Concerning the Higgs Field

[Planck Tank]

I am VERY new to particle physics, but I am getting hooked. I have taken an eye upon the Higgs Particle and Field. Scientists say that it is the interaction of the Higgs Field containing Higgs Particles that matter gets its mass. Namely, the quarks that make up the protons and neutrons are set into motion because of the molasses effect of them "rubbing" with the field of Higgs Particles, thus giving kinetic energy to the quarks, hence the nucleus's mass, thus giving all matter its mass.

 

Just in the last hour, I was thinking about something pessimistic. Why can't it be simply gravity, and NOT the Higgs Field that is interacting on quarks to give objects its mass? Please prove me wrong in my thinking, for I find the Higgs Particle and Field to be amazing.

[ydoaPs]

gravity is a result of mass, not the cause of it.

[Planck Tank]

How can I be so naive! So that must mean the accumulation of quarks vibrating causes gravity? (It really is the same as saying mass causes gravity) Hmm.

[ydoaPs]

actually, mass isn't even needed. energy causes gravity as well.

[Severian]

So that must mean the accumulation of quarks vibrating causes gravity?

 

This is actually a rather interesting statement because it is almost correct. The mass of fundamental particles has nothing to do with their vibrations that we know of. The mass is just defined by their coupling to the Higgs boson - we just make a conjecture that that is what (fundamental) mass is.

 

But this is just a small amount of the visible mass in the universe. Take a look at the proton. The proton isn't fundamantal - it is made up of three fundamantal particles called quarks. Its mass is about 1000MeV (no need to worry what an MeV is, its just a unit), but the quarks only have a mass of a few MeV. So where does all the other mass come from to provide the mass of the proton.

 

This is dynamical mass and it is a bit similar to what you were suggesting - it comes from the vibrations of the quarks. Remember the relation between mass and energy, so if you have vibrational energy, that can look like mass when you stand a bit away and squint at it.

 

As already pointed out though, the vibrations don't create gravity itself. It is just that the gravity acts on the mass/energy of these vibrations.

 

To answer your initial question, one could in principle create mass via the interactions of other particles. So you can write down an interaction with the graviton which contributes to the mass of a particle (I think, but I would have to check to be sure). But since gravity is such a weak force, this contribution would be tiny and no where large enough to provide an explanation to where mass comes from. (My gut feeling is that it would be E²/M_planck where E is the energy of the particle and M_planck is the Planck scale, but I am not sure about this.)

[Planck Tank]

Thank you very much Severian, that really clarifies some of my future questions as well as my last question posted.

 

BTW, I was looking through Wikipedia, and I may have glanced at MeV being Million Electron Volts or something like that?

[insane_alien]

yeah MeV is mega(million) electronVolts(the amount of energy an electron gets from a pd of 1 volt) this is made into mass by the E=mc^2 equation. its only useful for small masses cos once you get past the small molecules (about 10 atoms) the numbaers become HUGE

[Planck Tank]

Thank you insane_alien, that settles that issue.

 

This may be way off topic, or not, got me, but anyways here it is. If the String Theory is to be true, than is correct to say that the Quark is indeed not a fundamental particle, but a composite one? Saying this, does this now mean that the Higgs Field, thus the Higg Boson enacts upon the String to make it vibrate at varying frequencies, and not the Quark? This would explain why the String Theory sets the strings as rapidly vibrating ones (Due to bombardment of Higgs Bosons), giving kinetic energy (Mass) and distinct properties to that atom.

 

Can anyone put input to this assumption I am making?

[Severian]

First of all, different particle state in string theory aren't just different vibrational modes. That doesn't work because it would only predict zero or Planck Scale masses. So the masses of the low energy particles have to be made in a different way.

 

Secondly, the Higgs boson has very little to do with String Theory.