3 ms·

It'd be cool if they could be created and combined in specific combinations and quantities to create new particles that wouldn't exist due to natural formation.

It'd be cool if they could be created and combined in specific combinations and quantities to create new particles that wouldn't exist due to natural formation. Sounds like a good sci-fi mechanic, creating new particles without the Higgs Boson to facilitate FTL or at least some sort of anti-gravity.

simiones 4y ago
Note that the Higgs Boson has no part in the mass (and presumably gravitational interaction) of elementary fermions like quarks or electrons, and even less to do with the mass of hadrons (whose mass is the mass of quarks + the mass of the extraordinary amount of energy sticking the quarks together, which dwarfs the mass of the quarks by ~100:1). Even if all elementary particles were massless, protons, nuclei, and atoms would still have most of the mass they have today (though of course many other interactions would be very different indeed).
- jamincan 4y ago
  What is the Higgs Boson responsible for if it's not involved in the mass of fermions or hadrons?
  - simiones 4y ago
    The mass of the massive gauge bosons, the W and Z bosons. Edit: there is an excellent in-depth (but math-light) explanation about the Higgs mechanism by Leonard Susskind. I highly recommend it if you are interested, it lasts about 1h (plus some Q&A) and is extremely approachable, while being presented by an established authority in the field. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqNg819PiZY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqNg819PiZY
    - gmadsen 4y ago
      unless im wrong (im not a physicist) interaction with the higgs field does give a none zero amount of mass to quarks. but the vast majority of mass of a proton ~99% is due to the energy in the gluon field
- gnomewascool 4y ago
  > Note that the Higgs Boson has no part in the mass (and presumably gravitational interaction) of elementary fermions like quarks or electrons This is incorrect — the coupling with the Higgs field is responsible for the rest mass of electrons and isolated quarks. > and even less to do with the mass of hadrons Yes, this is true — the contribution of the separate masses of the constituent quarks to the mass of hadrons is small, like you write.

simiones 4y ago

Note that the Higgs Boson has no part in the mass (and presumably gravitational interaction) of elementary fermions like quarks or electrons, and even less to do with the mass of hadrons (whose mass is the mass of quarks + the mass of the extraordinary amount of energy sticking the quarks together, which dwarfs the mass of the quarks by ~100:1). Even if all elementary particles were massless, protons, nuclei, and atoms would still have most of the mass they have today (though of course many other interactions would be very different indeed).

jamincan 4y ago
What is the Higgs Boson responsible for if it's not involved in the mass of fermions or hadrons?
- simiones 4y ago
  The mass of the massive gauge bosons, the W and Z bosons. Edit: there is an excellent in-depth (but math-light) explanation about the Higgs mechanism by Leonard Susskind. I highly recommend it if you are interested, it lasts about 1h (plus some Q&A) and is extremely approachable, while being presented by an established authority in the field. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqNg819PiZY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqNg819PiZY
  - gmadsen 4y ago
    unless im wrong (im not a physicist) interaction with the higgs field does give a none zero amount of mass to quarks. but the vast majority of mass of a proton ~99% is due to the energy in the gluon field
gnomewascool 4y ago
> Note that the Higgs Boson has no part in the mass (and presumably gravitational interaction) of elementary fermions like quarks or electrons This is incorrect — the coupling with the Higgs field is responsible for the rest mass of electrons and isolated quarks. > and even less to do with the mass of hadrons Yes, this is true — the contribution of the separate masses of the constituent quarks to the mass of hadrons is small, like you write.