What other properties besides 125 gev? I thought it only had the right mass?
I'm not a proper PhD, so I don't know the specifics, but from the way the researchers described their findings in the press conference, it seemed like they had a bit more information on the particle than just the mass, although not a lot of information. I'm not sure what the specifics of other things that they've measured about this Higgs-like Boson are, but the way they detect these particles are by carefully accelerating particles to very very high energies and then colliding them and analyzing the resulting streams of particles that pop up and decay, called jets. Since reactions have to follow certain rules, it seems reasonable to assume the researchers know that this particle has a few particular conservation numbers to fit the rules of reactions. In addition, the Higgs boson has to have a spin of 0 and a charge of 0.
Also, the researchers know this is a Boson, and Bosons have particular properties that make them Bosons, so I guess the researchers have got that much information too (the primary property of Bosons to my understanding is that they have whole-number spins, like 1, 0, 2, etc as opposed to a half-integer spin like 1/2 or 3/2). In particle physics, most of the properties you talk about are kind of numerical values, so it's a bit abstract and since I'm barely out of high school I don't have the sheer math to comprehend all of it.
ok, i have a question, for any physics people
going through wikipedia (lol), it says that the higgs-mechanism is what gives particles (specifically the w and z bosons) their mass. it does this by having the higgs field create goldstone-bosons, which are then absorbed by the w and z bosons, thus giving them mass. it then says that the higgs-bosons are kind of just made too, but it never really shows their importance in the higgs mechanism.
do they have importance, or are they really just a byproduct in a sense?
I'm looking at the Wikipedia article, and I'm surprised I'd never read much about Goldstone bosons before this. From the description, it seems like the Higgs field generates Goldstone bosons when symmetry breaks (looking at the article, I think it's referring to Electroweak symmetry breaking, that is, when the electromagnetic force splits from the weak force. If this is the case, it seems to make some sense that breaking the symmetry would generate massive W and Z bosons; you have to understand how forces are carried: gauge bosons are "force particles" that carry interactions from particle to particle. The photon is massless and carries the electromagnetic force, while W and Z carry the weak force, and when the two forces are combined, the electroweak force would apparently have a massless force carrier, but when that force splits, the W and Z carriers most suddenly gain mass, and we do observe the W and Z particles carrying the weak force indeed have mass.).
The short description at the top of the wikipedia article says that these Goldstone bosons are what give W and Z mass terms, and says that Higgs bosons are sort of left behind as well, so I believe you are right ssbbm.
The article on the Higgs Boson says that the Higgs field is kind of made of 4 components - two charged fields, corresponding to W+ and W- particles, and two neutral fields, one corresponding to the Z particle. The other neutral field corresponds to the Higgs Boson, which can interact with itself. So a very rough
tl;dnr to be taken with a grain of salt: you're right, the Higgs bosons are kind of just generated alongside the Goldstone bosons that interact with W and Z particles as a sort of byproduct of the Higgs mechanism that imbues W and Z particles with mass. The Higgs Boson is a quantization of part of the Higgs field, but its existence would be (is?) a great stride in confirming a large portion of our current standard model.
edit: i'm just a kid out of high school so I'm not a proper physicist, anyone with more/better information would be gladly appreciated to correct me where I'm wrong/laugh at my uneducation/add a better explanation. If anyone wants me to clarify anything I sort of just glossed over or answer any other questions, I'd be glad to try.
edit2: i'm also ashamed that i'd known so little about the Higgs when i thought i understood it relatively well, and i'm further ashamed that i'd never heard of goldstone bosons til now given their importance in this issue, but oh well
edit3: derp forgot to list the articles i was reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_mechanism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_boson