The Higgs boson was predicted by Peter Higgs and confirmed by the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The particle is associated with the Higgs field, an energy field present throughout space. In the Standard Model of particle physics, interactions with this field help explain why several elementary particles have mass. Higgs and other theorists proposed the mechanism in 1964.
The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN announced evidence for a new particle in 2012. Their experiments used proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider. The particle's measured properties were consistent with the Higgs boson.
The 2013 Nobel Prize was shared by Peter Higgs and François Englert for the theoretical discovery of the mechanism that contributes to understanding the origin of mass. The prize recognized theory, while the experimental confirmation came decades later.