Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space - Randall (2013)

Lisa Randall is the Frank J. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University.  Randall studies theoretical physics and cosmology and is considered one of the most cited and highly influential theoretical physicists in the field today.

Higgs Discovery is a short eBook that Randall wrote immediately following the discovery of the Higgs Boson on July 4, 2012.  The first part of the book describes the study being conducted by Cern at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which spans the border between France and Switzerland.  Randall has written two previous books about the search for the Higgs Boson at the LHC.  The Higgs Discovery includes a chapter from each of those books that focused on the significance of the Higgs and why it was important to verify what was, up until July 4, 2012, and accepted, but theoretical construct.

At the time of Randall's writing, the discovery had not been confirmed as the actual Higgs particle.   This did not happen until September 12, 2012.  None-the-less, the experiment had definitely discovered a new particle and the news caused a great deal of excitement not just in the scientific community, but also among the general public.

The Higgs Boson confirmed the existence of the Higgs Mechanism, which has long been thought as the way that subatomic particles acquire mass.  The discovery of the Higgs Boson provided evidence for the first time that such a process did indeed exist.  While not the sole focus of the experiments being conducted at the LHC, finding the elusive Higgs was definitely the Marque investigation.