In nuclear chemistry elements beyond Plutonium do not occur in nature and are synthesized artificially. Is it a similar case for Higgs boson too?
If so, how does it give mass to particles if it doesn’t exist? Did scientists create Higgs at LHC in 2011 just to make sure our universe exists through some kind of circular causation?
I’m obviously not understanding this properly. Please dispel my misunderstandings with reasonable explanations!
Particles are just a way of looking at excited quantum fields. The Higgs field is always everywhere, giving things mass.
Honestly, depending on interpretation of quantum mechanics, you don’t need to acknowledge particles exist at all. It could all be fields becoming ever more entangled and wrinkled.
Its better to not think of it as something we created in a lab. Higgs plays a part in making nature do what it does.
If you want to learn more about the Higgs Mechanism, check out this video from PBS Space Time. You might also find some good info in the comments as well.
The way I understand it is that it’s a field just as photons are an excitation of the electromagnetic field.
Except that the Higgs interacts with some particles giving them “mass” where they otherwise wouldn’t.
So it “exists” in the sense that there is an all pervasive field that is interacting with other fields/particles.
PBS space time is a great channel for things like this
And here’s an easier intro to the topic
Definitely. There’s always whole swathes of nuance and you have to do that. Even so I still find some of it hard to follow.
Similar to viascience. Great introductory material that gets harder and harder the deeper you go.
Which, to me, just speaks of the incredible depth of knowledge we have and astounds me that we figured out as much as we have as it gets less and less intuitive.
Holy crap, how did I not know about Chris? I binge watch all the big physicist YouTubers.
Thank you for mentioning him. My grey matter just got turned to mush by his 5-dimensional universe theory. I can’t wait to see how this affects MOND.
The Higgs boson isn’t an atom like plutonium, it’s “further down”. I think of it in levels:
- atoms, which are made up of
- electrons “orbiting” the nucleus, the nucleus being made up of protons and neutrons. In turn, protons and neutrons are made up of
- quarks
Quarks are a kind of elementary particle called fermions, which are at the same level as bosons (and electrons). Down here it’s all weird and quantum but in an oversimplified nutshell, it’s not so much that they physically exist as that in the maths* we can treat them as existing which makes it easier to think about.
* of the physics models we use
I’m a computer scientist, not a real scientist, so I stand ready to be corrected by those more knowledgable.
edit: @SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world is more knowledgable and helped me fix this up a bit.
The fermions are particles with mass, an electron is already a fundamental fermion and not made up of quarks like protons and neutrons. The fundamental bosons (as far as I know) are particles that “handle” the interactions between other particles for instance gluons enable the strong force, while W and Z Bosons enable the weak force.
I believe the fundamental Higgs boson does occur in nature but likely immediately decays. (if I’m wrong I’d love to know how it actually enables certain interactions in nature)
Also I’m not studying quantum physics so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone needs to correct me. :)
Edit: clarified when fundamental fermions/bosons were meant.
Small clarification - the fundamental bosons are the ones that handle particle interactions, whilst fundamental fermions make up matter.
It is however possible to have atoms that are fermions or bosons depending on the total number (even or odd) particles that make them up.
