ATLAS Higgs-Physics

The Higgs boson is unique within the Standard Model of particle physics: it is the only elementary scalar particle discovered so far. It is the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, which plays a central role in electroweak symmetry breaking and the generation of elementary particle masses. The strength of the Higgs boson's interaction with fundamental fermions is proportional to their masses, meaning that heavier fermions interact more strongly with the Higgs boson than lighter ones. The Higgs field also gives mass to the W and Z bosons, whose interactions with the Higgs boson follow a different relationship. This distinctive connection between the Higgs boson and particle masses makes precision measurements of its interactions a powerful way to test the Standard Model and search for new physics.

The Higgs boson can be produced under laboratory conditions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, and studied by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, which first discovered the Higgs boson in 2012.

At Siegen, our research focuses on measuring the interactions between the Higgs boson and the top, bottom, and charm quarks. In addition, we test theories beyond the Standard Model that predict new processes involving the Higgs boson.