| Standard Model of particle physics |
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| Quantum field theory |
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In the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs mechanism is essential to explain the generation mechanism of the property "mass" for gauge bosons. Without the Higgs mechanism, all bosons (one of the two classes of particles, the other being fermions) would be considered massless, but measurements show that the W+, W−, and Z0 bosons actually have relatively large masses of around 80 GeV/c2. The Higgs field resolves this conundrum. The simplest description of the mechanism adds a quantum field (the Higgs field) which permeates all of space to the Standard Model. Below some extremely high temperature, the field causes spontaneous symmetry breaking during interactions. The breaking of symmetry triggers the Higgs mechanism, causing the bosons with which it interacts to have mass. In the Standard Model, the phrase "Higgs mechanism" refers specifically to the generation of masses for the W±, and Z weak gauge bosons through electroweak symmetry breaking.[1] The Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced results consistent with the Higgs particle on 14 March 2013, making it extremely likely that the field, or one like it, exists, and explaining how the Higgs mechanism takes place in nature.
The view of the Higgs mechanism as involving spontaneous symmetry breaking of a gauge symmetry is technically incorrect since by Elitzur's theorem gauge symmetries can never be spontaneously broken. Rather, the Fröhlich–Morchio–Strocchi mechanism reformulates the Higgs mechanism in an entirely gauge invariant way, generally leading to the same results.[2]
The mechanism was proposed in 1962 by Philip Warren Anderson,[3] following work in the late 1950s on symmetry breaking in superconductivity and a 1960 paper by Yoichiro Nambu that discussed its application within particle physics.
A theory able to finally explain mass generation without "breaking" gauge theory was published almost simultaneously by three independent groups in 1964: by Robert Brout and François Englert;[4] by Peter Higgs;[5] and by Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, and Tom Kibble.[6][7][8] The Higgs mechanism is therefore also called the Brout–Englert–Higgs mechanism, or Englert–Brout–Higgs–Guralnik–Hagen–Kibble mechanism,[9] Anderson–Higgs mechanism,[10] Anderson–Higgs–Kibble mechanism,[11] Higgs–Kibble mechanism by Abdus Salam[12] and ABEGHHK'tH mechanism (for Anderson, Brout, Englert, Guralnik, Hagen, Higgs, Kibble, and 't Hooft) by Peter Higgs.[12] The Higgs mechanism in electrodynamics was also discovered independently by Eberly and Reiss in reverse as the "gauge" Dirac field mass gain due to the artificially displaced electromagnetic field as a Higgs field.[13]
On 8 October 2013, following the discovery at CERN's Large Hadron Collider of a new particle that appeared to be the long-sought Higgs boson predicted by the theory, it was announced that Peter Higgs and François Englert had been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.[a][14]
- ^ Bernardi, G.; Carena, M.; Junk, T. (2007). "Higgs bosons: Theory and searches" (PDF). Review: Hypothetical particles and Concepts. Particle Data Group.
- ^ Fröhlich, J.; Morchio, G.; Strocchi, F. (1981). "Higgs phenomenon without symmetry breaking order parameter". Nuclear Physics B. 190 (3): 553–582. Bibcode:1981NuPhB.190..553F. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(81)90448-X.
- ^ Anderson, P. W. (1962). "Plasmons, gauge invariance, and mass". Physical Review. 130 (1): 439–42. Bibcode:1963PhRv..130..439A. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.130.439.
- ^ Englert, F.; Brout, R. (1964). "Broken symmetry and the mass of gauge vector mesons". Physical Review Letters. 13 (9): 321–23. Bibcode:1964PhRvL..13..321E. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.321.
- ^ Higgs, Peter W. (1964). "Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons". Physical Review Letters. 13 (16): 508–09. Bibcode:1964PhRvL..13..508H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.508.
- ^ Guralnik, G. S.; Hagen, C. R.; Kibble, T. W. B. (1964). "Global conservation laws and massless particles". Physical Review Letters. 13 (20): 585–87. Bibcode:1964PhRvL..13..585G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.585.
- ^ Guralnik, Gerald S. (2009). "The History of the Guralnik, Hagen, and Kibble development of the theory of spontaneous symmetry breaking and gauge particles". International Journal of Modern Physics. A24 (14): 2601–2627. arXiv:0907.3466. Bibcode:2009IJMPA..24.2601G. doi:10.1142/S0217751X09045431. S2CID 16298371.
- ^ Kibble, Tom W. B. (2009-01-09). "History of Englert–Brout–Higgs–Guralnik–Hagen–Kibble mechanism". Scholarpedia. 4 (1): 8741. Bibcode:2009SchpJ...4.8741K. doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.8741.
- ^ Kibble, Tom (2009). "Englert–Brout–Higgs–Guralnik–Hagen–Kibble mechanism". Scholarpedia. 4 (1): 6441. Bibcode:2009SchpJ...4.6441K. doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.6441.
- ^ Liu, G. Z.; Cheng, G. (2002). "Extension of the Anderson–Higgs mechanism". Physical Review B. 65 (13): 132513. arXiv:cond-mat/0106070. Bibcode:2002PhRvB..65m2513L. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.242.3601. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.65.132513. S2CID 118551025.
- ^ Matsumoto, H.; Papastamatiou, N. J.; Umezawa, H.; Vitiello, G. (1975). "Dynamical rearrangement in the Anderson–Higgs–Kibble mechanism". Nuclear Physics B. 97 (1): 61–89. Bibcode:1975NuPhB..97...61M. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(75)90215-1.
- ^ a b Close, Frank (2011). The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum field theory and the hunt for an orderly universe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-959350-7.
- ^ Eberly, Joseph H.; Reiss, Howard R. (1966). "Electron Self-Energy in Intense Plane-Wave Field". Physical Review. 145 (4): 1035–40. Bibcode:1966PhRv..145.1035E. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.145.1035.
- ^ "2013 Nobel laureates" (PDF) (Press release). Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
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