What is the Higgs field or the higgs particle?

Question

could u please describe to me wat the higgs field or higgs particle is Why is it so important. I have heard that it helps us understand why things have mass.

Answer 1

Your understanding is about the same as my own.  What I have heard is that the "Higgs Boson" or 'God particle' is a particle whose existence is predicted by theory but has never been seen.  I have heard that the Higgs particle confers the property of mass; though I don't understand how.  Experiments planned for this summer (2008) in a supercollider will seek to image the elusive Higgs Boson.

The Large Hadron Collider is a 16 mile ring that runs underground and spans the border of Switzerland and France.  The collider will accelerate proton streams in different directions at near the speed of light.  The streams will be accelerated by superconducting magnets that 'speed up' the particles.  Ultimately, the particle tracks will be realigned and aimed at each other to create head-on collisions.  These collisions are meant to reproduce conditions seen in the early universe after the big bang.  It is in this process, that the Higgs Boson may be 'captured'.

Some have expressed concerns that the experiment might create mini-black holes or strange and 'more stable' forms of matter that could bring about the devastation of the planet.  Though most consider this unlikely.

Discovery of the Higgs Boson would confirm the current physical theories, or learning otherwise might force us to learn something altogether new.

Science is important - it may be the way to rescue our world and our economies from natural and financial disaster.  Don't support anti-science politicians like George W. Bush - he is the worst President in modern American history.

Answer 2

The LHC is intended to look for the Higg's boson and physics beyond the standard model of particle physics such as super symmetry and dark matter/energy candidates. The standard model does not predict that the LHC will produce mini-Black Holes; however, if physics beyond the standard model is found to hold, then mini-Black Holes might be possible. These mini-Black holes might be produced at a rate in the order of one per second. According to the some calculations, these ‘holes’ are harmless because they will quickly decay via ‘Hawking radiation’ and explode into a shower of particles. The problem with ‘Hawking radiation’ is that it too is unproven physics and, thus, might not be a correct explanation for the disappearance of mini-Black Holes. An unlikely, accumulation of mini-Black Holes could be a ‘small’ problem.

Below I will detail some of the physics that the LHC is attempting to explore.

The weak interaction is mediated by spin-1 bosons which act as force carriers between quarks and/or leptons. There are three of these intermediate vector bosons, which were all discovered at CERN in 1983. They are the charged bosons W+ and W- and the neutral Z0. Their masses are measured to be: -

M(W) = 80.3 Gev/c² and M(Z) = 91.2 Gev/c²

which gives their ranges as: -

R(W) ≈ R(Z) ≈ 2 x 10^-3 fm

Their decay modes are as follows: -

W+ -> l+ + vl

W- -> l- + vl'

Z0 -> l+ + l-

Where the l's stand for leptons and the v's for neutrinos with the prime ' indicating an anti-neutrino.

This introduction sets the scene for what follows!

The intermediate vector bosons gain their mass from the Higgs boson. Please allow me to explain.

During the nineteen-sixties the theoretical physicists Glashow, Salam and Weinberg developed a theory which unified the electromagnetic and the weak nuclear forces. This theory is known as the ‘electroweak’ theory, it predicted the neutral vector boson Z0, and weak nuclear force reactions arising from its exchange, in what are known as neutral current reactions. The theory also accounted for the heavy charged bosons W+ and W-, required for the mediation of all observed weak interactions, known as charged current reactions. These particles were discovered in 1983.This unified theory is a ‘gauge invariance’ theory, which means that if the components of its underlying equations are transformed, in position or potential, they still predict exactly the same physics. Because the force carrying particles (Z0, W+ and W-), of this theory, are massive spin-1 bosons a spin-0 boson is required to complete the theory. This spin-0 boson is the as yet unobserved ‘Higgs’ boson.

The masses of the force carrying bosons (Z0, W+ and W-), for the electroweak theory, are derived from their interaction with the scalar Higgs field. Unlike other physical fields, the Higgs field has a non-zero value in the vacuum state, labelled φ0, and furthermore this value is not invariant under gauge transformation. Hence, this gauge invariance is referred to as a ‘hidden’ or ‘spontaneously broken’ symmetry. The Higgs field has three main consequences’. The first, is that the electroweak force carrying bosons (Z0, W+ and W-) can acquire mass in the ratio: -

M(W) =cosθ(W)

_____

M(Z)

Where θ(W) Is the electroweak mixing angle. These masses arise from the interactions of the gauge fields with the non-zero vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field. Secondly, there are electrically neutral quanta H0, called Higgs bosons, associated with the Higgs field, just as photons are associated with the electromagnetic field. Thirdly, the Higgs field throws light on the origin of the quark and lepton masses. In the absence of the Higgs field the requirements of gauge invariance on the masses of spin-½ fermions (quarks and leptons etc,) would set them at zero for parity violating interactions (non-mirror image interactions). Parity is a conserved quantity in strong nuclear force and electromagnetic interactions but is violated in weak nuclear force interactions, which would make quark and lepton masses zero in this later case. However, interactions with the Higgs field can generate fermion masses due to the non-zero expectation value φ0 of this field, as well as with interactions with the Higgs bosons. These interactions have a dimensionless coupling constant g(Hff) related to the fermions mass m(f) by the expression: -

g(Hff) = √ (√2G(f)m(f) ²)

Where G(f) is the Fermi coupling constant and f is any quark or lepton flavour. However, this theory, that the fermion masses are mediated by their interaction with the Higgs field, does not predict their mass m(f). However, with the future discovery of the Higgs boson the above equation can be used to confirm the observed coupling constant g(Hff).

At CERN, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will search for the Higgs boson at an energy of up to 1 TeV by colliding protons in the reaction: -

p + p -> H0 + X

Where X is any state allowed by the usual conservation laws.

  

Answer 3

it doesnt help us understand why things have mass. it IS why things have mass. a particle will have mass if it interacts with the higgs field/higgs particle.

other than that, theres really nothin to tell. we dont know the nature of the higgs boson or the higgs field, we dont even know if it actually exists. we dont even know if its a single particle, like a photon, or a field, like gravity.

Answer 4

This elusive, theoretical boson, if it exists, interacts as a messenger particle with other particles to give them the characteristics of mass...namely inertia and resultant momentum.  If the boson does not interact, then the particles are massless...like photons.

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN Switzerland will be coming on line any day now.  When it does, one of the first experiments on its docket is to look for the Higgs Boson.  If it is found, it will explain why some particles act like mass and others do not.