希格斯玻色子

过去50年间，粒子物理学家建立起所谓的物理学标准模型（StandardModel）。在这种模型中，希格斯玻色子是解释物质获得质量的关键。

In the so-called Standard Model , which particle physicists have built up over the past 50 years , the Higgs boson is crucial to explaining how matter acquires its substance or mass .

欧洲物理研究中心&欧洲核子研究中心（Cern）的科学家们从日内瓦附近耗资80亿美元的大型强子对撞机（LargeHadronCollider）的原子撞击实验中，展示了希格斯玻色子存在的最新证据。

The scientists at Cern , the European physics research centre , presented the latest evidence of the Higgs boson from atom-smashing experiments at the $ 8bn Large Hadron Collider near Geneva .

希格斯玻色子即使存在，其存在的时间也不够长，不足以直接出现在这些碰撞产生的亚原子碎片中。

Higgs bosons , if they exist , do not last long enough to show up directly in the subatomic debris of these collisions .

希格斯玻色子存在的证据将有助于解释一个重大疑问：为什么宇宙中的有些物质有质量，比如构成质子的单元夸克，而其他物质仅拥有能量，比如构成光的粒子光子。

Proof that the particle exists would help explain a big puzzle : why some objects in the universe-such as the quark , a constituent of protons-have mass , while other objects-such as photons , the constituent of light-possess only energy .

我的理论是，一种标量粒子在这些恒星爆炸中起着作用，是引发爆炸的额外能量的来源。这种标量粒子与希格斯玻色子相似，也是宇宙中最基本的粒子之一。

My theory is that a scalar particle – one of the most elementary types of particle in the universe and similar to the Higgs boson – is at work in these starbursts and responsible for the additional energy that causes the explosion to take place .