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The neutrino was also a particle that nobody could observe at the time when Pauli proposed it. It was just a manifestation of the energy and spin conservation.
by fxj 1y ago
The neutrino was also a particle that nobody could observe at the time when Pauli proposed it. It was just a manifestation of the energy and spin conservation.
The Higgs is the same. It is not needed, but it solves the mass problem of the weak force. It is the only scalar field so far that we have observed and it was not clear whether it would exist at all.
Quintessence and sterile neutrinos are also just pieces that make the equations of the world look prettier, but they are also candidates for dark energy and dark matter.
Pauli wrote in his famous letter:
"I agree that my remedy could seem incredible because one should have seen those neutrons very earlier if they really exist. But only the one who dare can win and the difficult situation, due to the continuous structure of the beta spectrum, is lighted by a remark of my honoured predecessor, Mr Debye, who told me recently in Bruxelles: “Oh, It’s well better not to think to this at all, like new taxes”. From now on, every solution to the issue must be discussed. Thus, dear radioactive people, look and judge."
https://icecube.wisc.edu/neutrino-history/1931/01/1931-pauli-presents-hypothetical-neutron-particle/ https://icecube.wisc.edu/neutrino-history/1931/01/1931-pauli...
- perrygeo 1y ago"Measure first, discover later" can be a perfectly valid application of the scientific method. It's all about refining the resolution on reality. The problem with dark matter/energy is that we're not guaranteed to discover anything. It might just be wrong. The neutrinos and Higgs just happened to match their initial theory, so that's a survivorship bias. We can't just assume the same will play out for dark matter. It might just be pure mathematical fiction, reflecting our ignorance and/or limitations to measurement rather than something "real" that we can zoom in on.
- fxj 1y agoOr it might be at such high energies, that conventional particle accelerators will never observe it. Sterile neutrinos, axions and quintessence particles might have masses in the PeV range. We were lucky with the Higgs, and the W and Z Bosons, and the top quark. Dark matter and dark energy might be a phenomenon in the GUT regime, which we will not observe with particle accelerators. We need more information about the Higgs, because it sticks out like a sore thumb of all the other particles. It is our first glimpse into the underlying fabric of the universe, as the Higgs field is non-zero everywhere and a scalar field. No other (known) particle behaves like that. But a future collider is expensive... just my 2 cents good plot for a scifi movie: aliens measure a different vacuum value of the Higgs field and discover sub-space communications ;-)