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How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

quantamagazine.org

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Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#11

Post by wyager »

tines wrote: post #7

So to conceptualize the difference between fields with and without restoring forces, I imagine that, for a field that doesn't have a restoring force, the medium itself can move permanently. For example if you have just a bunch of ball bearings lying on the surface of a table, you can cause a wave to go through the balls by hitting one. One bumps into the next, which bumps into the next, etc. There's no restoring forc…

First, worth noting that "the EM field" (the thing that shows up in the wave equation) in this case is specifically the EM 4-potential. This doesn't work if you try to treat "the EM field" as the strength of the E and B fields or something - it has to be the 4-potential. I got tripped up by this at one point

Second, this isn't pinning the field in space, it's pinning the magnitude of the field to be close to some value (probably you can call that value 0)

So if the field locally gets "too high" or "too low", there's a restoring force accelerating it back towards the "normal" value, like a spring attached to the normal value.

It's not pinning it in the sense of stopping translation through space or time

In the water wave analogy, we're using the vertical dimension to represent the magnitude of the water wave, but translating that to other contexts, we're not literally talking about a physical height, just the magnitude of the field. (Which, for all I know, maybe you can formulate that as a position in some higher-dimensional space or something)

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#13

Post by seiferteric »

bloopernova wrote: post #2

Layman trying to wrap my head around this: the Higgs field causes other fields to stiffen by giving them a resonant frequency, with higher frequencies meaning more mass.

Hmm, now this is making me think, does the Higgs field act like an additional degree of freedom for energy to be dumped into? I mean like a photon is massless, so any amount of energy, it will already be going the speed of light so the only place where additional energy to go into is the frequency. Perhaps with massive particles, a portion of this additional energy now gets dumped into this resonant frequency rather than translating into motion? So the energy stored in this resonant frequency would be like the kinetic energy...? or maybe totally wrong :)

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#14

Post by tines »

wyager wrote: post #11
tines wrote: post #7

So to conceptualize the difference between fields with and without restoring forces, I imagine that, for a field that doesn't have a restoring force, the medium itself can move permanently. For example if you have just a bunch of ball bearings lying on the surface of a table, you can cause a wave to go through the balls by hitting one. One bumps into the next, which bumps into the next, etc. There's no restoring forc…

First, worth noting that "the EM field" (the thing that shows up in the wave equation) in this case is specifically the EM 4-potential. This doesn't work if you try to treat "the EM field" as the strength of the E and B fields or something - it has to be the 4-potential. I got tripped up by this at one point Second, this isn't pinning the field in space , it's pinning the magnitude of the field to be close to some va…

What trips me up is that we don't think of the field being a real physical thing. But isn't the field really the _true_ physical thing, and the wave is just a concept we overlay on it? Like, water is the real physical thing, and the wave is just an arrangement of the water that we recognize as humans. Isn't it the same with the EM and electron fields etc?

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#15

Post by prof-dr-ir »

Very nice explanation by Matt Strassler. I am not sure it is possible to do better without getting into the details of quantum field theory.

For those who know quantum mechanics I would add that the oscillations mentioned in the article are just the familiar exp( i E t ) of any wave function that is an eigenfunction of the Hamiltonian. For a particle at rest in a relativistic theory (and in units where c=1), we of course have E = m.

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#16

Post by itishappy »

Angostura wrote: post #9

As a lay person, I found that a clear and understandable explanation, which in my experience suggests it is a wild wild over simplification - but enjoyable nonetheless A question for the more expert amongst you. Is the Higgs field unique in its interaction with other fields, or are there other similar fields which similarly change the way that other fields (and associated particles) behave?

I believe it's both. All fields can stiffen their fellows like this, but only the Higgs is stably non-zero.

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#17

Post by throw0101d »

> Quantum field theory, the powerful framework of modern particle physics, says the universe is filled with fields. Examples include the electromagnetic field, the gravitational field and the Higgs field itself. For each field, there’s a corresponding type of particle, best understood as a little ripple in that field. The electromagnetic field’s ripples are light waves, and its gentlest ripples are the particles of light, which we call photons.

What are these fields made of? Are all fields made of the same thing(s), or is each field made differently?

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#18

Post by thrtythreeforty »

itishappy wrote: post #16
Angostura wrote: post #9

As a lay person, I found that a clear and understandable explanation, which in my experience suggests it is a wild wild over simplification - but enjoyable nonetheless A question for the more expert amongst you. Is the Higgs field unique in its interaction with other fields, or are there other similar fields which similarly change the way that other fields (and associated particles) behave?

I believe it's both. All fields can stiffen their fellows like this, but only the Higgs is stably non-zero.

What's another example of cross-field interaction? Where (say) the EM field changes the restoring force of the gravitational field?

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#19

Post by throw0101d »

> Once upon a time, there came into being a universe. Searingly hot, it swarmed with elementary particles. Among its fields was a Higgs field, initially switched off. But as the universe expanded and cooled, the Higgs field suddenly switched on, developing a nonzero strength.

Any particular reason/mechanism why the Higgs field suddenly (gradually?) switched on?

Re: How the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles

#20

Post by idontwantthis »

Does anyone know the genesis of the Higg’s field as mud explanation?

I remember reading that since I first heard about the “God Particle” in the Science Times maybe 20 years ago.

Have journalists been using that deeply flawed analogy since Higg’s hypothesis was first published?

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