# Does the Higgs Mechanism contradict Entropic Gravity?

Does the Higgs Mechanism contradict Entropic Gravity?

It seems like it probably does. But then again, one is a microscopic theory and the other is macroscopic. Can they live together in harmony? or is the recent CERN stuff empirical evidence against EG?

-
Can you explain why you think the Higgs mechanism might contradict entropic gravity. –  John Rennie Nov 11 '12 at 8:23
I don't have any particular reason to say this, the intuition is that they are two different explanations for the same phenomenon, and quite often (though certainly not always) when that is the case, one is right at the expense of the other (especially when one is a very specific mechanistic explanation and the other emergent). –  Lucas Nov 11 '12 at 8:35
I think I see what you're asking. Have a look at my answer and if I've misunderstood your question comment here. –  John Rennie Nov 11 '12 at 9:12
Entropic gravity has other problems arxiv.org/abs/1108.4161 arxiv.org/abs/1108.5240. –  Mitchell Porter Nov 11 '12 at 21:35
@MitchellPorter I really like the Visser paper, it's really clear and measured. –  Lucas Nov 11 '12 at 22:18

It's a common misconception to think that because the Higgs mechanism is the origin of mass it is also the origin of gravity. This is a misconception because the origin of gravity is not simply mass. Instead it's a quantity called the stress-energy tensor. The stress-energy tensor is usually represented as a 4 $\times$ 4 matrix containing 10 independant entries (10 not 16 because the matrix is symmetric) and in most cases the only significant entry is the top left one, $T_{00}$, which gives the energy density.
The key point is that as far as the stress-energy tensor is concerned mass and energy are the same thing related by Einstein's famous equation $E = mc^2$.