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The particle - which is said to explain how matter attains its mass, thereby providing vital clues to the formation of the universe - has been sought by experts for the past 45 years.

However two experiments which have been underway at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva have reportedly discovered a particle which they say is 'consistent' with Higgs Boson.

And although more work will be needed to confirm that it is the particle in question, the discovery was still hailed as a 'momentous day for science'.

The CMS team reporting the discovery at Cern said they had seen a 'bump' in their data which corresponded to a particle weighing 125.3 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) - around 133 times heavier than the mass of the average proton.

And they added that by combining the data from both research programmes, their confidence level in what they had found was just at the 'five-sigma' point - meaning they are 99.999 per cent sure that what they have found is a new particle.

'The results are preliminary but the five-sigma signal at around 125 GeV we're seeing is dramatic,' said CMS spokesman Joe Incandela.

'This is indeed a new particle.'

The findings were hailed by Professor Peter Higgs of the University of Edinburgh - who first postulated the idea of the particle in the 1960s.

'Scientists at Cern are to be congratulated on today’s results, which are a great achievement for the Large Hadron Collider and other experiments leading up to this,' he said.

'I am astounded at the amazing speed with which these results have emerged. They are a testament to the expertise of the researchers and the elaborate technologies in place.

'I never expected this to happen in my lifetime and shall be asking my family to put some champagne in the fridge.'

Scientists have been hunting for the particle to fill a gap in what is known as the 'Standard Model', which explains all the particles and interactions making up the universe.

They have said that without the Higgs Boson a Standard Model universe would not exist as no particles or atoms would combine with anything else.

Failure to find evidence of the Higgs' existence would mean experts having to go back to the drawing board and explore new theories relating to the universe's existence.

Metro