A particle that emerges from the theoretical mechanism that is thought to give other particles mass.
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74 views
$WW\to t\bar{t}$ growth
I was told recently that "it is well known that processes like $WW\to t\bar{t}$ ($t$ being a top, or any massive fermion) grows linearly with the energy in the absence of an Higgs boson." Does anyone ...
4
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2answers
407 views
Is the Higgs 3/4 detected already?
Can someone provide an expanded explanation on the statement that the Higgs field is already 3/4 detected?
Link to ref (@nic, sorry I left it off, do a quick search on Higgs to find the right ...
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4answers
2k views
How does Higgs Boson get the rest mass?
Higgs Boson detected at LHC is massive. It has high relativistic mass means it has non-zero rest mass.
Higgs Boson gives other things rest mass. But, how does it get rest mass by itself?
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5answers
3k views
The Higgs field a new Luminiferous aether?
As of this writing it has been made clear to me that classical physics' Luminiferous aether was a terriblly poor discriptor of space. With the advent of Special Relativity and General Relativity, that ...
4
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2answers
479 views
Higgs Boson Mass
The WIKI Higgs boson site has an interesting diagram illustrating likely Higgs mass intervals that experiments (LEP & Tevatron) or indirect measurements have determined with a 95% confidence ...
4
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2answers
588 views
Higgs mass and the hierarchy problem
I was wondering what is the opinion about importance of the hierarchy problem in the hep community? I'm still a student and I don't really understand, why there is so much attention around this issue. ...
4
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2answers
179 views
What has been measured at the Higgs experiment and what do we know now?
Explained at the level of a 5$^{\text {th}}$ semester physics student (i.e. pre QFT, but far beyond the level of a news article for non-physicists, which avoids all details and only deals in ...
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3answers
278 views
Higgs-Boson/Graviton
The Higgs boson gives particles mass. And the graviton is the theoretical force-carrier of gravity. Gravity depends on mass. So if the Higgs Boson gives things mass, it therefore gives them gravity. ...
4
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2answers
147 views
do Higgs Bosons happen in nature all the time? Rarely? Or do they only happen when the Higgs field is excited in a particle accelerator?
I'm trying to reconcile an apparent contradiction between explanations given by Dr. Cox in 2009 and 2012, and those given by a panel of Berkeley professors.
I'm not a physicist, and so I realize this ...
4
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2answers
249 views
What is the relation between the Higgs field and chirality?
Wikipedia states that the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry "is responsible for the bulk of the mass (over 99%) of the nucleons".
How do the nucleons gain mass from the spontaneous breaking of ...
4
votes
2answers
380 views
Is the Higgs a quantum field or a particle?
The Higgs is not detected in the asymptotic data, so it is possible that there is no particle interpretation for the Higgs quantum field. Indeed, the Higgs potential is only positive definite if the ...
4
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4answers
935 views
What does spin 0 mean exactly?
I heard two definitions:
(1) Spin 0 means that the particle has spherical symmetry, without any preferred axis.
(2) The spin value tells after which angle of rotation the wave function returns to ...
4
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2answers
193 views
Higgs boson and quasiparticles
Do we know exactly the difference between particles and quasiparticles? Is Higgs boson a particle or a quasiparticle? I ask this because if I understood well, Higgs boson created by a spontaneaous ...
4
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5answers
1k views
How does Higgs field relate to Aether theories?
I am an amateur learning about the Higgs because I was interested in what the LHC's purpose is.
I read that as a particle passes through space, it is actually passing through a Higgs field and there ...
4
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2answers
235 views
Vector Boson Fusion
I have been reading about the production mechanisms for the Higgs at the LHC. It is always mentioned that for Vector Boson Fusion, the initial quarks cause jets that are back to back and with a higher ...
4
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0answers
59 views
Are oscillations of electron chirality experimentally observable?
Is there any plausible experiment by which chirality oscillations in electrons could be observed experimentally, such as through some analogy to neutrino oscillation experiments?
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0answers
36 views
axial and vector resonances in composite higgs models
Is there a reason to believe that the axial resonances be heavier than the vector resonances in the composite higgs models?
For instance, in http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.2071, to have zero tree level ...
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2answers
256 views
Basic question on experimental plots
On the following Higgs $\rightarrow$ Tau Tau plot, since we are plotting the ratio of $\frac{\sigma}{\sigma_{SM}}$ on the y axis, shouldn't the expected for this be 1? i.e., shouldn't the expected 68% ...
3
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2answers
125 views
Do any good theories exist on why the weak interaction is so profoundly chiral?
I find the profound asymmetry in the sensitivity of left and right chiral particles to be one of the most remarkable analytical observations captured in the Standard Model. Yet for some, I've not ...
3
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2answers
226 views
Why are particles different sizes?
Is it correct in saying that a particles size is it's rest energy, and that particles don't actually have size (in the way you get different size objects)?
What defines what sizes a particle can be? ...
3
votes
1answer
259 views
What are the advantages of the ILC over the LHC?
USA Today has an article on Japan's interest as the site for the $10 billion future International Linear Collider. This accelerator will utilize electron/positron collisions (like CERN's former LEP ...
3
votes
1answer
223 views
Higgs boson in LHC
Recently,the higgs bosons are discovered in LHC. My question is
How did they come to know that the particle that are created are actually Higgs boson?
On the basis of which properties,they ...
3
votes
1answer
121 views
Do Maxwell equeations change somehow after Higg's boson finding?
When I was in some physics -lesson, probably something to do with Quantum Physics -- the teacher said that certain Maxwell equations would change if the Higg's boson is found. It is also possible that ...
3
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2answers
552 views
What are the implications for quantum gravity if the LHC sees no higgs?
Following the news in serious "non-hype" physics blogs I`ve learnd that as things are now one needs a lot of patience and more data to learn what happens in the higgs sector.
There are already a ...
3
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1answer
371 views
Recent Higgs boson observation and credibility of superstring theories
Data are coming in, and it seems that recent Higgs boson observation is eliminating many SUSY models. If so, what is happening to superstring theories, like M-theory?
3
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2answers
411 views
What sort of “mass” is explained by the Higgs mechanism?
When I asked this question (probably in a less neutral form) to physicists, their answer was something along the lines that it's not gravity (i.e. unrelated to gravitons) but inertial mass. (So I ...
3
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1answer
88 views
Would the Standard Model allow two energetic photons to form a particle-like, zero-spin resonance?
The title is the question: Would the Standard Model allow two energetic photons to form a particle-like, zero-spin resonance?
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4answers
582 views
What if we could give photons some mass?
I was reading an article and these paragraphs got me wondering...
Before I list the replies, here is some background. The Higgs mechanism describes an invisible field that, it is argued, split one
...
3
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1answer
93 views
Origin of Higgs ghosts
In M. Veltman's Diagrammatica, appendix E, one can find the full Standard Model lagrangian. Some sectors (e.g fermion-Higgs and weak sectors) contain so-called Higgs ghosts $\phi^+,\phi^-$ and ...
3
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2answers
306 views
Does the Higgs boson (or the 125 GeV boson, if it's not exactly the Higgs as predicted) occur in nature?
If the Higgs boson mediates mass interactions, do they exist in nature? Are there Higgs bosons flying around all the time? Or do they only exist for a tiny fraction of a second while they mediate ...
3
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1answer
98 views
What can drive the higgs mass in mSUGRA up?
As a test to familiarize myself with the program softsusy, I generated a spectrum for the following (already excluded, but once considered) mSUGRA point: $m_0 = 170\,\mathrm{GeV}$, $m_{1/2} = ...
3
votes
1answer
145 views
125 Higgs is large (or small) for the MSSM?
As far I as I know, and from Naturalness considerations, a 125 GeV Higgs mass is rather large for the MSSM. This is because in the MSSM $$m_h^2 \lesssim M_z^2 \cos^22\beta + \Delta$$
Where $\Delta$ ...
3
votes
1answer
462 views
What's the Standard Model width of a 125 GeV Higgs?
There's a fairly broad mass spread in the new results out of Atlas and CMS. I'm curious how this fits with the expected SM width.
3
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1answer
234 views
Relationship between hierarchy problem and higgs fine tuning?
I often hear of hierarchy problem being used synonymous with Higgs fine tuning (esp with regards with motivations for SUSY). What exactly is the relationship between the two problems? As I understand ...
3
votes
1answer
220 views
Where is the “true” higgs if the LHC 125 GeV signal is rather a higher dimensional radion than a SM higgs?
In this article, Lumo introduces and explains the idea (presented by the original authors in this paper) that the LHC signal at about 125 GeV could alternatively be interpreted as a higher ...
3
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1answer
234 views
Does field energy create rest mass in QFT theories?
The central importance of Higgs boson would be that the Higgs mechanism gives rest mass to fundamental particles. It seems like a very natural argument that fundamental particles need to be given ...
3
votes
1answer
85 views
Measuring tensor rank of the Higgs resonance
The Higgs boson is the first scalar field ever measured that is fundamental rather than composite. How do high-energy physicists determine that a given resonance in the statistics is either a scalar, ...
3
votes
1answer
305 views
Higgs Field compared to EM field
So, I've been reading about the Higgs because of all of this excitement lately with the LHC. I'm just a layman in physics but one thing I understood was that the Higgs field permeates all of space ...
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0answers
69 views
What is the importance of the Higgs-strahlung process in the Higgs search?
I would particularly like to know why this process is considered the main search mode for Tevatron but useless for search at LHC.
3
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0answers
112 views
Higgs stability in Standard Model
I am a little unclear on what ramifications a negative quartic at high energies has on our world at low energies.
(1) First of all, is it that there is a second, isolated minimum that appears at ...
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0answers
66 views
Could one theoretically build the Higgs equivalent of a Faraday cage?
My understanding is, within quantum mechanics, in a pure vacuum, all known fields have a lowest energy state of zero. The Higgs field is the only exception -- it's lowest energy state is not zero. ...
3
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0answers
149 views
Attempts to explain Higgs coupling as a gauge transformation symmetry
As is (supposedly) well known, Electromagnetic coupling can be "explained" as a closure term to a langrangian comprising a free Dirac field and a free vector field that are required to be invariant ...
2
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2answers
263 views
Some very basic questions on the Higgs Boson
What exactly is a boson?
Is the Higgs boson the cause of gravity or a result of it? Does the collision of particles at the LHC create a gravity field or waves or somehow interact with the gravity ...
2
votes
2answers
269 views
Do particles interact with the Higgs field more at higher speed?
It is said that interaction with the Higgs field gives rest mass to fundamental particles.
When a particle is moving, is it then correct to say that there is more of the same interaction that gives ...
2
votes
2answers
179 views
What evidence is there for the electroweak higgs mechanism?
The wikipedia article on the Higgs mechanism states that there is overwhelming evidence for the electroweak higgs mechanism, but doesn't then back this up. What evidence is there?
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2answers
266 views
Might the LHC see nothing new at all?
There's no guarantee that supersymmetry (or more exotic new physics) will be seen at the LHC. Meanwhile, it's standard lore that a Higgsless standard model becomes nonunitary somewhere in the vicinity ...
2
votes
1answer
219 views
Has the Higgs really been discovered at CERN?
Many news media round the world such as this http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=higgs-lhc have reported the possible discovery of the Higgs at CERN, to be announced at a conference on ...
2
votes
1answer
157 views
Could the Higgs boson field be responsible for the dramatic mass increase when an object begins to travel close to the speed of light?
could the Higgs boson field be responsible for the dramatic mass increase incurred when an object nears the speed of light?
2
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1answer
129 views
Is this a good explanation of the Higgs mechanism? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is there an accepted analogy/conceptual aid for the Higgs field?
A video I watched explains the Higgs mechanism as follows.
Take massless particles. These can only ever ...
2
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1answer
277 views
Is Connes model a composite Higgs in disguise?
Most of the 5-dimensional Higgs models can be seen, if I understand correctly, as models where the Higgs is a composite.
Now, is this true for Connes models? It is a model of extra dimensions too, ...
