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Does the Higgs field explain inertia?

Physics Asked by John Eastmond on November 16, 2020

As far as I understand it the Higgs field leads to the creation of rest mass for certain elementary particles but does it explain the phenomenon of resistance to acceleration associated with rest mass?

One Answer

the most clarifying information about that that I am aware of is in a physics blog post (2007) by a physicist called Jim Pivarski, titlled The origin of mass?.

The theory of electroweak interaction offers a way of unifying the descriptions of electomagnetism and the weak nuclear interaction. This requires a mechanism to account for the fact that while the electromagnetic interaction is a long range interaction the weak nuclear interaction is inherently short range. This can be accounted for if the particle corresponding to the weak field is not massless, but instead has a significant inertial mass. Moreover, given the range of the weak nuclear interaction it could be predicted what that mass would have to be.

Pivarski writes that the Higgs mechanism is as far as known the only way to make the weak nuclear interaction short range.

In addition Pivarski points out the following: the quarks that together constitute a proton/neutron have a very high kinetic energy. The inertial mass of the proton/neutron is mainly the inertia corresponding to the confined kinetic energy of the quarks. This contribution to the inertial mass of the proton/neutron falls outside the scope of the Higgs mechanism.

In general the phenomenon that kinetic energy that is confined has a corresponding inertial mass is not accounted for by the Higgs mechanism.

Answered by Cleonis on November 16, 2020

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