? ? ? ?? 弗朗索瓦·恩格勒 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?彼得·希格斯

The Higgs boson, or the "God particle," which was discovered last year, garnered two physicists the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday.

Nearly 50 years ago, Francois Englert of Belgium and Peter Higgs of the United Kingdom had the foresight to predict that the particle existed.

Now, the octogenarian pair share the Nobel Prize in physics in recognition of a theoretical brilliance that was vindicated by the particle's discovery last year.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to them.

Higgs and Englert's theories behind the elusive Higgs boson explained what gives matter its mass.

The universe is filled with Higgs bosons. As atoms and parts of atoms zoom around, they interact with and attract Higgs bosons, which cluster around them in varying numbers.

Certain particles will attract larger clusters of Higgs bosons, and the more of them a particle attracts, the greater its mass will be.

The explanation helped complete scientists' understanding of the nature of all matter.

"The awarded theory is a central part of the Standard Model of particle physics that describes how the world is constructed," the Royal Swedish Academy said in a post on Twitter.

As is tradition, the academy phoned the scientists during the announcement to inform them of their win. They were unable to reach Higgs, for whom the particle is named.

The conversation with Englert was short and sweet. "I feel very well, of course," he said, when he heard the news. "Now, I'm very happy."

【新聞快訊】

2013年諾貝爾物理學(xué)獎(jiǎng)10月8日在瑞典揭曉，比利時(shí)理論物理學(xué)家弗朗索瓦·恩格勒和英國(guó)理論物理學(xué)家彼得·希格斯因希格斯玻色子的理論預(yù)言獲獎(jiǎng)。

希格斯玻色子（Higgs boson）又稱(chēng)上帝粒子（God particle），是粒子物理學(xué)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模型預(yù)言的一種自旋為零的玻色子。它是標(biāo)準(zhǔn)模型中最后一種未被發(fā)現(xiàn)的粒子。它可以幫助解析為何其它粒子會(huì)有質(zhì)量。

1964年，恩格勒和羅伯特·布繞特（已故）共同提出希格斯機(jī)制與希格斯玻色子理論。同年，彼得·希格斯也在《物理評(píng)論快報(bào)》發(fā)表文章，提出希格斯機(jī)制理論。

2011年12月13日，歐洲核子研究中心科學(xué)家宣布，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了希格斯玻色子存在的跡象。但經(jīng)考慮實(shí)驗(yàn)其它誤差后，宣布實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果無(wú)效。2012年7月4 日科學(xué)家宣布發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)新粒子，與希格斯玻色子特征有吻合之處。