European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) physicists have raised the possibility that the Higgs boson, the particle that some believe gave the universe its form after the big bang 13.7 billion years ago, is a figment of the imagination.

Researchers said it might soon be clear whether the Higgs boson is a chimera. They have narrowed down their search for the particle, leaving only a small range of masses that the elusive Higgs boson might have.

CERN physicist Pauline Gagnon said that the low mass range, where scientists had always thought they would find the particle, was also the one where it would be more difficult to see. "It might be that it does not even exist," she said, a possibility already raised by other researchers including CERN chief Rolf Heuer.

If the Higgs boson is not found, "we need to move on to explore the next set of possibilities, " said Gagnon.

The Higgs boson is one of the particles that researchers employing the Large Hadron Collider, which smashes protons together at close to the speed of light to recreate in microcosm the energetic conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the big bang, hope to find.

It is part of the decades-old Standard Model of particle physics that seeks to explain how the universe works at its most basic level, but it is almost the only element of the model whose existence has not yet been determined experimentally.

The Higgs boson theory was put forward in 1964 by six physicists, including Peter Higgs at Edinburgh University, describing an invisible field that pervades all of space and endows fundamental particles with mass.

The CERN's ruling council will gather Dec. 12-16, and any development on the Higgs boson could be discussed during this event.