new theoretical calculations to inform these discussions.” -Sally Dawson, 2020.