The University of Edinburgh said that Professor Peter Higgs died yesterday at home with his family by his side.
This physicist passed away after a short illness. He was best known for predicting the Higgs boson, also called the “God particle.”
“Truly gifted scientist whose vision and imagination have enriched our knowledge of the world that surrounds us” has already been praised by many.
Today, the University of Edinburgh confirmed that he had died.
In a statement, it said, “Professor Peter Higgs has died at the age of 94.”
His death on April 8 was peaceful at home after a short illness.
“His family has asked that the media and public respect their privacy at this time.”
The physicist’s two sons and grandchildren will miss him.
The head of the university, Prof. Peter Mathieson, paid tribute to Higgs.
He said, “Peter Higgs was an amazing person. He was a truly gifted scientist whose imagination and vision have helped us learn more about the world around us.”
“His groundbreaking work has inspired thousands of scientists, and many more will be inspired by him for years to come.”
Higgs won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2013 for work he did in 1964.
Then, his work showed how the boson helped hold the universe together by giving mass to particles.
After decades of discussion, the Higgs boson was finally proven on July 4, 2012.
When the news came out, the professor wiped away a tear.
He said then: “I never expected this to happen in my lifetime and shall be asking my family to put some champagne in the fridge.”
The “God particle” or Higgs boson was found, which was a huge deal.
Matter has mass because of the particle, which also holds the universe together physically.
We still need to learn a lot more about it.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is near Geneva and is known as the “Big Bang” atom smasher, made the important discovery of the particle.
It was made public by Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, exactly 10 years ago.
Physicists have learned a lot more about the universe thanks to the progress made since then in figuring out its properties.
Scientists have found out how heavy the Higgs boson is, which is a fundamental constant of nature that the Standard Model doesn’t explain.
Along with the mass of the top quark, which is the heaviest known elementary particle, and other factors, the mass of the Higgs boson may also affect how stable the vacuum of the universe is.
But scientists say there are still a lot of questions they want to know about the particle. For example, can it interact with dark matter and show what this strange type of matter is?
Other questions that still need to be answered are what gives the Higgs boson its mass and how it interacts with itself, as well as whether it has twins or other relatives.
