Nobel Prize in Physics 2013

10.12.2013

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 has been jointly awarded to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs for the theory of how the currently known elementary particles acquire mass.

In 1964, they proposed the theory independently of each other (Englert together with his now deceased colleague Robert Brout). In 2012, their ideas were confirmed by the discovery of a so called Higgs particle at the CERN laboratory outside Geneva in Switzerland.

The awarded theory is a central part of the Standard Model of particle physics that describes how the world is constructed. According to the Standard Model, everything, from flowers and people to stars and planets, consists of just a few building blocks: matter particles. These particles are governed by forces mediated by force particles that make sure everything works as it should.

For more information, see this poster.