The world of science was overjoyed by the discovery of the Higgs Boson in the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. Peter Higgs and Francois Englert, who first theorized the particle’s existence in the 1960s, received the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics. But many aspects of the particle still remain a mystery.

In a new study written by Roberto Onofrio of the University of Padova in Italy and Gary Wegner of Dartmouth College, the possibility of dying white dwarf stars serving as Higgs boson laboratories was raised. The authors suggested studying the emissions of white dwarfs- which are burnt-out remains of previous suns- to detect the impact of the Higgs field.

Due to the link between mass and gravity, the assumption has been made that the Higgs field will impact gravity. White dwarfs are ideal for studying the Higgs field’s impact due to the light that the dying stars emit.

According to Roberto Onofrio, one of the study’s co-authors, “Conceptually, I think that our work is trying to create a ‘common’ language between microphysics and macrophysics in the following sense.”

Onofrio has argued that the Higgs boson has only been tested in the quantum physics arena, but not in a macrophysics sense. A gradual change in the electronic spectrum from white dwarf stars when compared to the nucleon’s vibrational spectrum could indicate a Higgs field impact.

The discovery of the Higgs boson was a major scientific leap, confirming theories that had been held for years. Initially referred to as the “God Particle,” the boson captured headlines around the world but was difficult to explain to non-astrophysicists. Essentially, the boson is a force acting upon matter, and it can form a Higgs field that can act upon certain particles.

Stars such as BPM 27606 and Procyon B are currently being studied for Higgs boson impacts. These have not been detected yet, but scientists are studying a methodology for detecting Higgs field impacts.

While the exact nature of the Higgs boson is still being studied extensively, researching the possibility of a Higgs field in dying white dwarf stars would provide an essential methodology for future studies. It would aid future studies of the elusive particle’s nature. Most importantly, it would combine the fields of microphysics and macrophysics into a cohesive quantum mechanical theory that would help scientists learn more about how the universe behaves.