Peter Higgs of Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium have shared the 2013 Nobel Physics Prize for “the theoretical discovery of the origin of mass of subatomic particles,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says.
It added that the so-called boson theory was a central part of the Standard Model of particle physics that describes how the universe is constructed.
The theory was “recently confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle” by two teams working at the nuclear research organisation, CERN, in Switzerland.
The Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is a particle that explains the existence of mass and holds the key to understanding the universe.
Nicknamed the God particle, the Higgs boson was the missing piece in the Standard Model of physics, which describes how atoms interact but could not explain why they have mass.
The boson was part of a theory developed by Mr. Higgs and Mr. Englert in the 1960s.
Experiments at CERN have shown that the boson is likely to actually exist.
There are two groups of subatomic particles: The fermions, which make up matter, and the bosons, which carry forces.
Much like splashing waves make us notice the ocean, Higgs bosons are the sign that there is a so-called Higgs field.