Higgs Boson Research: Past, Present and Future

The physical particle named Higgs boson is a result from the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism. This mechanism introduces mass to elementary particles. As all matter is made of elementary particles, it explains the massive world around us. In particular, the mechanism leads to the correct prediction that the photon remains massless and it predicts the correct mass ratio of W and Z bosons, the carriers of the weak force. Another fundamental prediction is the relation of coupling strength and mass. After the discovery of the Higgs boson about twelve years ago, the coupling-mass relation has been confirmed in the past years impressively over several orders in mass from light muon leptons to heavy top quarks. The Higgs boson research also inspires new generations of scientists and scientific developments for the following decades.