An artistic depiction of the Brout-Englert-Higgs field

An artistic impression of the Brout-Englert-Higgs field that pervades the universe, a quantum ripple of which corresponds to the Higgs boson. Mathematically, the shape of the field resembles a “Mexican hat” where the Higgs boson corresponds to an abstract movement around the rim of the hat (in fact this is a simplified picture, since the full "scalar doublet" field has too many dimensions to draw). The Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism proposed in 1964 enables the universe to transition (turquoise) from a symmetric state at the top of the hat to an asymmetric but more stable position in the rim. Before this "spontaneous symmetry breaking” event took place a fraction of a nanosecond after the Big Bang, the electromagnetic and weak forces were unified and elementary particles had no mass; afterwards, the universe was left with a non-zero "vacuum expectation value" that enabled elementary particles to acquire mass and thus for nuclei and atoms to later form. High-energy proton-proton collisions at the LHC allow this critical transition in the early universe to be probed. Results so far suggest that the rim of the hat might not be the lowest state of the Brout-Englert-Higgs potential, with potential implications for the long-term stability of the universe.