3
$\begingroup$

Can someone please describe how the mass of the fermions is generated by the Higgs relative to electroweak symmetry breaking? Or other way around: Why does a breaking of the electroweak symmetry generate a fermion mass?

Hence, what's the difference to chiral symmetry breaking which causes, e.g., the pion masses?

I found it on Particle mass acquisition and there is maybe an another question related to: Massive Gauge Bosons without Higgs fields

That are probably very plain questions aiming at a general understanding/access. I'm trying to separate the involving terms and mechanisms from each other..

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ Hi Ben. There are lots of related questions already on the site. Can you be a bit more specific? What aspects of the Higgs mechanism do the existing questions not already cover? $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Jan 10, 2018 at 10:52
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnRennie Thanks, as far as I understand, on the linked question, there is no mention about the chiral symmetry breaking which also generates mass. Or is that higgs mechanism, too? $\endgroup$
    – Ben
    Jan 10, 2018 at 11:19
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I think the answer by Lubos here covers your chirality confusion . physics.stackexchange.com/questions/45450/… . " The origin of the chiral symmetry breaking is the strong nuclear force, mediated by gluons and described by QCD, rather than the weak nuclear force, mediated by the W-bosons and Z-bosons and made possible by the Higgs field. " So it is the mass of the composite hadronic fermions that is affected by the chiral symmetry. $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Jan 12, 2018 at 4:59

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.