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| The Higgs Mechanism |
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To understand the Higgs mechanism, imagine that a room full of physicists quietly chattering is like space filled only with the Higgs field ... |
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... a well-known scientist walks in, creating a disturbance as he moves across the room, and attracting a cluster of admirers with each step ... |
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... this increases his resistance to movement, in other words, he acquires mass, just like a particle moving through the Higgs field ... |
| ... if a rumor crosses the room ... |
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it creates the same kind of clustering, but this time
among the scientists themselves. In this analogy, these clusters are the Higgs particles. |
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| We thank CERN for use of these images and text. |
