Big, big questions!
A)
how do these fields (em, higgs ect.) influence matter?
Some brief comments for perspective:
[explanations and details for boldfaced terms can be found in Wikipedia]
The fields ARE matter: That is field quanta are particles! Particles are the local observables of fields.
Higgs imparts some mass to matter particles, but there is considerably more mass/energy as well. Fields are a model. Nobody has ever detected a field. Fields are extended versions of the particles we detect locally.
I don't know the mathematics of QM enough to understand precisely how fields and particles originate mathematically. But
creation and annihilation operators play a part.
But fields and particles ultimately arise, I think from the vacuum...which is observer dependent.
The
perturbative vacuum is the true ground state of a system. It contains only virtual particles...which are not observable. Typically a
non-perturbative vacuum exhibits observable particles. For example in QCD, the strong force of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the 'vacuum' 'contains quark-antiquark pairs'. A prior post from these forums I like:
We observe “ticks in detectors” not [necessarily] as 'particles', not as 'fields'. Such ticks are caused by some property of the object observed, such as charge, momentum or position. Are these a property of a field or of a particle? The ticks do not answer these question; An answer depends on the physical theory you are using to interpret the ticks.
Carlo Rovelli: “…we observe that if the mathematical definition of a particle appears somewhat problematic, its operational definition is clear: particles are the objects revealed by detectors, tracks in bubble chambers, or discharges of a photomultiplier…”
A particle is in some sense the smallest volume/unit in which the field or action of interest can operate….Most discussions regarding particles are contaminated with classical ideas of particles and how to rescue these ideas on the quantum level. Unfortunately this is hopeless.
More from Rovelli:
. A particle detector measures a local observable field quantity (for instance the energy of the field, or of a field component, in some region). This observable quantity is represented by an operator that in general has discrete spectrum. The particles observed by the detector are the quanta of this local operator.
B)
where did they come from and when?
Everything around us came from the big bang or it's remnants.
I saved this from another discussion...maybe Wikipedia is the source
. In the quantum field theory view, "real particles" are viewed as being detectable excitations of underlying quantum fields. As such, virtual particles are also excitations of the underlying fields, but are detectable only as forces but not particles. They are "temporary" in the sense that they appear in calculations, but are not detected as single particles.
I can provide you a rough sense of the origin of fields/and particles insofar as it it understood via cosmology:...Gravitational fluctuations in accelerated expansion is what gives rise to the primordial perturbations. We observe remnant fluctuations today via cosmic microwave background radiation variations.
Quantum vacuum fluctuations in the inflationary vacuum become quanta [particles] at super horizon inflationary scales. It turns out that geometric circumstances can create real particles such as Hawking radiation at black hole horizons and Unruh radiation caused by acceleration or felt by an accelerated observer. It seems that expansion of geometry itself, especially inflation, can produce particles. A dynamic and changing spacetime leads to event horizons and these quantize field perturbations resulting in particle production.
[What a crazy way to start a universe!]
Many of the above ideas come from this discussion:
Particle creation in an accelerating Universe?
https://www.physicsforums.com/showt...ight=Particle+creation+accelerating+Universe?
