5 ms·

I still don't get it. I still don't get how they jumped from "We have this Higgs field" to "and hey, the field is a particle."

by runn1ng 14y ago

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
retube 14y ago
wave-particle duality. All fields have an associated particle: e.g em field - the photon.
- runn1ng 14y ago
  o....k. So, there is one Higgs field in the world which belongs to one Higgs Bosson, and there are no more Higgs bossons in the world? Or does it mean that there are more Higgs fields in the world (and, thus, every particle can have a different mass depending on in which field it is) and there are therefore more Higgs bossons?
  - nilaykumar 14y ago
    There is a single Higgs field. But the Higgs field can be excited in many different places! Same for anything else, like an electron - that's why we say that two electrons are indistinguishable from each other. Fundamentally, they're made of the same "stuff": the electron field that permeates the universe. Particles get mass by "coupling" to the Higgs field. I.e. the excitations of the electron fields - electrons - interact with the excitations of the Higgs field - Higgs bosons. This, through a complicated process described by quantum field theory (that I don't admit to fully understand), gives the particle what we call mass. Different particles couple to the Higgs with different strengths, yielding various particle masses. The Higgs even couples to itself (rather incestuously), which is why it has mass!
JumpCrisscross 14y ago
This explains it well http://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_Boson http://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_Boson
nilaykumar 14y ago
Quantum theory is based on the concept of wave-particle duality. Think of the ocean. The water as a whole is pretty wave-y and non-localized (i.e. it's not in one place). But the crests of the waves (the "excitations") can be thought of as particles because they're localized fairly well. So really all a Higgs boson is, is an excitation of the Higgs field.
scott_s 14y ago
One page explanations written by physicists: http://www.fsc.ufsc.br/~marilena/higgs.htm http://www.fsc.ufsc.br/~marilena/higgs.htm edit: As the links are down, here they are from the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20080209000844/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs1.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20080209000844/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100137/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs2.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100137/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100208/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs3.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100208/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20100202022203/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs4.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20100202022203/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20100323013823/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs5.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20100323013823/http://www.phy.uct...
- runn1ng 14y ago
  The links don't lead anywhere. edit: Web archive to the rescue. Thank you.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
jcarreiro 14y ago
This is called Quantum Field Theory. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_field_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_field_theory.
kmm 14y ago
Don't worry, don't worry. This one of the most complicated theories in physics (apart from string theory) to grasp intuitively. I'm a physicist and I could try to help you. Think of an excitation of the field. One of the "axioms" of quantum field theory is that the energy of an excitation is related to the inverse square of the wavelength. Don't ask me why, it's just like that. Think of UV radiation or X-rays, which are just light with a higher frequency and you know those radiation is more damaging to the human body than for example radio waves. Now, are you familiar with Fourier decomposition?[1] It's the idea that all functions are the sum of a waves (sines and cosines). We do the same thing in quantum field theory, we have our quantum field and we write it as the sum of our elementary wavefunctions, which are called plane waves[2]. When you look at a wave packet[3], you can't really say what its wavelength is. Wavelength is not a local concept, as for example the height of the wave, but the wave differs from place to place, so it's impossible to give it just one wavelength! We don't have that problem with plane waves. Because they're the same all over the universe, they have a clear wavelength and thus a well-defined, unique energy. This concept, an excitation of a field with a well-defined energy (and thus a well-defined mass!) is what particle physicists call "a particle". When a collision happens in a collider, we're actually preparing two plane waves and pointing them in the same direction. As they collide, the wavefunctions of the various fields become incredibly complex. We humans can only "see" excitations with a well-defined mass, or better yet, our detectors can only detect excitations with a well-defined mass. And thus instead of a complicated field, we see a mess of particles going in different directions and having different masses, energies and speeds. Does that make it any clearer? [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_wave http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_wave [3]: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Wave_packet_%28dispersion%29.gif http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Wave_pack...
- Diederich 14y ago
  Yes, somewhat. Thank you very much. I've enjoyed pondering this stuff since the 70s when I was a child. How much I've 'gotten' it has varied over the years, but it's never been very deep. Your description, I think, deepened my understanding a good bit.
- 14y ago

I still don't get it. I still don't get how they jumped from "We have this Higgs field" to "and hey, the field is a particle."

by runn1ng 14y ago

I still don't get it. I still don't get how they jumped from "We have this Higgs field" to "and hey, the field is a particle."

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

retube 14y ago

wave-particle duality. All fields have an associated particle: e.g em field - the photon.

runn1ng 14y ago
o....k. So, there is one Higgs field in the world which belongs to one Higgs Bosson, and there are no more Higgs bossons in the world? Or does it mean that there are more Higgs fields in the world (and, thus, every particle can have a different mass depending on in which field it is) and there are therefore more Higgs bossons?
- nilaykumar 14y ago
  There is a single Higgs field. But the Higgs field can be excited in many different places! Same for anything else, like an electron - that's why we say that two electrons are indistinguishable from each other. Fundamentally, they're made of the same "stuff": the electron field that permeates the universe. Particles get mass by "coupling" to the Higgs field. I.e. the excitations of the electron fields - electrons - interact with the excitations of the Higgs field - Higgs bosons. This, through a complicated process described by quantum field theory (that I don't admit to fully understand), gives the particle what we call mass. Different particles couple to the Higgs with different strengths, yielding various particle masses. The Higgs even couples to itself (rather incestuously), which is why it has mass!

JumpCrisscross 14y ago

This explains it well http://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_Boson http://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_Boson

nilaykumar 14y ago

Quantum theory is based on the concept of wave-particle duality. Think of the ocean. The water as a whole is pretty wave-y and non-localized (i.e. it's not in one place). But the crests of the waves (the "excitations") can be thought of as particles because they're localized fairly well. So really all a Higgs boson is, is an excitation of the Higgs field.

scott_s 14y ago

One page explanations written by physicists: http://www.fsc.ufsc.br/~marilena/higgs.htm http://www.fsc.ufsc.br/~marilena/higgs.htm edit: As the links are down, here they are from the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20080209000844/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs1.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20080209000844/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100137/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs2.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100137/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100208/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs3.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20110724100208/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20100202022203/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs4.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20100202022203/http://www.phy.uct... http://web.archive.org/web/20100323013823/http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs5.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20100323013823/http://www.phy.uct...

runn1ng 14y ago
The links don't lead anywhere. edit: Web archive to the rescue. Thank you.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

jcarreiro 14y ago

This is called Quantum Field Theory. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_field_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_field_theory.

kmm 14y ago

Don't worry, don't worry. This one of the most complicated theories in physics (apart from string theory) to grasp intuitively. I'm a physicist and I could try to help you. Think of an excitation of the field. One of the "axioms" of quantum field theory is that the energy of an excitation is related to the inverse square of the wavelength. Don't ask me why, it's just like that. Think of UV radiation or X-rays, which are just light with a higher frequency and you know those radiation is more damaging to the human body than for example radio waves. Now, are you familiar with Fourier decomposition?[1] It's the idea that all functions are the sum of a waves (sines and cosines). We do the same thing in quantum field theory, we have our quantum field and we write it as the sum of our elementary wavefunctions, which are called plane waves[2]. When you look at a wave packet[3], you can't really say what its wavelength is. Wavelength is not a local concept, as for example the height of the wave, but the wave differs from place to place, so it's impossible to give it just one wavelength! We don't have that problem with plane waves. Because they're the same all over the universe, they have a clear wavelength and thus a well-defined, unique energy. This concept, an excitation of a field with a well-defined energy (and thus a well-defined mass!) is what particle physicists call "a particle". When a collision happens in a collider, we're actually preparing two plane waves and pointing them in the same direction. As they collide, the wavefunctions of the various fields become incredibly complex. We humans can only "see" excitations with a well-defined mass, or better yet, our detectors can only detect excitations with a well-defined mass. And thus instead of a complicated field, we see a mess of particles going in different directions and having different masses, energies and speeds. Does that make it any clearer? [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_wave http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_wave [3]: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Wave_packet_%28dispersion%29.gif http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Wave_pack...

Diederich 14y ago
Yes, somewhat. Thank you very much. I've enjoyed pondering this stuff since the 70s when I was a child. How much I've 'gotten' it has varied over the years, but it's never been very deep. Your description, I think, deepened my understanding a good bit.
14y ago