Does the Higgs mechanism explain the equivalence of gravitiational and

[agnishom]

I am not well versed in the idea of Higgs mechanism. However, I was wondering if it does explain the problem of equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass.

Also, what is the modern accepted definition of mass?

 

[ChrisVer]

No it doesn't. It has nothing to do with this kind of question. The Higgs Mechanism is an idea basically used to cause Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking, by letting the Higgs field to acquire a vacuum expectation value (so it's a spin-0 /scalar field). Then the allowed interactions of the higgs field to the fermions, can lead to mass terms. These masses are the rest masses.
There is not only one definition... it depends on what type of mass you are talkin about.

 

[agnishom]

So, what is the state of the art theory that explains that problem?A mathematician knows how to do it, but he cannot

 

[ChrisVer]

What do you mean by art theory?
The problem of what? the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass? I don't know if there's a theorem, since they are defined in a different way. They just happen to be (by experiment) extremely close to each other (if not equal).

 

[Orodruin]

I suggest reading about the equivalence principle on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Equivalence_principle

(Small) objects in space time follow the same geodesic lines as long as no external force acts upon them (given the same initial position and velocity). Note that gravity is not a force in GR, but the cause of the space-time geometry giving rise to the form of the geodesics.

 

[Einj]

The principle of equivalence between inertial and gravitation mass is, as the name says, a "principle". It doesn't have a proof but it has very strong experimental evidences. Einstein considered it as a postulate of his theory of General Relativity.