Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether the new particle is the Higgs boson of the standard model, or one of several other bosons predicted by other theories of physics.
It may be about to happen in particle physics - if neither the Tevatron nor Large Hadron Collider spots a Higgs boson soon, the standard model that scientists have worked with for years may have to be abandoned, or at least seriously reformed, and another built in its place.
Physicists in Geneva are close to discovering the last particle they need to complete the model, the Higgs boson.
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For a few months in 2010 it looked as though the Tevatron might get a reprieve in order to find the last (and heaviest) missing bit of the model the Higgs boson, which is thought to give other particles their mass.
The Higgs boson is the only particle theorized by the standard model of physics that hasn't been conclusively observed in an experiment.
The only thing you have to specify is the mass of the Higgs boson, after that, all interactions of the Standard Model are fixed, and you can make predictions to arbitrary accuracy (though it is very hard practically).
Just as all the known particles of matter have antimatter versions in the Standard Model, in the world of susy every known boson, including the Higgs, has one or more fermion partners, and every known fermion has one or more associated bosons.
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Whether this excess is the Higgs boson will take more time because many of the predictions of the Standard Model need to be checked (remember there is no freedom to change predictions around once the mass is known).
The efforts put into finding the boson relate to its status as the last missing piece in the the Standard Model - the most widely accepted theory of particle physics.
The Higgs boson is of huge importance to the widely accepted theory of physics, known as the Standard Model.
The boson earned a nickname - the "God particle" - supposedly because of its importance to the Standard Model.
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