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Chris
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There are various ways dark matter could acquire mass that have nothing to do with the standard model weak force. For example, there are theories involving a hidden sector- particles that do not interact with the standard model gauge bosons at all, but have their own interactions.

Note that the Higgs mechanism is not required for all mass generation in the standard model. The massive gauge bosons acquire their mass through the Higgs mechanism, but there are models where the fermionic masses are acquired through different mechanisms. The source of mass for neutrinos in particular is unknown.

Without knowing what dark matter is, it is of course impossible to determine how it acquires mass.

If it has no interactions at all, there's no need for a mechanism to acquire mass. Explicit mass terms in the standard model Lagrangian are only a problem because they break gauge symmetry. If a field doesn't couple to the gauge fields, its mass terms don't break gauge symmetry, and the mass can just be added to the Lagrangian by hand.

There are various ways dark matter could acquire mass that have nothing to do with the standard model weak force. For example, there are theories involving a hidden sector- particles that do not interact with the standard model gauge bosons at all, but have their own interactions.

Note that the Higgs mechanism is not required for all mass generation in the standard model. The massive gauge bosons acquire their mass through the Higgs mechanism, but there are models where the fermionic masses are acquired through different mechanisms. The source of mass for neutrinos in particular is unknown.

Without knowing what dark matter is, it is of course impossible to determine how it acquires mass.

There are various ways dark matter could acquire mass that have nothing to do with the standard model weak force. For example, there are theories involving a hidden sector- particles that do not interact with the standard model gauge bosons at all, but have their own interactions.

Note that the Higgs mechanism is not required for all mass generation in the standard model. The massive gauge bosons acquire their mass through the Higgs mechanism, but there are models where the fermionic masses are acquired through different mechanisms. The source of mass for neutrinos in particular is unknown.

Without knowing what dark matter is, it is of course impossible to determine how it acquires mass.

If it has no interactions at all, there's no need for a mechanism to acquire mass. Explicit mass terms in the standard model Lagrangian are only a problem because they break gauge symmetry. If a field doesn't couple to the gauge fields, its mass terms don't break gauge symmetry, and the mass can just be added to the Lagrangian by hand.

Source Link
Chris
  • 17.3k
  • 10
  • 51
  • 64

There are various ways dark matter could acquire mass that have nothing to do with the standard model weak force. For example, there are theories involving a hidden sector- particles that do not interact with the standard model gauge bosons at all, but have their own interactions.

Note that the Higgs mechanism is not required for all mass generation in the standard model. The massive gauge bosons acquire their mass through the Higgs mechanism, but there are models where the fermionic masses are acquired through different mechanisms. The source of mass for neutrinos in particular is unknown.

Without knowing what dark matter is, it is of course impossible to determine how it acquires mass.