Question: What is the Higgs boson, what is it supposed to do and how would it affect the standard model if it cannot be found?

Ben Still answered on 23 Nov 2011:

The Higgs boson gives mass to other particles by interacting with and slowing them down and therefore dictating they cannot travel at the natural speed of the Universe – that of the speed of light. The fact things cannot travel he speed of light is the same as saying they have a mass.

A good analogy of the Higgs particle is a field of snow. As skier can skim over the top, un-slowed by the masses of snow (higgs particles) underneath his skis – like a mass-less photon. Someone with snow shoes on sinks a little into the snow and is slowed down by interacting more with the snow-Higgs, like a light particle such as an electron. A hiker wearing just boots sinks deep, interacting heavily with the snow-Higgs just like a heavy top quark.

If The standard model Higgs cannot be found then the standard model is not the complete picture of Nature, we would need to start looking at new theories of how mass is given to particles. This could involve having a Higgs that is not the one required by the standard model or a number of Higgs-less models. We hope to know if the standard model Higgs exists by the end of 2012 – watch this space.