Does the Higgs boson gain mass through the Higgs field?

[Charles Brown]

The Higgs bosons has no mass before it travels through the Higgs field. So is this the point where energy becomes mass?

 

[rorix_bw]

This - the OP's subject title - has the potential to be the greatest typo ever, even exceeding "space mites" for "space time".

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bosom

edit: Better hope there isn't a lady named Higgs at CERN or she might be giving you a good kicking :-)

 

[Naty1]

rorix: thanks for pointing out that typo...I must be waaay too focused on physics since I never even noticed it!

Charles:
I don't think that's quite the idea...My understanding is that the higgs boson mass arises as a result of symmetry breaking...simultaneously with the field...I believe fermions theoretically acquire mass as you describe.

In the standard model, at temperatures high enough so that electroweak symmetry is unbroken, all elementary particles are massless. At a critical temperature, the symmetry is spontaneously broken, and the W and Z bosons acquire masses...Fermions, such as the leptons and quarks in the Standard Model, can also acquire mass as a result of their interaction with the Higgs field, but not in the same way as the gauge bosons...after symmetry breaking, these three of the four degrees of freedom in the Higgs field mix with the W and Z bosons, while the one remaining degree of freedom becomes the Higgs boson – a new scalar particle
QUOTE]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_mechanism


Note that the above description may neither refute your explanation nor validate my own.

 

[Polyrhythmic]

The Higgs bosons has no mass before it travels through the Higgs field. So is this the point where energy becomes mass?

The Higgs boson is the same thing as the higgs field. Your question makes no sense at all.

 

[Naty1]

Here is a simple one line answer:

The Higgs boson particle is the quantum of the theoretical Higgs field.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

If your question is "Why does the boson exhibit mass" a brief answer is
"In empty space, the Higgs field has an amplitude different from zero; i.e. a non-zero vacuum expectation value. The existence of this non-zero vacuum expectation plays a fundamental role; it gives mass to every elementary particle that couples to the Higgs field, including the Higgs boson itself..." same link