What is Higgs: Definition and 682 Discussions

In the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs mechanism is essential to explain the generation mechanism of the property "mass" for gauge bosons. Without the Higgs mechanism, all bosons (one of the two classes of particles, the other being fermions) would be considered massless, but measurements show that the W+, W−, and Z0 bosons actually have relatively large masses of around 80 GeV/c2. The Higgs field resolves this conundrum. The simplest description of the mechanism adds a quantum field (the Higgs field) that permeates all space to the Standard Model. Below some extremely high temperature, the field causes spontaneous symmetry breaking during interactions. The breaking of symmetry triggers the Higgs mechanism, causing the bosons it interacts with to have mass. In the Standard Model, the phrase "Higgs mechanism" refers specifically to the generation of masses for the W±, and Z weak gauge bosons through electroweak symmetry breaking. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced results consistent with the Higgs particle on 14 March 2013, making it extremely likely that the field, or one like it, exists, and explaining how the Higgs mechanism takes place in nature.
The mechanism was proposed in 1962 by Philip Warren Anderson, following work in the late 1950s on symmetry breaking in superconductivity and a 1960 paper by Yoichiro Nambu that discussed its application within particle physics.
A theory able to finally explain mass generation without "breaking" gauge theory was published almost simultaneously by three independent groups in 1964: by Robert Brout and François Englert; by Peter Higgs; and by Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, and Tom Kibble. The Higgs mechanism is therefore also called the Brout–Englert–Higgs mechanism, or Englert–Brout–Higgs–Guralnik–Hagen–Kibble mechanism, Anderson–Higgs mechanism, Anderson–Higgs–Kibble mechanism, Higgs–Kibble mechanism by Abdus Salam and ABEGHHK'tH mechanism (for Anderson, Brout, Englert, Guralnik, Hagen, Higgs, Kibble, and 't Hooft) by Peter Higgs. The Higgs mechanism in electrodynamics was also discovered independently by Eberly and Reiss in reverse
as the "gauge" Dirac field mass gain due to the artificially displaced electromagnetic field as a Higgs field.On 8 October 2013, following the discovery at CERN's Large Hadron Collider of a new particle that appeared to be the long-sought Higgs boson predicted by the theory, it was announced that Peter Higgs and François Englert had been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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  1. J

    I Other ways to break the Higgs symmetry group

    Our standard model breaks the Higgs Su(2) electroweak symmetry via the Higgs mechanism. In official beyond the standard models. May I know the different lists of models where the Higgs field can be part of larger symmetry group like SU(10) and different ways to break it?
  2. arivero

    I Is the composite Higgs still a thing?

    This week I noticed a tweet from Flip Tanedo mentioning compositeness: https://twitter.com/FlipTanedo/status/976188434086641665 So, is a composite Higgs still a possibility nowadays?
  3. J

    I How does the Higgs scalar potential evolve with temperature?

    How does the Higgs scalar potential evolve with temperature? Is there possibility they are independent? Besides temperature. What else can theoretically affect the higgs scalar potential?
  4. B

    B Quark confinement and the Higgs mechanism

    There is something that perflexed me. First here are the references to my questions: http://www.latticeguy.net/mypubs/pub017.pdf http://bose.res.in/~bossar/chandu.pdf What I'd like to know is the following: Without superstrings. Quark confinement and asymptotic freedom says as you pull the...
  5. B

    B Thermal Dependence of the Higgs Mechanism

    I'm familiar with the Higgs mechanism.. but what perplexed me so much is the temperature dependence. I know about superconductivity or magnetic-temperature analogy.. or generally I understand what's written in wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_mechanism "Below some extremely high...
  6. Gene Naden

    I What particles have fixed weak isospin and T3?

    Wikipedia quotes weak isospin values for some particles and not for others. Why? Is the concept of weak isospin as an observable quantity not meaningful for, for example, pions?
  7. A

    I Higgs field and energy dependence?

    Hi all, Basic question that has caused me some confusion: is the Higgs interaction (giving some particles rest mass) energy dependent? (e.g., does the coupling vary with the kinetic energy of the particle involved) Thanks.
  8. Serra Nova

    B What does the Higgs particle consist of?

    The Higgs particle that were discovered in 2012 - what is it build of?
  9. M

    I Questions about the Higgs Field

    I've seen the same popular news articles everyone else has about the discovery of the Higgs boson. I have always had some questions about it though that I haven't seen addressed, and I'm still beating my head against introductory QFT, so I'm not to the level where I'd pick up the answers from...
  10. Kara386

    Roughly estimate the probability that 2 photons are from Higgs

    Homework Statement Make a very rough estimate of the probability that two high energy photons with an invariant mass of 126GeV are decay products of the Higgs. Use information found elsewhere (so I need to find this info preferably on the internet). Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution...
  11. Souhardya Nandi

    I Can someone explain the Higgs Boson and its significance in particle physics?

    Can anyone shed a bit of light on what a Higgs Boson is, how it was discovered and what its discovery implies for physics ?
  12. S

    I Why Do We Need Multiple Higgs Bosons?

    Hello! I read many things about the importance of Higgs boson for explaining the electroweak symmetry breaking and how thus W and Z boson gain mass. However I am not sure I understand why physicists are looking for more massive Higgs. Can someone explain to me what would be their importance?
  13. K

    I Can complex spacetime solve the Higgs hierarchy problem?

    thus far the LHC hasn't found any evidence of SUSY or technicolor. thus far it's just 1 fundamental scalar there is an extensive literature on the Higgs hierarchy problem with various proposals and solutions offered has there been any scientific papers and research on the physical properties...
  14. Q

    A Measurements of the Self-Interaction of the Higgs

    Hello Everyone, Hope you are all enjoying learning more and more about this wonderful world of Physics! Is it that I am missing something somewhere, but when I searched the ATLAS site to find out what experiments were planned to measure the self-interaction of the Higgs, I could see...
  15. robindymer

    B How does vibration affect the Higgs field interaction?

    I have been thinking about the Higgs field and how things interacts with it. I thought about why photons for example does not interact with it while quarks does. It could be because of the size and if when a particle is a certain size it will interact with the Higgs bosons and then slow down and...
  16. jedishrfu

    Quantum Machine Learning Finds the Higgs in the Haystack

    ArsTechnica recently published this online article on using quantum computing to identify Higgs interactions in LHC data having simulated many possible higgs interactions to train the model with 36 attributes...
  17. G

    B How many photos of the Higgs were taken before 7.4.12?

    I read once that 37 photos of the decay products of the Top Quark were taken before its existence was announced but I have forgotten where I read it. Does anyone know the number of photos of the Higgs were taken before its existence was announced? Further, why would x number of photos yield a...
  18. ISamson

    B Exploring the Universe's Inflation: What is the Higgs Boson?

    Hello, I have read somewhere that the Higgs Boson particle (or field) is responsible for the inflation of the universe. Does anybody have more information? Thanks.
  19. A

    B Higgs Boson Mass Consequences

    What are the consequences of the experimental value of the Higgs boson mass for theories of multiverse and supersymmetry?
  20. K

    I Do additional Higgs fields also impart mass?

    in theories such as SUSY and MSSM where there are 5 Higgs fields, do the other higgs fields also impart mass? and how exactly is it determined which of the additional higgs fields impart mass on which particles? do the other higgs field impart mass on other higgs bosons? wouldn't there be...
  21. A

    I The Higgs field and boson - what's it's involvement in mass?

    Does the Higgs field give mass to particles unrelated to it? All particles with mass or some particles? Does the Higgs boson as such play a role in giving mass to other particles, or is the boson just a feature (excitation?) of the Higgs field? Can the Higgs boson be reasonably described as a...
  22. ohwilleke

    B The Latest Higgs Boson Mass Measurements

    It is summer conference season for physicists and one of the highlights this time around is the first set of new Large Hadron Collider Run-2 measurements of the Higgs boson mass. The Status Quo At the end of Run-1 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the combined estimate of the Higgs boson...
  23. Sophrosyne

    B Relationship between Higgs particles and gravitons?

    In trying to understand the relationship between Higgs particles and gravitons, I would like to pose a question on hypothetical question: What would happen if you increase the Higgs field around a planet? It seems it would mean its mass increases, which would mean its gravitation increases...
  24. K

    I Higgs field couples to Planck quantum black holes?

    current proton decay experiments disfavor popular GUT like SU(5) Does the hiearchy problem for the higgs field require that the higgs couple to a GUT scale, if it exists, or to a Planck scale? does this require the higgs couples to Planck mass quantum mechanical black holes? since the Higgs...
  25. K

    I Is the top quark stable in the absence of the Higgs field?

    in a universe without the higgs field fermions would be massless in absence of the higgs field, would second and third generation fermions such as muon tau top quarks etc be stable? how to distinguish between a massless electron muon and a tau in a universe without the higgs field, same for...
  26. K

    I Clockwork solution to the Higgs hiearchy

    LHC famously did not find any evidence of SUSY other proposals such as Technicolor extradimensions compositeness have come up empty. it seems natural SUSY is not the solution to the hierarchy problem one solution to the higgs hierarchy the clockwork theory : “A Clockwork Theory”, invented by...
  27. W

    A CP Properties of the SM Higgs boson

    The SM Higgs-boson is a CP-even state, as far as I know this is confirmed in the Higgs decay to di Z bosons, so why there are dozen of papers that propose to measure CP quantum number of the Higgs in tau tau final state?, what is the difference between CP in ZZ and tt of Higgs decay ?
  28. T

    A Can the quantum Zeno effect be applied to the Higgs field

    This sounds weird and i suppose that i got some concepts wrong. For all i know, the higgs field may be metastable and the zeno effect states that the rate of decay for an unstable system can be changed by interaction. Can the zeno effect be applied to the higgs field if it is indeed metastable?
  29. Goatman

    I How do physicists know when they’ve found a Higgs boson?

    I know the Higgs field and the capabilities of the Higgs Boson, but I could never understand how physicists concluded the finding of a Higgs Boson
  30. S

    A Weinberg angle in terms of Higgs mass

    The Weinberg angle ##\Theta_{W}## is commonly expressed as $$\cos\Theta_{W} = M_{W}/M_{Z}.$$ Can the Weinberg angle ##\Theta_{W}## be expressed in terms of the Higgs mass and the mass of the W boson as $$\sin^{2}\Theta_{W}= m_{H}/M_{W}?$$
  31. S

    A HIggs coupling to electroweak gauge bosons

    The coupling of the Higgs boson to the electroweak gauge bosons in the Standard model is given by $$\mathcal{L}_{\text{H-g}} = - \left( \frac{H}{v} + \frac{H^{2}}{2v^{2}} \right) \left(2M_{W}^{2}W_{\mu}^{+}W^{-\mu} + M_{Z}^{2}Z_{\mu}Z^{\mu} \right).$$ However, in Cliff Burgess' textbook 'The...
  32. C

    A Understanding the Mass of the Higgs Triplet in Neutrino Mass Mechanism

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  33. newjerseyrunner

    B Does the Higgs field gravitate?

    Ive heard both that the Higgs field has a constant energy throughout space, but I also know that in GR all energy gravitates. Does the energy of non-ground state fields move around? If so, what effect would slightly more or less energy in the field have?
  34. S

    A ##SU(2)## doublets, Majorana Fermions and Higgs

    Say ##L## and ##L^{c}## are a pair of ##SU(2)## doublets (electroweak-charge fermions) and ##N_{1}## and ##N_{1}^{c}## are a pair of neutral Majorana fermions. Say that these fermions couple to the Higgs via Yukawa coupling and have vector masses ##M_0## and ##M_1## respectively...
  35. K

    I Higgs Boson, Electrons and Spin

    I have two questions... I'm sorry for my bad English. - Is it correct to think of the Higgs Boson as a quantization of the Higgs Field, as the photon is the quanta of Electromagnetic Field? - The property we call spin appears when we analyze electrons interacting with a magnetic field. But...
  36. G

    B Why was the name Higgs given to the boson?

    In 1964 three papers were published, Why was Peter's name chosen for the boson? Who chose it? 1) Belgian physicists Robert Brout and Francois Englert Physical Review of Letters, Volume 13, number 9, August 31, 1964, Pages 321-323...
  37. I

    I Why does the existence of the Higgs Field require a Higgs Particle?

    I believe I understand how the Higgs field imparts "mass" on a particle. Would someone explain how the existence of the Higgs Field means there has to be a Higgs Particle?
  38. B

    I Top quark heavier than the Higgs?

    If the top quark is heavier than the Higgs boson, then why was it discovered first? Does the top quark get all of its mass from the Higgs? Or does some of its mass come from somewhere else, perhaps a heavier Higgs boson, not yet discovered?
  39. K

    I Is mass of top quark based solely on the Higgs field?

    the top quark is the heaviest quark. the current theory is its invariant mass is based solely on its interactions with the higgs field. in absence of the higgs field, fermions, quarks and leptons are massless, and in the presence of the higgs field, they acquire mass. the reason the top quark...
  40. Kara386

    Given its branching fractions how many Higgs can be detected

    Homework Statement In 2011 the ATLAS experiment had a total integrated recorded luminosity of ##5.08fb^{-1}## at 7TeV, and in 2012 of ##21.3fb^{-1}## at 8TeV. Under these conditions Higgs bosons can be produced in several ways including gluon-gluon fusion and vector boson fusion, which have the...
  41. Kara386

    How many Higgs bosons in 8 hours?

    Homework Statement In 2012, the LHC ran with peak luminosity ##7.73\times 10^33## and at c.o.m. energy at 8TeV. The Higgs can be produced by a number of processes including ##\sigma_{ggf} = 19.0 \pm 7.5##pb and ##\sigma_{VBF}=1.6 \pm 0.3##pb. In 2011 a total integrated luminosity of...
  42. K

    I The Higgs Field and Fermion Generations: Stability and Mass

    if there were no higgs field, would the second and third generation of fermions, such as the top quark, be exactly the same mass as first generation? is the coupling between the top quark and the higgs field the sole reason the top quark is heaviest SM particle? is there a reason the top...
  43. SheriffPeabody

    B If Higgs has mass of 125GeV why did the LHC need 3.5TeV?

    Hi, I've tried to find an answer to this question, sorry if it's already been asked. I'm sure I have misunderstood something important here, but if the Higgs was found to have a mass of 125GeV, why did we need such a powerful collider to find it? (I think the LHC was running at 3.5TeV when they...
  44. B

    B Higgs Field Radio: Revolutionizing Global Communication

    The higgs field is everywhere.. how do you use it in a 2 way communication radio so the United States can communicate with the other side of the planet by passing right thru the mantle and core without using any satellite relay station?
  45. J

    B Is the Higgs Field Manipulable?

    So with my admittedly very limited understanding of this level of physics I understand Mass to be caused by the interaction of the higgs boson with this field, and supposedly the experimental data in atom smashers has confirmed the existence of the boson, so accepting that higgs field is a real...
  46. S

    A Running coupling of the Higgs potential

    Why is the coupling constant of the Higgs potential not a constant, but is a running constant? In other words, ##\lambda (h) \sim \lambda_{0} - \frac{y_{t}}{16\pi^{2}}\text{ln}\big(\frac{h^{2}}{m^{2}}\big) + \frac{\lambda_{0}^{2}}{16\pi^{2}}\text{ln}\big(\frac{h^{2}}{m^{2}}+\cdots##, where...
  47. Safinaz

    A Status of cp - even neutral heavy Higgs after ICHEP 2016

    Hi all, It is well known that on ICHEP 2016 CMS and ATLAS have announced that the bump has been found on December 2015 around 750 GeV diphoton invariant mass was no more than a statistical fluctuation. So now what is the statues of the searchs for a cp - even neutral heavy Higgs state ? I...
  48. Q

    A Measurement of the Higgs Self Interaction

    Hello everyone. What measurements have been done of the Higgs self-interaction? If nothing has been done yet, what are the relevant groups and research articles describing the progress of work in this direction? If this has been done, I would love to know the references. Thanks!
  49. M

    A Kahana and Kahana predicted Higgs mass, top mass in 1993

    In 2009, Shaposhnikov and Wetterich successfully predicted the Higgs boson mass, by assuming that quantum gravity is asymptotically safe. Asymptotic safety remains a minority research program, but the paper itself is now well-known among people studying the metastability of the electroweak...
  50. K

    I Has Large Hadron Collider shown Higgs conformal invariance

    the higgs naturalness problems has several solutions 1- natural susy 2- technicolor 3- extra dimensions 4- conformal invariance Large Hadron Collider has to date strongly disfavored susy, technicolor, extra dimensions. it is highly unlikely susy is the answer to the higgs hierarchy problem...
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