The quark/lepton Higgs interaction Lagrangian.

Pretty exciting news this morning in the world of Physics – the 2013 Nobel Physics Prize was awarded to Peter Higgs and François Englert on their theoretical work on what is now known as the “Higgs Boson.” They had made their predictions about half a century ago, but only last year did we have any more or less conclusive experimental evidence for this elusive particle.

The discovery of the Higgs boson still raises more questions than it answers. However, with its discovery and with this year’s Nobel Prize a very big chapter in the history of Physics is drawn to a close. We have all the ingredients of the Standard Model of Particle Physics in place. This model very accurately and consistently describes all of the basic interactions of the fundamental particles with each other – all with the big exception of gravity. It is a very solid albeit a very ugly edifice. It manages to raise at least as many questions as it answers. It’s to Particle Physics what the Periodic Table is to Chemistry. And just as Chemistry needed the revolutionary development of Quantum Mechanics in order to explain the Periodic Table, so does Physics need a new and revolutionary approach to explain the Standard Model. Unfortunately, Theoretical Physics has been stuck in the mud for the past fifty years, and it’s unlikely that we’ll have any real breakthroughs any time soon.