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Post by abacus9900 on Sept 5, 2010 20:29:09 GMT 1
I am no expert but I understand that the 'Higgs field' is theorized to be responsible for endowing elementary particles with mass by interacting with them. If this does turn out to be the case, is this not equivalent to the Higgs field representing an 'aether' that elementary particles are bound to travel through that, in effect, acts a kind of 'brake' on their velocity?
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Post by kiteman on Sept 5, 2010 21:00:20 GMT 1
I don't think so - aether was supposed to be the medium that carried the waves of light, like air carried the waves of sound. It should have different degrees of influence depending on the direction of motion, which the Higgs field shouldn't.
I think...
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Post by abacus9900 on Sept 5, 2010 21:05:40 GMT 1
I don't think so - aether was supposed to be the medium that carried the waves of light, like air carried the waves of sound. It should have different degrees of influence depending on the direction of motion, which the Higgs field shouldn't. I think... Ok, but isn't the Higgs field supposed to 'carry' elementary particles, or is that too much of a stretch? |
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Post by kiteman on Sept 5, 2010 21:11:59 GMT 1
Elementary particles carry other things - forces, energy.
The Higgs is supposed to "carry" mass, and hence the signal we call "gravity".
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Post by bluebiro on Sept 5, 2010 21:12:15 GMT 1
I think the Higgs Boson is supposed to be the most fundamental particle.
This discussion is getting me thinking about doing an Open University course on particle physics, but I promised myself a year off...
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Post by abacus9900 on Sept 6, 2010 9:49:20 GMT 1
Presumably, if the mass of the electron was different then things in the macro-world would be a different size (electron mass equates to atom size) so the Higgs field (if it exists) determines how big things are.
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