eli5: what is a god particle?
In: 5
The “God Particle” was a nickname given to the Higgs Boson, the particle responsible for giving things mass. It was believed that when this particle was fibally observed experimentally, it would fill in the holes in standard physics, unify quantum and relativistic explanations of gravity (potentially in terms of the other three forces), and finally give physics its Grand Unified Theory.
That didn’t wind up happening. We found the Higgs Boson, but it fell short of the predictions in some key ways, leaving some areas of physics unexplained and a Grand Unified Theory still out of reach. So the term “God Particle” kind of fell out of favor.
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