Rousing cheers and a standing ovation broke out at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) after scientists presented data in their long search for the mysterious particle.
The new find is "consistent with (the) long-sought Higgs boson," CERN declared in a statement.
It added further data was needed to identify the find.
"We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer.
"The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle's properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our Universe."
Peter Higgs, a shy, soft-spoken British physicist who published the conceptual groundwork for the particle, back in 1964, expressed joy.
"I never expected this to happen in my lifetime and shall be asking my family to put some champagne in the fridge," he said in a statement issued by the University of Edinburgh, where he was a professor.
Finding the Higgs would validate the Standard Model, a theory which identifies the building blocks for matter and the particles that convey fundamental forces.
It is a hugely successful theory but has several gaps, the biggest of which is why some particles have mass but others do not.
Mooted by Higgs and several others, the boson is believed to exist in a treacly, invisible, ubiquitous field created by the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago.
When some particles encounter the Higgs, they slow down and acquire mass, according to the theory. Others, such as particles of light, encounter no obstacle.
CERN uses a giant underground laboratory where protons are smashed together at nearly the speed of light, yielding sub-atomic debris that is then scrutinised for signs of the fleeting Higgs.
The task is arduous because there are trillions of signals, occurring among particles at different ranges of mass.
Over the years, tens of thousands of physicists and billions of dollars have been thrown into the search for the Higgs, gradually narrowing down the mass range where it might exist.
Two CERN laboratories, working independently of each other to avoid bias, found the new particle in the mass region of around 125-126 Gigaelectronvolts (GeV), according to data they presented on Wednesday.
Both said that the results were "five sigma," meaning there was just a 0.00006 percent chance that what the two laboratories found is a mathematical quirk.
"The results are preliminary but the five sigma signal at around 125 GeV we're seeing is dramatic," said Joe Incandela, spokesman for one of the two experiments.
"This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it's the heaviest boson ever found. The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks."
Scientists began to pore over what the historic find could mean.
"(The Higgs) has been anticipated for more than four decades and were it not there theorists all over the world would have been back to their drawing boards in desperation," said Anthony Thomas at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
CERN physicist Yves Sirois agreed.
"This could the Higgs boson that has been found, which may shed light on how matter came into being at the very start of the Universe, a thousandth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang," he told AFP.
"It may be the Higgs boson, but it may also be something far bigger, which opens the door towards a new theory that goes beyond the Standard Model."
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If any one here says that this project is not from the roots of ideas of Abdus Salam, he is a mere idiot and ignorant being.The Standard Model of particle physics incorporates a mechanism that endows particles with mass. Known as the Higgs mechanism, it was developed by Peter Higgs in 1964 to introduce mass into Yang-Mills theory.Abdus Salam and independently Steven Weinberg recognized its importance for unifying the theories of the weak force and the electromagnetic force into a unified gauge theory of a single electroweak force. Using the Higgs mechanism, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg found that the carriers of the weak interaction, the W and Z bosons, have large masses, whereas the corresponding carriers of the electromagnetic force have no mass. This is the source idea for the Higgs mechanism leading to the identification of Higgs boson, which ultimately defines the creation of mass from nothing (or no mass), which is the reason why we refer to it as God particle. Got it??
For all those who are arguing about whether its religion or science, of who is right or wrong and who discovered it first . Let me put it in the words of the late Dr, Abdus Salam ( I happemed to be at this lecture 1975) when asked by a member of the audience about Islamic Science, he responded......."There is no such thing as Islamic science, Hindu science, Buddhist science, Christian, Jewish or Atheist science. For science is the study of the Laws of Nature and the laws of nature are the the laws of God. Do not put your science in a box for if you do, then we may not find prgress." Science is free for all who which to pursue it,regardless of religion, race, nationality etc .
Ohh After zillion years Pakistan is remembering Abdus Salam whom they have thrown out of the country just because he was an Ahmedi. Look at you citizens...
@Awan "Boson was an Indian but infact he was a Bengali by Ethnciity." What do you want to convey here ? Bengalis are Indians..Dont always retrieve the bitter memory of 1971 whenever you listen the word Bengali.Its not good for your health.:)
Well, Dr Salam would be a very happy man if alive today, in 1967, Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam were the first to apply the Higgs mechanism to the breaking of the electroweak symmetry, and showed how a Higgs mechanism could be incorporated into Sheldon Glashow's electroweak theory, in what became the Standard Model of particle physics. These gentlemen won Nobel Prize in 1979.
Gravity is the hidden secret force of the universe and I think we are getting closer to unravel its true roots by establishing a link with other forces, Salam and others have their contribution to it. Mankind is one step closer to find true nature of gravity by knowing about Higgs Boson's existence. Alas, Pakistan currently has no great scientist to contribute or become part of such profound research.
@Anis Aqeel. I fully agree with the unification of the four fundamental forces in nature. Professor Salam along with another physicist is the pioneer of successfully combining the two forces. Einstein in the last 20 years of his life unsuccessfully tried to put all these four forces of nature. Gravity the weakest force in nature with an infinite range is still out of the fold. Even if scientists succeed in unifying the four forces in a single unified field, that will be the God but let there be no mistake that this will not be a personal God.
Correct me if wrong, didn't Dr. Abdus Salam mentioned over three decades ago that eventually it will come unto one force (meaning God).
@all religees: if it was already mentioned in the Quran or Gita or any other religious text, then the maulvis/priests/theologists who study these religious texts should have found it hundreds of years ago (as well as countless other 'scientific' discoveries or facts mentioned in Quran/Gita etc.) and there would have been no need for scientists toiling away.
Amazing that on the scientific artical we will talk about Hindu, atheist, Indian, Pakistani and so on, only one comment is on the realitive subject, other fighting like children. Comment on the subject otherwise respect each other what ever any one is. Love you all.
@Awans: At least you know what you were talking about, otherwise you know what I wmt to say. Thanks
@saif: He was more know on proton decay to the best of my knowledge.
@Atheist, India: Btw, my devout Hindu friend claims these scientific theories are already mentioned in the Bhagwat Gita. Considering you don't even know the conventional spelling of Bhagavad Gita, you are not an athiest of Hindu extraction. What I find interesting is that despite the athiest tag, there are still certain deep-seated biases that influence thinking beyond the wholly rational approach that one would normally expect.
@Parsad Babu SO true
There we go again... Indians and Pakistani claiming credit for something achieved by someone else. The fact is both the countries with billions of people have contributed almost zero to the the science and technology in the recent times. We love to live in the past.
Very good development .However this is already mentioned in the Holy Book “Quran” Apparently scientists are so arrogant they don't just peep into these books and make their life easy. Instead they painstakingly toil through tonnes of books reading and collecting the minutest facts, spend years clearing exams, spend decades in their laboratories, experience repeated failures after their theories get disproved or their experiments declared incorrect and make governments spend Billions of dollars after their so called "theories". Btw, my devout Hindu friend claims these scientific theories are already mentioned in the Bhagwat Gita. Beat that.
@Cosmo: Well Pakistanis are stupid are so are Indians. Boson was an Indian but infact he was a Bengali by Ethnciity. Go and check out his history of Satyendra Nath Bose. Also I am sure both of you have no idea about work of Boson and Higgs and the theory presented by Abdus Salam and his 2 colleagues. Since I know some Quantum Physics and the contribution of Abdus Salam is something else than Boson and Higgs. Abdus Salam and his Colleague's discovery laid the foundation of one important aspect that He tried to Unify the Electromagnetic, weak and strong interaction into one in the standard model as is known as Electro Weak Theory. The Higgs mechanism was merged in particle physics by Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam The main unsolved problem in Physics is that Standard Model interaction unification at high energies and discovery of symmetry that how unification actually works in the standard model?..... . Now What is Higgs Boson???. Based on that Standard model one Mysetrious Phenomena was yet to be discovered which provides field which provide mass to other elementary particles in Higgs Phenomena. Now the last thing i want to tell It is a Standard model which tell us about the Higgs Particles but still until today Standard Model was not able to answer that from where Mass comes from.?.....Now today we came to know that this field actually tell us that which field provides elementary particles the mass........
So please if you dont know anything about Physics then dont act like cry babies. The Salam and His Colleagues got Noble Prize for Electro Weak Theory and its proved the Mechanism of Higgs Boson and in my view and both are interlinked and Standard model is infact a fundamental of Particle Physics. Also before commenting just search for Electro-Weak force that what it is and why it has so much importance in the field of Particle physics.
Another reason for Indian and Pakistanis to fight over. But at least it’s a good cause, quest for science, no harm in competition here.
@Cosmo: It was Satyendranath Bose. However, Saif is correct that Dr. Abdus Salam worked in particle physics on the Standard model of which the Higgs boson is a missing piece. @Rana: Actually Leon Lederman (who first wrote the book on the God particle) had wanted to name the particle as Goddamn particle saying, I quote, "because it was so goddamn hard to find". However, this was watered down by his publisher and called the God particle as a compromise. Most scientists dislike this terminology.
I was wondering why ET has not given the full details of the name "Higgin Boson" derived from the scientists "Peter Higgs" & "Satyendra Nath Bose". ET has purposefully omitted Satyendra Nath Bose's name since he is Indian
@Cosmo: dude, its Satyendra Nath Bose, not J.C.Bose
@saif: Ha ha ha, taking credits! Dont u know "Boson" is named after Indian scientist Jagdishchandra Bose! Go and wikipedia "boson".
Upon this discovery, Scientists at CERN are very interestingly terming it as finding of “God Particle”; in other words can we say they found “PIECE” of God? Okay, that also can be elaborated as finding a connection to an unavailable substance and subsequently its existence. Can it be termed as revolutionary finding that advocates the physical existence of God? This discovery is going to attract the attention of non believers!!
Historical event in the particle physics and a step forward towards scientific endorsement and understanding the phenomenon of creation, which would further going to strengthen the believing for existence of Allah All Mighty. The theory of creation (big bang) and existence of a strong commanding force would further be refined.
Discovery of the century.
At this point, we should not forget the contribution of Dr. Abdus Salam, whose grand unification theory of strong, weak and electromagnetic fields opened the gateway for the discovery of bosons and laid down the basis for this quantum electrodynamics project. Love. :-)
Very good development .However this is already mentioned in the Holy Book "Quran".