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The Higgs Field is a possibly-discovered invisible field of energy that exists throughout the entire universe. The field is accompanied by a fundamental particle called the Higgs Boson, which it uses to continuously interact with other particles. As particles pass through the field they are endowed with the property of mass, much like how an object could pass through treacle (or molasses) and become heavier, and consequently, slower.

Although apparent, mass is not generated by the Higgs field, as creation of matter or energy would conflict with the laws of conservation; it is, however, transferred to particles from the field, which contains the relative mass in the form of energy. Once the field has endowed a formerly massless particle it slows down because it has become heavier, therefore giving other particles the chance to latch onto it using the electromagnetic force.

If the Higgs field did not exist, no particles would have the required mass to attract one another and would simply float around freely at light-speed.

The process of endowing a particle with mass is known as the Higgs Effect. The Higgs Effect

The Higgs Effect was first theorized in 1964 by Peter Higgs, yet its existence has not been proven. The CERN particle accelerator in Geneva announced the discovery of a Higgs-Boson-like particle on July 4, 2012; further analysis of the data is required to prove that it is the Higgs-Boson. This effect was seen as a missing piece of the Standard Model.

According to the gauge theory (a branch of the Standard Model that deals with force-carrying particles), all force-carrying particles should not have mass. However, the particles that carry weak force have mass. The explanation of this is the Higgs Effect, which would give mass to these particles. Scientifically, the Higgs Effect breaks SU(2) symmetry. (SU stands for special unitary, a type of matrix, and 2 refers to the size of the matrices involved).

A symmetry of a system is something you can do to the system that leaves it the same as before you acted on it. A symmetry also provides a rule for how something should always act unless acted on by an outside force. An example that might help thinking about one sort of symmetry is a Rubik's Cube. If we take a solved Rubik's cube and scramble it up by making whatever moves we want, it is still possible to solve the puzzle. Since each of the moves we can make with a Rubik's cube leaves the Rubik's cube solvable, we can say that these moves are 'symmetries' of the Rubik's cube. Together, they form what we call the symmetry group of the Rubik's cube. Making any of these moves doesn't change the puzzle, since each move leaves it solvable. But, we can break this symmetry by taking the cube apart, and putting it back together with one of the corner pieces in a rotated position. No matter what moves we try, it is no longer possible to solve the Rubik's cube. Breaking the cube apart and putting it back together in the wrong way is the 'outside force': Without this outside force, nothing we do to the cube makes it unsolvable. The symmetry of the Rubik's cube is that it stays solvable whatever moves we make, as long as we don't take apart the cube. Creation of Higgs Boson

The way that the SU(2) symmetry is broken is known scientifically as "spontaneous symmetry breaking." Spontaneous means random or unexpected, Symmetries are the rules that are being changed, and Breaking refers to the fact that the symmetries are no longer the same. The result of spontaneously breaking the SU(2) symmetry can be a Higgs Boson. The elevated areas of the so-called "Mexican Hat Potential" are values at which particles are able to have mass Reason for Higgs Effect

The reason that the Higgs effect is believed to occur is that nature wants to be at its lowest energy state. Although this may seem weird, if you hold a pencil and then drop it, the pencil will release some of its potential energy stored in its relative distance from the center of the earth. This potential energy released is converted into kinetic energy. Likewise, the Higgs Effect will happen because gauge bosons near a Higgs Field will want to be in their lowest energy states, and this would break at least one symmetry. If Higgs Bosons were found to exist, this would probably mean that the Higgs effect is also true.

To justify giving mass to a would-be massless particle, scientists were forced to do something out of the ordinary. They assumed that vacuums (empty space)actually had energy, and that way if a particle that we think of as massive were to enter it, the energy from the vacuum would be transferred into that particle, giving it mass. A mathematician named Jeffrey Goldstone basically proved that if you violate a symmetry, (for example, a symmetry with a rubik's cube would be if you state that the corners must always be rotated 0 or 3 times to be solvable (it works)), a reaction will occur. In the case of the rubik's cube, the cube will become unsolveable if violated. In the case of the Higgs field, something named after Jeffrey (and another scientist who worked with him named Yoichiro Nambu) is produced, a Nambu-Goldstone Boson. This is basically an excited or energetic form of the vacuum, which can be graphed revealing that to the left. The elevated areas are where the Nambu-Goldstone Bosons allow particles to have mass, under the energy provided by a Higgs Field.