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Joined 2026-09-21 Message
Incoming links: François Englert
Higgs mechanism history 2026-10-18
In their 1964 paper, François Englert and Robert Brout showed that gauge bosons associated with generators that rotate the chosen vacuum acquire masses while gauge invariance is maintained. Their discussion included both scalar and fermionic models.[ref]
Broken Symmetry and the Mass of Gauge Vector Mesons by François Englert and Robert Brout. pp. 321–323, especially Eq. (6)
Independently, Peter Higgs exhibited a massive vector and a surviving massive scalar field by linearizing a simple gauge theory. His paper explicitly distinguishes this classical calculation from a proof for the full quantized theory. These 1964 mechanisms supplied an ingredient for the later electroweak interaction, rather than the complete Standard Model.[ref]
Broken Symmetries and the Masses of Gauge Bosons by Peter Higgs. p. 508, Eqs. (2b)–(4); p. 509, note 4
Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 2026-10-18
Awarded in equal shares to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism explaining the origin of mass in subatomic particles, confirmed by discovery of the predicted particle in the ATLAS experiment and CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.[ref]
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 by Nobel Prize Outreach. Individual official summary: Englert and Higgs one half each; theoretical mass mechanism and its experimental confirmation.