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Background:

It is my understanding that the Higgs Boson is a fluctuation of the Higgs field. It also is not very stable and decays into a plethora of other particles. If all other particles interact with the Higgs field "to give them mass", then it suggests that all other particles are also fluctuations in the Higgs field as well. To me this sounds like all particles interact with themselves (i.e. particles are fluctuations in Higgs field and interact with Higgs field??)

Questions:

1) I am assuming this is not true or flawed. If so how does a fluctuation in the Higgs field (Higgs Boson) decay into a some other particle.

2) Is it the frequency of the fluctuation that determines what particle it is? Or is any fluctuation of Higgs field a Higgs Boson?

Edit: @dgh has informed me (in the comments) about particles and their respective fields. And that if a field is coupled to another one then there is always a probability of decaying into the other one, unless breaking conservation laws. I think that answers both questions. Thanks @dgh! But any more insight is welcomed!

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    $\begingroup$ Other particles are not fluctuations of the Higgs field, they are fluctuations of their respective fields. The photon is the quantum of the EM field, the electron is the quantum of one particular fermionic field, and so on. The Higgs boson decays because in quantum mechanics, a particle that is coupled to other particles will always have some probability of decaying into them, unless doing so would violate a conservation law. $\endgroup$
    – user27578
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 1:32
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    $\begingroup$ RE: Your edit. I didn't explicitly answer (2) because I thought it was implied: what determines what particle you get is what the underlying field is; nothing else. However, you're taking "fluctuations" too literally. These are purely quantum mechanical phenomena, the closest thing they have to a "frequency" is the particle's momentum (which determines the frequency of the wavefunction describing its position). And, yes, the Higgs boson, like all particles, can have any momentum you like. $\endgroup$
    – user27578
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 1:51
  • $\begingroup$ Ahh I see now. I need this stuff spoon fed to me. You definitely cleared up my confusion. Thanks for the quick replies! $\endgroup$
    – jerk_dadt
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 1:56
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    $\begingroup$ You might be interested in Exotic Decays of the 125 GeV Higgs Boson $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 12:19
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnRennie Thanks for the link!The paper was a little too long (and over my head) but it had an accompanying website that had lots useful info and it was more reader friendly. See here: exotichiggs.physics.sunysb.edu $\endgroup$
    – jerk_dadt
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 15:52

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