Nature:
In 1981 two theorists proposed that the superconductor niobium
selenide could manifest behavior analogous to the Higgs
mechanism that bestows mass on subatomic particles. Both the
effect in NbSe
2 and the Higgs mechanism arise from vibrations in
fields that synchronize the oscillations of other particles.
Now that, 31 years later, direct evidence has been found for
the Higgs particle, solid-state physicists are hoping to better
understand their own Higgs-like effect. They have already found
that not all superconductors show the effect and that the
behavior is also present in some
antiferromagnets
and some
Bose–Einstein
condensates. The use of solid-state experiments to study
Higgs-like behaviors provides researchers significantly cheaper
and smaller setups than large colliders. And it won't be the
first time that solid-state physics has influenced particle
physics. In formulating his version of the theory of his
namesake particle, Peter Higgs made use of a symmetry-breaking
mechanism that Philip Anderson had identified previously in
superconductors.
