Neutrino as alternative to Higgs boson

[Jack Bauer]

The Higgs boson was proposed to provide a mechanism for mass and is posited, as a field, to extend throughout the Universe. But this was before we started thinking the neutrino, which is also (almost) omnipresent, must have a mass. Could the neutrino substitute for the Higgs in this role?

 

[jtbell]

In the current Standard Model, neutrinos get their mass from the Higgs, just like all the other fundamental particles do. The coupling constant has to be different for each particle in order to get different masses. So far, those coupling constants have no well-accepted "explanation." We simply choose their values to give us the observed masses.

Before we inferred non-zero neutrino mass from the discovery of neutrino oscillations, we set the neutrino-Higgs coupling constants to zero, to agree with experiment up to that point. Now we set them to non-zero values. There's no fundamental difference in the theory.

 

[ZapperZ]

Besides, the Higgs, as you can gather from its name, is a BOSON. A neutrino, it a FERMION. There's already a tremendous difference in physics between the two already. A simple substitution of each other's role is simply out of the question.

Zz.