Gluon/Higgs

[Moontanman]

I would like to ask if Gluons are affected by the Higgs field in the same way as atoms. I've watched PBS video about the possibility that the Higgs field doesn't engage all particles equally but the specifics weren't clear. 

[Mordred]

No the Higgs field does not interact with gluons nor does it interact with photons. Both being massless particles.

[Moontanman]

2 minutes ago, Mordred said:

No the Higgs field does not interact with gluons nor does it interact with photons. Both being massless particles.

whoa

Thank you, that was unexpected, evidently I did understand the video, I was so sure the video had to be wrong. 

[Mordred]

Your welcome 

[joigus]

There are gauge bosons (particles mediating the interactions) that acquire mass via the Higgs mechanism though. The W and Z bosons of the weak interaction are the famous example, because they were the first particles for which the Higgs-Kibble-Anderson-etc mechanism was proposed.

Back in the '60s it was known they shouldn't be fundamentally massive on account of a very important symmetry --called the gauge symmetry-- being broken if they were. They must be acquiring mass from something that's dragging them. Another field. Thereby the Higgs. People knew they must be massive in practice, as the weak interaction is short-ranged.

So it's kind of peculiar that some of these mediating particles (gluons and photons) don't acquire mass via the Higgs mechanism, while others (Ws and Zs) do.

At least I find it so.

I think that's a very good question, btw.