About the lecture

In this mini-lecture, we give a big-picture introduction the the Higgs Boson. As we move through this mini-lecture, we discuss: (i) who was involved in the discovery — a collaboration among groups working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS (ATLAS), and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS); (ii) the experiment that detects the Higgs Boson done at the LHC in Geneva, Switzerland; (iii) the announcement of the observation of the Higgs Boson on July 4th, 2012; and (iv) what the Higgs Boson does using an analogy.

About the lecturer

Frank Taylor is a Senior Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests are in precision tests of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, particularly exploring experimentally electroweak symmetry breaking and physics beyond the Standard Model. Since 1994, he has been a collaborator on the ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, where theory such as electroweak symmetry breaking, supersymmetry, and the possibility of unifying gravity with other forces through large extra dimensions are addressed. Discovering ‘new physics’ involves the detection of leptons, such as muons. Dr Taylor has collaborated on the design and construction of the ATLAS muons system and was the project leader of the US ATLAS Muon effort.