View source for Peter Higgs

{{Short description|British theoretical physicist (1929–2024)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = [[Professor]]
| name              = Peter Higgs
| honorific_suffix  = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|CH|FRS|FRSE|HonFInstP|size=100%}}
| image             = Nobel Prize 24 2013 (cropped).jpg
| caption           = Higgs in 2013
| birth_name        = Peter Ware Higgs
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1929|5|29|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], England
| death_date        = {{death date and age|2024|04|08|1929|5|29|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| nationality       = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| spouse            = {{marriage|Jody Williamson|1963|1972|reason=sep.}}
| children          = 2
| field             = [[Theoretical physics]]
| alma_mater        = [[King's College London]] (BSc, MSc, PhD)
| work_institutions = {{Plainlist|
* [[University of Edinburgh]]
* [[Imperial College London]]
* [[University College London]]
* [[King's College London]]}}
| doctoral_advisors = [[Charles Coulson]]<ref name=higgsphd/><ref name="mathgene">{{MathGenealogy|id=35098}}</ref><br />[[Christopher Longuet-Higgins]]<ref name=higgsphd/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Ware Higgs CH DSc PhD MSc BSc FRS FRSE FInstP |url=http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/peter-higgs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014121815/http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/peter-higgs |archive-date=14 October 2013 |publisher=University of Edinburgh |quote=initially under the supervision of Charles Coulson and subsequently Christopher Longuet-Higgins}}</ref>
| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
* [[Lewis Ryder]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bowder |first=Bill |date=10 April 2008 |title=Search begins for 'God particle' |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2008/11-april/news/uk/search-begins-for-god-particle |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409202105/https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2008/11-april/news/uk/search-begins-for-god-particle |archive-date=9 April 2024 |access-date=9 April 2024 |website=[[Church Times]] |quote=Dr Lewis Ryder, (...), who was supervised by Professor Higgs,}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lewis Ryder |url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=145735 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401225627/https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=145735 |archive-date=1 April 2023 |access-date=9 April 2024 |website=[[Mathematics Genealogy Project]]}}</ref>
* [[David Wallace (physicist)|David Wallace]]<ref name="mathgene" />
* [[Christopher Bishop]]<ref name="theburgh">{{Cite web |title=Professor Christopher Bishop elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |url=https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/events/news/chrisbishopfrse.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019101249/https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/events/news/chrisbishopfrse.html |archive-date=19 October 2022 |access-date=8 September 2020 |publisher=[[University of Edinburgh School of Informatics]]}}</ref>}}
| thesis_title      = Some problems in the theory of molecular vibrations
| thesis_url        = https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/studentTheses/some-problems-in-the-theory-of-molecular-vibrations
| thesis_year       = 1954
| known_for         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Higgs boson]]
* [[Higgs field]]
* [[Higgs mechanism]]
* [[Spontaneous symmetry breaking]]}}
| influences        = 
| prizes            = {{Plainlist|
* [[Hughes Medal]] (1981)
* [[Rutherford Medal and Prize|Rutherford Medal]] (1984)
* [[Dirac Medal (IOP)|Dirac Medal and Prize]] (1997)
* [[High Energy and Particle Physics Prize]] (1997)
* [[Royal Society of Edinburgh#Royal Medals|Royal Medal]] (2000)
* [[Wolf Prize in Physics]] (2004)
* [[Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture|Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture and Medal]] (2009)
* [[Sakurai Prize|J.J. Sakurai Prize]] (2010)
* [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (2013)
* [[Princess of Asturias Award]] (2013)
* [[Copley Medal]] (2015)}}
| website           = {{Official URL}}
| signature         = Signature of British physicist Peter Higgs.png
}}

'''Peter Ware Higgs''' (29 May 1929 – 8 April 2024) was a British [[theoretical physicist]], professor at the [[University of Edinburgh]],<ref name="Edit">Griggs, Jessica (Summer 2008) [http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/edit-summer-08.pdf The Missing Piece] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220031426/http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/edit-summer-08.pdf |date=20 December 2016 }} ''Edit'' the University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine, p. 17</ref><ref name="NYT-20140915">{{Cite news |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |author-link=Dennis Overbye |date=15 September 2014 |title=A Discoverer as Elusive as His Particle |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/science/a-discoverer-as-elusive-as-his-particle-.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140915201006/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/science/a-discoverer-as-elusive-as-his-particle-.html |archive-date=15 September 2014 |access-date=15 September 2014 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and [[Nobel laureate in Physics]] for his work on the mass of [[subatomic particle]]s.<ref>Overbye, Dennis. [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/science/a-discoverer-as-elusive-as-his-particle-.html A Pioneer as Elusive as His Particle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723101230/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/science/a-discoverer-as-elusive-as-his-particle-.html |date=23 July 2016 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'' website, 15 September 2014. Also published in print on 16 September 2014, on page D1 of the New York edition.</ref><ref name="NYT-20220715">{{Cite news |last=Blum |first=Deborah |date=15 July 2022 |title=The Recluse Who Confronted the Mystery of the Universe – Frank Close's "Elusive" looks at the life and work of the man who changed our ideas about the basis of matter. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/books/review/elusive-peter-higgs-frank-close.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925042341/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/books/review/elusive-peter-higgs-frank-close.html |archive-date=25 September 2022 |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

In 1964, Higgs was the single author of one of the three [[1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers|milestone papers]] published in ''[[Physical Review Letters]]'' (''PRL'') that proposed that [[spontaneous symmetry breaking]] in [[electroweak theory]] could explain the [[origin of mass]] of [[elementary particle]]s in general and of the [[W and Z bosons]] in particular. This [[Higgs mechanism]] predicted the existence of a new particle, the [[Higgs boson]], the detection of which became one of the great goals of physics.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Griffiths |first=Martin |date=1 May 2007 |title=The tale of the blogs' boson |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/the-tale-of-the-blogs-boson/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806041418/https://physicsworld.com/a/the-tale-of-the-blogs-boson/ |archive-date=6 August 2020 |access-date=5 March 2020 |website=[[Physics World]]}}</ref><ref>Fermilab Today (16 June 2005)  [http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive_2005/today05-06-16.html Fermilab Results of the Week. Top Quarks are Higgs' best Friend] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921134304/http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive_2005/today05-06-16.html |date=21 September 2008 }} Retrieved on 27 May 2008</ref> In 2012, [[CERN]] announced the [[discovery of the Higgs boson]] at the [[Large Hadron Collider]].<ref name=BBC-04Jul12/> The Higgs mechanism is generally accepted as an important ingredient in the [[Standard Model]] of [[particle physics]], without which certain particles would have no mass.<ref>Rincon, Paul (10 March 2004) [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3546973.stm Fermilab 'God Particle' may have been seen]  Retrieved on 27 May 2008</ref>

For this work, Higgs received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]], which he shared with [[François Englert]] in 2013.<ref>Amos, Jonathan (8 October 2013) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24445325 Higgs: Five decades of noble endeavour] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611120757/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24445325 |date=11 June 2016 }} BBC News Science and Environment; retrieved  8 October 2013</ref>

==Early life and education==
Higgs was born<ref>GRO Register of Births: Peter W Higgs, Jun 1929 10b 72 Newcastle T., mmn = Coghill</ref> in the [[Elswick, Tyne and Wear|Elswick]] district of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], England, to Thomas Ware Higgs (1898–1962) and his wife<ref>GRO Register of Marriages: Thomas W Higgs = Gertrude M Coghill, Sep 1924 6a 197 Bristol</ref> Gertrude Maude née Coghill (1895–1969).<ref name="CV">Staff (29 November 2012) [http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/peter-higgs Peter Higgs: Curriculum Vitae] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014121815/http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/peter-higgs |date=14 October 2013 }} The University of Edinburgh, School of Physics and Astronomy. Retrieved 9 January 2012</ref><ref name="Guardian">Sample, Ian. [https://www.theguardian.com/weekend/story/0,,2210858,00.html "The god of small things"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410034126/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/nov/17/sciencenews.particlephysics |date=10 April 2024 }}, ''The Guardian'', 17 November 2007, weekend section.</ref><ref>Macdonald, Kenneth (10 April 2013) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22073080 Peter Higgs: Behind the scenes at the Universe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015202639/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22073080 |date=15 October 2018 }}. BBC.</ref> His father worked as a sound engineer for the BBC, and as a result of childhood asthma, together with the family moving around because of his father's job and later [[World War II]], Higgs missed some early schooling and was taught at home.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Higgs |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2013/higgs/facts/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701072006/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2013/higgs/facts/ |archive-date=1 July 2020 |access-date=9 April 2024 |website=The Nobel Prize}}</ref> When his father relocated to [[Bedford]], Higgs stayed behind in [[Bristol]] with his mother, and was largely raised there. He attended [[Cotham Grammar School]] in Bristol from 1941 to 1946,<ref name =CV/><ref>The Cotham Grammar School, a High-Performing Specialist Co-operative Academy [http://www.cotham.bristol.sch.uk/news/default.asp?storyID=208, The Dirac-Higgs Science Centre] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523211320/http://www.cotham.bristol.sch.uk/news/default.asp?storyID=208, |date=23 May 2013 }} Retrieved 10 January 2013</ref> where he was inspired by the work of one of the school's [[alumni]], [[Paul Dirac]], a founder of the field of [[quantum mechanics]].<ref name=Guardian/>

In 1946, at the age of 17, Higgs moved to [[City of London School]], where he specialised in mathematics, then in 1947 to [[King's College London]], where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in physics in 1950 and achieved a master's degree in 1952.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Higgs |url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/peter-higgs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605170506/https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/peter-higgs |archive-date=5 June 2023 |access-date=9 April 2024 |website=King's College London}}</ref> He was awarded an [[1851 Research Fellowship]] from the [[Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851]],<ref>1851 Royal Commission Archives</ref> and performed his doctoral research in molecular physics under the supervision of [[Charles Coulson]] and [[Christopher Longuet-Higgins]].<ref name=higgsphd/> He was awarded a PhD degree in 1954 with a thesis entitled ''Some problems in the theory of molecular vibrations'' from the university.<ref name="higgsphd">{{Cite thesis |last=Higgs |first=Peter Ware |title=Some problems in the theory of molecular vibrations |year=1954 |access-date=13 November 2017 |degree=PhD |publisher=King's College London (University of London) |url=http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/id/21708539?style=html |oclc=731205676 |id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.572829}} |website=ethos.bl.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114040237/http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/id/21708539?style=html |archive-date=14 November 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name = CV/><ref>{{Cite web |last=King's College London |title=Professor Peter Higgs |url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/history/famouspeople/peterhiggs.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011101353/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/history/famouspeople/peterhiggs.aspx |archive-date=11 October 2013 |access-date=8 October 2013}}</ref>

==Career and research==
After finishing his doctorate, Higgs was appointed a Senior [[Research Fellow]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]] (1954–56). He then held various posts at [[Imperial College London]], and [[University College London]] (where he also became a temporary lecturer in mathematics). He returned to the [[University of Edinburgh]] in 1960 to take up the post of Lecturer at the Tait Institute of Mathematical Physics, allowing him to settle in the city he had enjoyed while [[hitchhiking]] to the Western [[Scottish Highlands|Highlands]] as a student in 1949.<ref name="TheInterview">Mackenzie, Kate (2012) "It Was Worth The Wait" The Interview, The University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine, Winter 2012/13</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=http://vimeo.com/37175057 |title=Professor Peter Higgs broadcast footage |publisher=University of Edinburgh |year=2012 |time=2:00 |access-date=3 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521082654/http://vimeo.com/37175057 |archive-date=21 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> He was promoted to [[Reader (academic rank)|Reader]], became a [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]] (FRSE) in 1974 and was promoted to a personal chair of Theoretical Physics in 1980. On his retirement in 1996, he became an [[emeritus professor]].<ref Name = Edit/>

Higgs was elected [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1983|Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)]] in 1983 and [[Fellow of the Institute of Physics]] (FInstP) in 1991. He was awarded the [[Rutherford Medal and Prize]] in 1984. He received an honorary degree from the [[University of Bristol]] in 1997. In 2008, he received an Honorary Fellowship from [[Swansea University]] for his work in particle physics.<ref name="SUHF">{{Cite web |title=Swansea University Honorary Fellowship |url=http://www.swan.ac.uk/news_centre/releases/080908cernlhc/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012072248/http://www.swan.ac.uk/news_centre/releases/080908cernlhc/ |archive-date=12 October 2012 |access-date=20 December 2011 |website=Swansea University |df=dmy-all}}</ref> 

At Edinburgh, Higgs first became interested in [[mass]], developing the idea that particles – massless when the universe began – acquired mass a fraction of a second later as a result of interacting with a theoretical field (which became known as the [[Higgs field]]). Higgs postulated that this field permeates space, giving mass to all elementary subatomic particles interacting with it.<ref name="Guardian" /><ref name="EB">[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9040396/Higgs-particle "Higgs particle"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121144551/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9040396/Higgs-particle |date=21 November 2007 }}, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.</ref>

The [[Higgs mechanism]] postulates the existence of the Higgs field, which confers mass on quarks and leptons;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rajasekaran |first=G. |year=2012 |title=Standard model, Higgs Boson and what next? |journal=Resonance |volume=17 |issue=10 |pages=956–973 |doi=10.1007/s12045-012-0110-z |s2cid=119698340}}</ref> this causes only a tiny portion of the masses of other subatomic particles, such as protons and neutrons. In these, gluons that bind quarks together confer most of the particle mass. The original basis of Higgs's work came from the Japanese-born theorist and Nobel Prize laureate [[Yoichiro Nambu]] from the [[University of Chicago]]. Nambu had proposed a theory known as [[spontaneous symmetry breaking]] based on what was known to happen in [[superconductivity]] in condensed matter, which incorrectly predicted massless particles (the [[Goldstone's theorem]]).<ref name="Edit" />

Higgs reportedly developed the fundamentals of his theory after returning to his Edinburgh [[New Town, Edinburgh|New Town]] apartment from a failed weekend camping trip to the Highlands.<ref>Martin, Victoria (14 December 2011) [http://www.scotsman.com/news/victoria-martin-soon-we-ll-be-able-to-pinpoint-that-particle-1-2007674 Soon we'll be able to pinpoint that particle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130414012702/http://www.scotsman.com/news/victoria-martin-soon-we-ll-be-able-to-pinpoint-that-particle-1-2007674 |date=14 April 2013 }} The Scotsman. Retrieved 10 January  2013</ref><ref>Collins, Nick (4 July 2012) [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/large-hadron-collider/9376804/Higgs-boson-Prof-Stephen-Hawking-loses-100-bet.html Higgs boson: Prof Stephen Hawking loses $100 bet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006035656/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/large-hadron-collider/9376804/Higgs-boson-Prof-Stephen-Hawking-loses-100-bet.html |date=6 October 2014 }} ''The Telegraph''. London. Retrieved 10 January 2013</ref><ref>Staff (4 July 2012) [http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/home-news/scientists-discover-god-particle.1341391087?_=5cea478733fd836f7011cad7ebcab19ffc029d96 Scientists discover 'God' particle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603010151/http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/home-news/scientists-discover-god-particle.1341391087?_=5cea478733fd836f7011cad7ebcab19ffc029d96 |date=3 June 2013 }}  ''The Herald''. Glasgow. Retrieved 10 January 2013</ref> He stated that there was no "eureka moment" in the development of the theory.<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 February 2012 |title=Meeting the Boson Man: Professor Peter Higgs |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-17161657 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620095825/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-17161657 |archive-date=20 June 2016 |access-date=20 June 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref> He wrote a short paper exploiting a loophole in Goldstone's theorem (massless Goldstone particles need not occur when local symmetry is spontaneously broken in a relativistic theory<ref name = HiggsMechanism/>) and published it in ''[[Physics Letters]]'', a European physics journal edited at [[CERN]], in Switzerland, in 1964.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=P. W. |author-link=Peter Higgs |year=1964 |title=Broken symmetries, massless particles and gauge fields |journal=Physics Letters |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=132–201 |bibcode=1964PhL....12..132H |doi=10.1016/0031-9163(64)91136-9}}</ref>

Higgs wrote a second paper describing a theoretical model (the [[Higgs mechanism]]), but the paper was rejected (the editors of ''Physics Letters'' judged it "of no obvious relevance to physics").<ref name=Guardian/> Higgs wrote an extra paragraph and sent his paper to ''[[Physical Review Letters]]'', another leading physics journal, which published it later in 1964. This paper predicted a new massive spin-zero boson (later named the [[Higgs boson]]).<ref name="HiggsMechanism">Staff (5 January 2012) [http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/brief-history Brief History of the Higgs Mechanism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112153436/http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/brief-history |date=12 November 2012 }} The Edinburgh University School of Physics and Astronomy. Retrieved 10 January 2013</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=P. |author-link=Peter Higgs |year=1964 |title=Broken Symmetries and the Masses of Gauge Bosons |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=13 |issue=16 |pages=508–509 |bibcode=1964PhRvL..13..508H |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.508 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
Other physicists, [[Robert Brout]] and [[François Englert]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Englert |first1=F. |author-link=François Englert |last2=Brout |first2=R. |author-link2=Robert Brout |year=1964 |title=Broken Symmetry and the Mass of Gauge Vector Mesons |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=13 |issue=9 |pages=321 |bibcode=1964PhRvL..13..321E |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.321 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and [[Gerald Guralnik]], [[C. R. Hagen]] and [[Tom Kibble]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Guralnik |first1=G. |author-link=Gerald Guralnik |last2=Hagen |first2=C. |author-link2=C. R. Hagen |last3=Kibble |first3=T. |author-link3=Tom W. B. Kibble |year=1964 |title=Global Conservation Laws and Massless Particles |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=13 |issue=20 |pages=585 |bibcode=1964PhRvL..13..585G |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.585 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
had reached similar conclusions at about the same time. In the published version, Higgs quotes Brout and Englert, and the third paper quotes the previous<!--???--> ones. The three papers written on this boson discovery by Higgs, Guralnik, Hagen, Kibble, Brout, and Englert were each recognised as milestone papers by ''[[Physical Review Letters]]'' 50th-anniversary celebration.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Physical Review Letters – 50th Anniversary Milestone Papers |url=http://prl.aps.org/50years/milestones#1964 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20100110134128/http://prl.aps.org/50years/milestones#1964 |archive-date=10 January 2010 |access-date=5 July 2012 |publisher=Prl.aps.org}}</ref> While each of these famous papers took similar approaches, the contributions and differences between the [[1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers]] are noteworthy. The mechanism had been proposed in 1962 by [[Philip Warren Anderson|Philip Anderson]] although he did not include a crucial relativistic model.<ref name = HiggsMechanism/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=P. |year=1963 |title=Plasmons, Gauge Invariance, and Mass |journal=Physical Review |volume=130 |issue=1 |pages=439–442 |bibcode=1963PhRv..130..439A |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.130.439}}</ref>

On 4 July 2012, CERN announced the [[ATLAS experiment|ATLAS]] and [[Compact Muon Solenoid|Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS)]] experiments had seen strong indications for the presence of a new particle, which could be the Higgs boson, in the mass region around 126 gigaelectronvolts ([[GeV]]).<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 July 2012 |title=Higgs within reach |url=http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2012/07/higgs-within-reach |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121213103220/http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2012/07/higgs-within-reach |archive-date=13 December 2012 |access-date=6 July 2012 |publisher=CERN}}</ref><!--Feature will be archived-->
Speaking at the seminar in [[Geneva]], Higgs commented "It's really an incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime."<ref name="BBC-04Jul12">{{Cite news |date=4 July 2012 |title=Higgs boson-like particle discovery claimed at LHC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18702455 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731153930/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18702455 |archive-date=31 July 2018 |access-date=20 June 2018 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> Ironically, this probable confirmation of the Higgs boson was made at the same place where the editor of ''Physics Letters'' rejected Higgs's paper.<ref name = Edit/>

==Awards and honours==
Higgs was honoured with several awards in recognition of his work, including the 1981 [[Hughes Medal]] from the [[Royal Society]]; the 1984 [[Rutherford Medal and Prize|Rutherford Medal]] from the [[Institute of Physics]]; the 1997 [[Dirac Medal (IOP)|Dirac Medal and Prize]] for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics from the [[Institute of Physics]]; the 1997 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize by the [[European Physical Society]]; the 2004 [[Wolf Prize in Physics]]; the 2009 [[Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture]] medal from the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]; the 2010 [[American Physical Society]] [[J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics]]; a unique Higgs Medal from the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] in 2012;<ref name =CV/> and the Royal Society awarded him the 2015 [[Copley Medal]], the world's oldest scientific prize.<ref>{{Cite web |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=20 July 2015 |title=Prof Peter Higgs wins the Royal Society's Copley Medal |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-33594055 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150723043456/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-33594055 |archive-date=23 July 2015 |access-date=22 July 2015 |website=BBC News}}</ref>

===Civic awards===
[[File:The Edinburgh Award (14598791818).jpg|thumb|Edinburgh Award handprints]]
Higgs was the recipient of the Edinburgh Award for 2011. He was the fifth person to receive the Award, which was established in 2007 by the [[City of Edinburgh Council]] to honour an outstanding individual who has made a positive impact on the city and gained national and international recognition for [[Edinburgh]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Edinburgh Award |url=http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/671/civic_recognition-people/916/honours_and_civic_awards/3 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729111115/http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/671/civic_recognition-people/916/honours_and_civic_awards/3 |archive-date=29 July 2012 |access-date=3 July 2012 |publisher=The City of Edinburgh Council}}</ref>

Higgs was presented with an engraved [[loving cup]] by [[George Grubb|the Rt Hon George Grubb]], [[Lord Provost of Edinburgh]], in a ceremony held at the City Chambers on Friday, 24 February 2012. The event also marked the unveiling of his handprints in the City Chambers quadrangle, where they had been engraved in Caithness stone alongside those of previous Edinburgh Award recipients.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 February 2012 |title=Acclaimed physicist presented with Edinburgh Award |url=http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/809/acclaimed_physicist_presented_with_edinburgh_award |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731140012/http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/809/acclaimed_physicist_presented_with_edinburgh_award |archive-date=31 July 2012 |access-date=3 July 2012 |publisher=The City of Edinburgh Council}}</ref><ref name="Scotsman-25Feb12">{{Cite news |date=25 February 2012 |title='They'll find the God particle by summer.' And Peter Higgs should know |url=http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/features/they-ll-find-the-god-particle-by-summer-and-peter-higgs-should-know-1-2138574 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706001340/http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/features/they-ll-find-the-god-particle-by-summer-and-peter-higgs-should-know-1-2138574 |archive-date=6 July 2012 |access-date=3 July 2012 |work=[[The Scotsman]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=24 February 2012 |title=Higgs: Edinburgh Award is a great surprise |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-17161692 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120704182827/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17161692 |archive-date=4 July 2012 |access-date=3 July 2012 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

Higgs was awarded the Freedom of the City of [[Bristol]] in July 2013.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 July 2013 |title=Peter Higgs receives the freedom of the city of Bristol |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-23177670 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815012229/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-23177670 |archive-date=15 August 2021 |access-date=2 October 2023 |work=BBC News}}</ref> The Dirac-Higgs Science Centre in Bristol is also named in his honour.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/29/bristol-cotham-school-scores-exam-results-famous-alumni-peter-higgs-paul-dirac |title=Bristol's Cotham school scores exam results to outshine famous alumni |newspaper=The Guardian |date=29 January 2015 |access-date=15 April 2024 |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128153158/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/29/bristol-cotham-school-scores-exam-results-famous-alumni-peter-higgs-paul-dirac |url-status=live |last1=Weale |first1=Sally }}</ref> In April 2014, he was also awarded the Freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was also honoured with a brass plaque installed on the Newcastle Quayside as part of the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative Local Heroes Walk of Fame.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Henderson |first=Tony |date=16 January 2018 |title=The Quayside 'Walk of Fame' is going to get some new names |url=https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/quayside-walk-fame-going-new-14160306 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409175213/https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/quayside-walk-fame-going-new-14160306 |archive-date=9 April 2024 |access-date=9 April 2024 |work=The Chronicle}}</ref>

===Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics===
On 6 July 2012, [[Edinburgh University]] announced a new centre named after Professor Higgs to support future research in [[theoretical physics]]. The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics brings together scientists from around the world to seek "a deeper understanding of how the universe works".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics |url=https://higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116191812/https://higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk/ |archive-date=16 November 2018 |access-date=17 November 2018 |publisher=The University of Edinburgh}}</ref> The centre is currently based within the [[James Clerk Maxwell|James Clerk Maxwell Building]], home of the university's [[University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy|School of Physics and Astronomy]] and the iGEM 2015 team (ClassAfiED). The university has also established a chair of theoretical physics in the name of Peter Higgs.<ref>{{Cite news |date=6 July 2012 |title=Prof Higgs: nice to be right about boson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jul/06/prof-higgs-nice-right-boson |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012024232/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jul/06/prof-higgs-nice-right-boson |archive-date=12 October 2013 |access-date=6 July 2012 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=6 July 2012 |title=University to support new physics research |url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/higgscentre-050712 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709021545/http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/higgscentre-050712 |archive-date=9 July 2012 |access-date=6 July 2012 |publisher=The University of Edinburgh}}</ref>

===Nobel Prize in Physics===
On 8 October 2013, it was announced that Higgs and [[François Englert]] would share the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider".<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 October 2013 |title=Press release from Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2013/press.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008193310/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2013/press.pdf |archive-date=8 October 2013 |access-date=8 October 2013}}</ref> Higgs admitted he had gone out to avoid the media attention<ref>{{Cite news |last=Boucle |first=Anna |date=18 February 2014 |title=The Life Scientific |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vdx7m |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150523100957/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vdx7m |archive-date=23 May 2015 |access-date=20 April 2015 |work=BBC RADIO4}}</ref> so he was informed he had been awarded the prize by an ex-neighbour on his way home, since he did not have a mobile phone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Higgs was told about Nobel Prize by passing motorist |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10372394/Peter-Higgs-was-told-about-Nobel-Prize-by-passing-motorist.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715235308/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10372394/Peter-Higgs-was-told-about-Nobel-Prize-by-passing-motorist.html |archive-date=15 July 2014 |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=11 October 2013 |title=Prof Peter Higgs did not know he had won Nobel Prize |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24493400 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528202708/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24493400 |archive-date=28 May 2016 |access-date=20 June 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

In November 2025, it was reported that Higgs had left his Nobel Prize medal to Edinburgh University in his will.<ref>{{cite news |title=Professor Peter Higgs leaves Nobel Prize medal to Edinburgh University |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yp40mv3veo |access-date=16 November 2025 |work=BBC News |date=14 November 2025}}</ref>

===Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour===
Higgs turned down a [[knighthood]] in 1999, but in 2012, he accepted membership of the [[Order of the Companions of Honour]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 October 2013 |title=Peter Higgs turned down knighthood from Tony Blair |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/peter-higgs-turned-down-knighthood-from-tony-blair-1-3142826 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512215159/http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/peter-higgs-turned-down-knighthood-from-tony-blair-1-3142826 |archive-date=12 May 2014 |access-date=12 May 2014 |work=The Scotsman}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Rincon |first=Paul |date=29 December 2012 |title=Peter Higgs: honour for physicist who proposed particle |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20855404 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130608081813/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20855404 |archive-date=8 June 2013 |access-date=12 May 2014 |work=BBC News}}</ref> He later said that he only accepted the order because he was wrongly assured that the award was in the gift of the Queen alone. He also expressed cynicism towards the [[Honours system in the United Kingdom|honours system]], and the way the system "is used for political purposes by the government in power". The order confers no title or precedence, but recipients of the order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters {{small|CH}}''. ''In the same interview he also stated that when people ask what the {{small|CH}} after his name stands for, he replies "it means I'm an honorary Swiss."<ref name="Aitkenhead-2013">{{Cite news |last=Aitkenhead |first=Decca |date=6 December 2013 |title=Peter Higgs interview: 'I have this kind of underlying incompetence' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-interview-underlying-incompetence |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520032412/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-interview-underlying-incompetence |archive-date=20 May 2014 |access-date=12 May 2014 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> He received the order from the Queen at an investiture at [[Holyrood House]] on 1 July 2014.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Press Association |date=1 July 2014 |title=Physicist Higgs honoured by Queen |url=http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/physicist-higgs-honoured-by-queen-1.449255 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714201209/http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/physicist-higgs-honoured-by-queen-1.449255 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |work=The Courier}}</ref>

===Honorary degrees===
Higgs was awarded honorary degrees from the following institutions:
{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* DSc [[University of Bristol]] 1997<ref name="cv">{{Cite web |title=Peter Higgs: Curriculum Vitae |url=http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/peter-higgs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014121815/http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs/peter-higgs |archive-date=14 October 2013 |access-date=8 October 2016 |website=[[University of Edinburgh]]}}</ref>
* DSc [[University of Edinburgh]] 1998<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[University of Glasgow]] 2002<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[Swansea University]] 2008<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[King's College London]] 2009<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[University College London]] 2010<ref name="cv" />
* ScD [[University of Cambridge]] 2012<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[Heriot-Watt University]] 2012<ref name="cv" />
* PhD [[International School for Advanced Studies|SISSA, Trieste]] 2013<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[University of Durham]] 2013<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[University of Manchester]] 2013<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[University of St Andrews]] 2014<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[Université libre de Bruxelles|Free University of Brussels]] (ULB) 2014<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] 2015<ref name="cv" />
* DSc [[Queen's University Belfast]] 2015<ref name="cv" />
* ScD [[Trinity College Dublin]] 2016<ref name="cv" />
{{div col end}}

A portrait of Higgs was painted by [[Ken Currie]] in 2008.<ref name="tait-portrait">{{Cite web |title=Portrait of Peter Higgs by Ken Currie, 2010 |url=http://www.tait.ac.uk/Peter_Higgs_by_Ken_Currie.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323094144/http://www.tait.ac.uk/Peter_Higgs_by_Ken_Currie.html |archive-date=23 March 2012 |access-date=28 April 2011 |website=The Tait Institute}}</ref> Commissioned by the University of Edinburgh,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wade |first=Mike |title=Portrait of a man at beginning of time |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5835305.ece |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410034112/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |archive-date=10 April 2024 |access-date=28 April 2011 |work=The Times |location=London}}{{subscription required}}</ref> it was unveiled on 3 April 2009<ref>{{Cite web |title=Great minds meet at portrait unveiling |url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/higgs-portait-030309 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706062603/http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/higgs-portait-030309 |archive-date=6 July 2011 |access-date=28 April 2011 |website=The University of Edinburgh}}</ref> and hangs in the entrance of the [[James Clerk Maxwell]] Building of the [[University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy|School of Physics and Astronomy]] and the [[University of Edinburgh School of Mathematics|School of Mathematics]].<ref name=tait-portrait/> A large portrait by Lucinda Mackay is in the collection of the [[Scottish National Portrait Gallery]] in Edinburgh. Another portrait of Higgs by the same artist hangs in the birthplace of James Clerk Maxwell in Edinburgh; Higgs was the Honorary Patron of the [[James Clerk Maxwell Foundation]]. A portrait by [[Victoria Crowe]] was commissioned by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and unveiled in 2013.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Prof Peter Higgs: New portrait of boson particle physicist |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22912483 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023181054/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22912483 |archive-date=23 October 2018 |access-date=4 September 2018 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

==Personal life and political views==
Higgs married Jody Williamson, an American lecturer in linguistics at Edinburgh and a fellow activist with the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] (CND),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jody&#x27;s caring and warmth an inspiration |date=11 February 2008 |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/jodys-caring-and-warmth-an-inspiration-2463777 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410094330/https://www.scotsman.com/news/jodys-caring-and-warmth-an-inspiration-2463777 |archive-date=10 April 2024 |access-date=10 April 2024}}</ref> in 1963. Their first son was born in August 1965.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baggot |first=Jim |title=Higgs The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-960349-7 |edition=First |location=Fountaindale Public Library |pages=90–91}}</ref> Higgs had two sons: Christopher and Jonny, a jazz musician.<ref name=NS/> He also had two grandchildren: Jo, a writer, and Bonnie (Kemplay), a musician.<ref name=Scotsman-25Feb12/> Higgs and Williamson separated in 1972 but remained friends until she died in 2008.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Close |first=Frank |date=9 April 2024 |title=Peter Higgs obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/09/peter-higgs-obituary |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409202636/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/09/peter-higgs-obituary |archive-date=9 April 2024 |access-date=9 April 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Higgs was an activist in the CND while in London and later in Edinburgh but resigned his membership when the group extended its remit from campaigning against nuclear weapons to campaigning against nuclear power, too.<ref name=Guardian/><ref name="Telegraph">{{Cite news |last=Highfield |first=Roger |date=7 April 2008 |title=Prof Peter Higgs profile |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3338770/Prof-Peter-Higgs-profile.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015234155/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3338770/Prof-Peter-Higgs-profile.html |archive-date=15 October 2013 |access-date=16 May 2011 |work=The Telegraph |location=London}}</ref> He was a [[Greenpeace]] member until the group opposed [[genetically modified organism]]s.<ref name=Telegraph/> Higgs was awarded the 2004 [[Wolf Prize in Physics]] (sharing it with [[Robert Brout]] and [[François Englert]]) but declined to attend the awards ceremony in [[Jerusalem]] in protest of Israel's treatment of [[Palestinians]].<ref name="Indie-heart">{{Cite news |last=Rodgers |first=Peter |date=1 September 2004 |title=The heart of the matter |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-heart-of-the-matter-54071.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216044344/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-heart-of-the-matter-54071.html |archive-date=16 December 2013 |access-date=16 May 2011 |work=The Independent |location=London}}</ref> Higgs was actively involved in the Edinburgh University branch of the [[Association of University Teachers]], through which he agitated for greater staff involvement in the management of the physics department.<ref name="Aitkenhead-2013" />

Higgs was an [[atheist]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sample |first=Ian |date=17 November 2007 |title=The god of small things |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/nov/17/sciencenews.particlephysics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001003347/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/nov/17/sciencenews.particlephysics |archive-date=1 October 2013 |access-date=21 March 2013 |work=The Guardian |location=London |quote=The name has stuck, but makes Higgs wince and raises the hackles of other theorists. "I wish he hadn't done it," he says. "I have to explain to people it was a joke. I'm an atheist, but I have an uneasy feeling that playing around with names like that could be unnecessarily offensive to people who are religious."}}</ref> He described [[Richard Dawkins]] as having adopted a "[[fundamentalist]]" view of non-atheists.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Farndale |first=Nigel |date=29 December 2012 |title=Has Richard Dawkins found a worthy opponent at last? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/9770707/Has-Richard-Dawkins-found-a-worthy-opponent-at-last.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510014950/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/9770707/Has-Richard-Dawkins-found-a-worthy-opponent-at-last.html |archive-date=10 May 2019 |access-date=10 May 2019 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London}}</ref> Higgs expressed displeasure with the nickname the "God particle".<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL0765287220080407?sp=true Key scientist sure "God particle" will be found soon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223193233/https://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL0765287220080407?sp=true |date=23 February 2021 }} Reuters news story. 7 April 2008.</ref> Although it has been reported that he believed the term "might offend people who are religious",<ref name="NS">"[https://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19926732.100-interview-the-man-behind-the-god-particle.html Interview: the man behind the 'God particle']", [[New Scientist]] 13 September 2008, pp. 44–45 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913214154/http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19926732.100-interview-the-man-behind-the-god-particle.html |date=13 September 2008 }}</ref> Higgs stated that this is not the case, lamenting the letters he has received which claim the God particle was predicted in the [[Torah]], the [[Qur'an]] and [[Buddhist scriptures]]. In a 2013 interview with [[Decca Aitkenhead]], Higgs was quoted as saying:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Aitkenhead |first=Decca |date=6 December 2013 |title=Peter Higgs interview: 'I have this kind of underlying incompetence' |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-interview-underlying-incompetence |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520032412/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-interview-underlying-incompetence |archive-date=20 May 2014 |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=I'm not a believer. Some people get confused between the science and the theology. They claim that what happened at [[CERN]] proves the existence of God. The church in Spain has also been guilty of using that name as evidence for what they want to prove. [It] reinforces confused thinking in the heads of people who are already thinking in a confused way. If they believe that story about creation in seven days, are they being intelligent?|author=|title=''[[The Guardian]]''|source=6 December 2013}}

The nickname for the Higgs boson is usually attributed to [[Leon M. Lederman]], the author of the book ''[[The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?]]'' but the name is the result of the suggestion of Lederman's publisher; Lederman had initially intended to refer to it as the "goddamn particle".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Randerson |first=James |date=30 June 2008 |title=Father of the 'God Particle' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jun/30/higgs.boson.cern |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201180117/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jun/30/higgs.boson.cern |archive-date=1 December 2016 |access-date=16 December 2016 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref>

== Death ==
Higgs died after a short illness at home in Edinburgh on 8 April 2024, aged 94.<ref name="NYT-20240409">{{Cite news |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |date=9 April 2024 |title=Peter Higgs, Nobelist Who Predicted the 'God Particle,' Dies at 94 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/science/peter-higgs-dead.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240409171325/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/science/peter-higgs-dead.html |archive-date=9 April 2024 |access-date=10 April 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |authorlink=Dennis Overbye}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Carrell |first=Severin |date=9 April 2024 |title=Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, dies aged 94 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/09/peter-higgs-physicist-who-discovered-higgs-boson-dies-aged-94 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409162633/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/09/peter-higgs-physicist-who-discovered-higgs-boson-dies-aged-94 |archive-date=9 April 2024 |access-date=9 April 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* {{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=P W |year=1979 |title=Dynamical symmetries in a spherical geometry. I |journal=[[Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General]] |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=309–323  |doi=10.1088/0305-4470/12/3/006 |bibcode=1979JPhA...12..309H |issn=0305-4470 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=Peter W. |date=1966-05-27 |title=Spontaneous Symmetry Breakdown without Massless Bosons |journal=[[Physical Review]] |volume=145 |issue=4 |pages=1156–1163 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.145.1156 |bibcode=1966PhRv..145.1156H |issn=0031-899X |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=Peter W. |date=1964-10-19 |title=Broken Symmetries and the Masses of Gauge Bosons |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]] |volume=13 |issue=16 |pages=508–509 |bibcode=1964PhRvL..13..508H |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.508 |issn=0031-9007 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=P. W. |year=1959 |title=Quadratic lagrangians and general relativity |journal=[[Il Nuovo Cimento]] |volume=11 |issue=6 |pages=816–820 |doi=10.1007/BF02732547 |bibcode=1959NCim...11..816H |issn=0029-6341 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=Peter W. |date=1958-11-15 |title=Integration of Secondary Constraints in Quantized General Relativity |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]] |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=373–374 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.1.373 |bibcode=1958PhRvL...1..373H |issn=0031-9007 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Higgs |first=P. W. |date=1953-03-01 |title=Vibrational modifications of the electron distribution in molecular crystals. I. The density in a vibrating carbon atom |journal=[[Acta Crystallographica]] |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=232–241 |doi=10.1107/S0365110X53000727 |bibcode=1953AcCry...6..232H |issn=0365-110X |ref=none}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Close |first=Frank |title=Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass |date=6 July 2023 |publisher=Penguin Press |isbn=978-0-14-199758-2 |ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|voy=no|wikt=no|commons=Category:Peter Higgs|b=no|n=no|q=Peter Higgs|s=no|v=no|species=no}}
* [https://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/higgs The Higgs site at the University of Edinburgh]
* [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3APW+author%3AHiggs&btnG=Search Google Scholar] List of Papers by PW Higgs
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16222710 BBC profile of Peter Higgs]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/nov/17/sciencenews.particlephysics The god of small things] – An interview with Peter Higgs in The Guardian
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120123020012/http://pauli.physics.lsa.umich.edu/w/arch/som/sto2001/Higgs/real/ My Life as a Boson] – A Lecture by Peter Higgs available in various formats
* [http://prl.aps.org/50years/milestones#1964 Physical Review Letters – 50th Anniversary Milestone Papers]
* [http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/32522 In CERN Courier, Steven Weinberg reflects on spontaneous symmetry breaking]
* [http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/11353 Physics World, Introducing the little Higgs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117124900/http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/11353 |date=17 January 2010}}
* [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Englert-Brout-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble_mechanism Englert-Brout-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble Mechanism on Scholarpedia]
* [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Englert-Brout-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble_mechanism_%28history%29 History of Englert-Brout-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble Mechanism on Scholarpedia]
* [https://metode.cat/en/Issues/Interview/Peter-Higgs «I wish they hadn't dubbed it "The God Particle"» Interview with Peter Higgs]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-boson-academic-system Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system]
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2013, "Evading the Goldstone Theorem"

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{{s-bef|before=[[Serge Haroche]]|before2=[[David J. Wineland]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] laureate|with=[[François Englert]]|years=2013}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Isamu Akasaki]]|after2=[[Hiroshi Amano]]|after3=[[Shuji Nakamura]]}}
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{{2013 Nobel Prize winners}}
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{{Wolf Prize in Physics}}
{{Copley Medallists 2001–present}}
{{FRS 1983}}
{{Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research}}
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