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Robert Brout Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
Robert Brout and François Englert showed how gauge bosons can acquire mass in a theory with spontaneous symmetry breaking. Their 1964 analysis couples a degenerate-vacuum matter system to a gauge field. The resulting excitation spectrum can contain massive vector particles rather than the massless scalar modes expected for an ungauged broken symmetry. This supplied a mechanism for relating interaction symmetry to particle mass, an essential ingredient of the later electroweak theory.[ref]
Broken Symmetry and the Mass of Gauge Vector Mesons by François Englert and Robert Brout. 1964 original paper, gauge coupling and massive-vector spectrum
A physicist who developed theoretical physics research at Université libre de Bruxelles.[ref]
Professional profile of Robert Brout (actus.ulb.be). Independent professional identity
Portrait of Robert Brout
. Pnicolet at the English Wikipedia; image provided by Robert Brout on 20 August 2007. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.