How the Higgs Field Works (with math) This set of articles explains how the Higgs field gives mass to other particles, and some details about the Higgs particle. These articles require the kind of math that you’d come across in advanced pre-university or beginning university settings: algebra, cosines and sines, a little calculus (though most of that can be skirted) and a little familiarity with simple physics concepts: energy, oscillations, waves. Some of this stuff is reviewed in the Particles and Fields articles in any case. 1. The Basic Idea (of how the Higgs field gives mass to other particles.) 2. 3. 4. Before reading these articles you should first read through my set of articles on Particles and Fields, which are at the same level, and are intended to lead directly to this set.
Like this: Like Loading... Fields and Their Particles: With Math. The Higgs FAQ 2.0. Matt Strassler [October 12, 2012] Here is the new (and very long overdue) version of the Higgs FAQ, intended for those with little or no scientific background. The old version (from long before the Higgs-like particle was discovered in July 2012) is HERE. If you have no math or physics in your background, you may also find it useful, after you read this FAQ, to read my literary article on Why the Higgs Particle Matters. Or you could read it first, if you like. If you have a little math in your background (algebra, trig, and calculus through derivatives) and a little physics (you know what energy is, what a ball on a spring does, and have thought at least once about what waves are) then, after reading this FAQ, you may want to follow up by reading my Particles and Fields articles, followed by my explanation of the Higgs field and how it works.
Ok — without further ado, here we go. What is the Higgs particle? Do you know what a particle is? Not really. Do you know what a field is? You got it. Unveiling the Higgs mechanism to students - Jonathan Gardner's Physics Notebook. Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is named after Peter Higgs, one of six physicists who, in 1964, proposed the mechanism that suggested the existence of such a particle.
Although Higgs's name has come to be associated with this theory, several researchers between about 1960 and 1972 each independently developed different parts of it. In mainstream media the Higgs boson has often been called the "God particle", from a 1993 book on the topic; the nickname is strongly disliked by many physicists, including Higgs, who regard it as inappropriate sensationalism.[17][18] In 2013 two of the original researchers, Peter Higgs and François Englert, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work and prediction[19] (Englert's co-researcher Robert Brout had died in 2011). A non-technical summary[edit] "Higgs" terminology[edit] Overview[edit] If this field did exist, this would be a monumental discovery for science and human knowledge, and is expected to open doorways to new knowledge in many fields.
History[edit] How does the Higgs field give particles mass. The Higgs Field is sometimes called the Higgs Ocean because that connotes its pervasiveness, the entire universe is immersed in it, and the sluggishness like trying to move deep under water. But instead of water molecules in a ocean, we have the Higgs Bosons in the Field. Bosons are messenger particles. They all carry some sort of message to other sub atomic particles (SAPs). For example, photons are the messenger particles (bosons) that carry the electro-magnetic force message from charge to charge. The message carried by the Higgs Bosons is simply "you are mass. " So as all SAPs in the universe are immersed in the Higgs Ocean, all particles receive the "you are mass" message from the Higgs Bosons they are continually encountering.
But all the other SAPs, including the Higgs Boson itself, do hear the message. Coupling is the process of one SAP interacting with another SAP. Understanding the Higgs mechanism. Understanding the Higgs mechanism You reported in August (p3) that Peter Higgs objects to analogies to his eponymous mechanism that involve things being dragged through treacle or honey, because they imply that the mechanism is based on dissipative processes, involving a viscosity-like effect. Interestingly, other fields of physics do, in fact, demonstrate that effective mass can be acquired through non-dissipative, “reactive” processes. A simple example is provided by high-frequency electromagnetic waves in an unmagnetized plasma. The free electrons oscillate in response to the wave electric field, establishing a conduction current; the resulting dispersion relation is identical to the relativistic massenergy relation, the equivalent particle mass being proportional to the electron charge-to-mass ratio and the square root of the electron mass density.
Lecture37 - Phy107Lect37.pdf. Higgs field « NOVA's Physics Blog: The Nature of Reality. Nothing is not as simple as it seems. The concept of nothing has fascinated philosophers and scientists throughout history. The search for an ever-deeper understanding of nothing has driven scientific discovery since the age of ancient Greece, and today the pursuit of nothing defines the frontier of modern particle physics. But before we talk about nothing, let’s talk about something: air. For millennia, philosophers thought that “empty” air was nothing.
Aristotle and the ancient Greeks, though, recognized air as a “thing” in its own right. Wind, after all, is nothing but air, yet it can be felt powerfully. Indeed, the Greeks considered air to be one of the basic elements, along with earth, water, and fire. About two millennia would pass before Galileo and others realized that the implosion is due to the external pressure of the air, and not a cosmic law against nothingness. When physicists drew up their simple picture of the atom, they had forgotten something: Nothing.