Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to fathers of the Higgs boson - Le Nouvel Observateur

Stockholm (AFP) – The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded Tuesday to Belgian François Englert and British Peter Higgs for their work on the “Higgs boson”, an elementary particle considered by physicists as the keystone the fundamental structure of matter.

two men aged respectively 80 and 84 years are rewarded for their work on “the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of the mass of subatomic particles, which was recently confirmed” , announced the Nobel committee said in a statement.

Mr.

Higgs gave his name to the famous “Higgs boson”, considered by physicists as the keystone of the fundamental structure of matter. This elementary particle number gives other particles their mass, as so-called “standard model” theory.

including why some particles have mass and not others, and hence why the Universe exists as we know it.

“Without him, we would not exist,” noted the Nobel committee said in a statement.

Mr.

Higgs, 84, is attached to the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and Mr. Englert, 80, at the Free University of Brussels (ULB).

The first one who applied for the first time in 1964 the existence of the Higgs, a theoretical way, while at the same time two Belgians, Mr. Englert and Robert Brout, who died in 2011, launched the early work on the topic.

“I am very pleased to have received the award,” he told AFP Mr. Englert, reached by telephone from Stockholm. At a conference at the university, he regretted the absence of the Belgian-American accomplice Robert Brout. Visibly moved, he said: “It fits a certain regret that my colleague and friend of all life is not here to share this award for the work we have done together”

.

“I am overwhelmed to receive this award,” wrote Mr. Higgs said in a statement published on the website of the University of Edinburgh. He expressed the hope “that the recognition of the fundamental science” to help raise awareness of the value of research involved in understanding the origin of the mass of subatomic particles.

vice president of the British Royal Society, John Pethica, the work of two scientists “helped shape the fundamental understanding of the world around us.”

outreach efforts of this discovery, the Higgs has been dubbed “the God particle” because it is in everything while being particularly elusive.

Advanced is one of the largest in the history of physics. However, the Nobel committee, it was not easy to choose which reward for this discovery.

After five decades of failures, CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research, based near Geneva), announced July 4, 2012 was discovered through the largest particle accelerator in the world.

other prominent physicists participated in the long process of CERN. At the headquarters of it, dozens of employees gathered Tuesday in the cafeteria to follow live on a screen announcing the winners.

“This is our work has enabled the Academy to give the Nobel prize. You must applaud you,” he told Rolf Heuer, head of the laboratory that conducted the research.

Asked by Swedish news agency TT, Professor Gerald Guralnik, a physicist at CERN, said he was “delighted to these gentlemen and the cause of the physical.”

“I do not deny that it hurts a little at heart, despite the rumors that say otherwise, physicists are human. But I feel great satisfaction of having participated in a decisive manner to formulate a theory this problem, “he added.

Despite the uncertainties that make the identification of the Higgs boson is not 100% officially confirmed, the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm crowned two men who were obvious omissions if the jury had not take the time to reward them before they disappear.

MM. Englert and Higgs succeed the French Haroche and American David Wineland, 2012 winners.

Nobel Prize in Physics is the second of the 2013 season, after the medicine on Monday. It must be followed by the chemistry Wednesday, literature on Thursday and Friday peace economy Monday.

Nobel Prize come with a budget of 8 million kronor (920,000 euros).

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