Why Was the 2013 Nobel Prize Delayed for the Higgs Mechanism?

[ShayanJ]

I guess you all know that the 2013 Nobel prize in physics was awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs for proposing the Higgs mechanism. But it was delayed till people became sure of its validity through the observation of Higgs boson.Now it just makes me wonder if people doubted Higgs mechanism that much,why 1979 Nobel prize in physics was awarded to physicists who proposed ElectroWeak theory because it makes use of Higgs mechanism and if Higgs mechanism was proved to be wrong,ElectroWeak theory should have been dropped too.So Its like...mmm...well...it just doesn't seem right to me!

 

[SteamKing]

That's why awards, IMO, are more or less bunk. Scientific work is significant if it helps to explain the universe or increase our understanding of it, not because some committee made an award.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

These awards are all about politics, there's no science in them.

 

[Kosomoko]

They gave Obama the Nobel peace prize without waiting to see if he was any good too. (Health warning: I neither support nor oppose Obama and am not seeking to discuss whether or not he is doing a good job, I am merely suggesting it was inappropriate to give him the Nobel peace prize just for getting elected.)

Joseph Stalin was also at one time nominated for the Nobel peace prize.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Joseph Stalin was also at one time nominated for the Nobel peace prize.

Yeah, but the nomination process is open to a ton of people so this doesn't say anything at all.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

Hitler was once nominated for the Peace Prize. Gandhi never was.

But the Peace Prize in particular has a history of being political.

 

[adjacent]

Hitler was once nominated for the Peace Prize. Gandhi never was.

But the Peace Prize in particular has a history of being political.

Hitler?

 

[Enigman]

Hitler was once nominated for the Peace Prize. Gandhi never was.

But the Peace Prize in particular has a history of being political.

I don't think there was anything political about the omission of Gandhi, and he did get a few nominations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize#Notable_omissions

The omission of Mahatma Gandhi has been particularly widely discussed, including in public statements by various members of the Nobel Committee.[40][41] The Committee has confirmed that Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before his death in January 1948.[42] The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee.[40] Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question".[43] In 1948, following Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year. Later, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.

 

[Pythagorean]

Hitler was nominated in jest, by a Swede, making a point about Swedish politics. Gandhi was nominated five times.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/peace/

 

[mfb]

There are multiple ways how the electroweak interaction could have symmetry breaking, the model proposed by Higgs, Englert and Brout is just one option.

I see more irony in the fact that the experimental verification directly lead to the prize, without getting a part of the prize (yes, awarding it to organizations like CERN is possible, even if it would be the first time for the physics prize).

 

[ShayanJ]

There are multiple ways how the electroweak interaction could have symmetry breaking, the model proposed by Higgs, Englert and Brout is just one option.

I see more irony in the fact that the experimental verification directly lead to the prize, without getting a part of the prize (yes, awarding it to organizations like CERN is possible, even if it would be the first time for the physics prize).

That's right,but I don't think physicists working on ElectroWeak just went to a Symmetry Breaking gallery and , out of all theories, just liked Higgs mechanism!
The fact that they chose Higgs mechanism,I think,reflects some points about their theory otherwise there would be other ElectroWeak theories proposed based on other Symmetry Breaking methods but just the same with the usual ElectroWeak theory in other senses!

About your second paragraph.I agree,CERN deserved it.Not only because of observing Higgs boson,but all other things they did since they started.

 

[mfb]

That's right,but I don't think physicists working on ElectroWeak just went to a Symmetry Breaking gallery and , out of all theories, just liked Higgs mechanism!
The fact that they chose Higgs mechanism,I think,reflects some points about their theory otherwise there would be other ElectroWeak theories proposed based on other Symmetry Breaking methods but just the same with the usual ElectroWeak theory in other senses!

As far as I know, the Higgs mechanism is the easiest theory. In particular, it does not need/include supersymmetry.

About your second paragraph.I agree,CERN deserved it.Not only because of observing Higgs boson,but all other things they did since they started.

There were some prizes for experimentalists working at CERN, but CERN itself is certainly a good idea.