In nuclear chemistry elements beyond Plutonium do not occur in nature and are synthesized artificially. Is it a similar case for Higgs boson too?
If so, how does it give mass to particles if it doesn’t exist? Did scientists create Higgs at LHC in 2011 just to make sure our universe exists through some kind of circular causation?
I’m obviously not understanding this properly. Please dispel my misunderstandings with reasonable explanations!
The way I understand it is that it’s a field just as photons are an excitation of the electromagnetic field.
Except that the Higgs interacts with some particles giving them “mass” where they otherwise wouldn’t.
So it “exists” in the sense that there is an all pervasive field that is interacting with other fields/particles.
PBS space time is a great channel for things like this
And here’s an easier intro to the topic
PBS space time, as user friendly as it is, constantly misrepresents the nature of reality for the convenience of explanation, just as a grain of salt. Not saying it’s a bad channel, just saying it’s supposed to be entry level.
Definitely. There’s always whole swathes of nuance and you have to do that. Even so I still find some of it hard to follow.
Similar to viascience. Great introductory material that gets harder and harder the deeper you go.
Which, to me, just speaks of the incredible depth of knowledge we have and astounds me that we figured out as much as we have as it gets less and less intuitive.
The Higgs boson isn’t an atom like plutonium, it’s “further down”. I think of it in levels:
- atoms, which are made up of
- electrons “orbiting” the nucleus, the nucleus being made up of protons and neutrons. In turn, protons and neutrons are made up of
- quarks
Quarks are a kind of elementary particle called fermions, which are at the same level as bosons (and electrons). Down here it’s all weird and quantum but in an oversimplified nutshell, it’s not so much that they physically exist as that in the maths* we can treat them as existing which makes it easier to think about.
* of the physics models we use
I’m a computer scientist, not a real scientist, so I stand ready to be corrected by those more knowledgable.
edit: @SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world is more knowledgable and helped me fix this up a bit.
The fermions are particles with mass, an electron is already a fundamental fermion and not made up of quarks like protons and neutrons. The fundamental bosons (as far as I know) are particles that “handle” the interactions between other particles for instance gluons enable the strong force, while W and Z Bosons enable the weak force.
I believe the fundamental Higgs boson does occur in nature but likely immediately decays. (if I’m wrong I’d love to know how it actually enables certain interactions in nature)
Also I’m not studying quantum physics so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone needs to correct me. :)
Edit: clarified when fundamental fermions/bosons were meant.
Small clarification - the fundamental bosons are the ones that handle particle interactions, whilst fundamental fermions make up matter.
It is however possible to have atoms that are fermions or bosons depending on the total number (even or odd) particles that make them up.
Yup, should’ve clarified that I meant fundamental bosons, as any particle with integer spin is considered bosonic, while particles with half integer spin are fermionic, fundamental bosons alone still can’t make up matter though and protons/neutrons are fermionic.
That’s true… kinda makes a mess of my simple model 😅
I’ll edit in your correction, thanks.
Particles are just a way of looking at excited quantum fields. The Higgs field is always everywhere, giving things mass.
Honestly, depending on interpretation of quantum mechanics, you don’t need to acknowledge particles exist at all. It could all be fields becoming ever more entangled and wrinkled.
Photons are also bosons, right? Why do we need all the huge energy particle smashing experiment at LHC, while we can get any energy photons everywhere? What’s the difference?
Its better to not think of it as something we created in a lab. Higgs plays a part in making nature do what it does.
If you want to learn more about the Higgs Mechanism, check out this video from PBS Space Time. You might also find some good info in the comments as well.
I’m bad at regurgitating information that I’ve only quasi understood from afar, but I will tell you the “Chris the Brain” on YouTube has some fantastic videos about things like this. I know he’s covered it in a few videos. They are long, but he’s SUCH a good teacher. That man is an absolute fucking genius, mark my words.
Holy crap, how did I not know about Chris? I binge watch all the big physicist YouTubers.
Thank you for mentioning him. My grey matter just got turned to mush by his 5-dimensional universe theory. I can’t wait to see how this affects MOND.
You’re in for SUCH a wild ride!! I’m so excited for you. He’s opened my mind SO MUCH, and the theory he’s working on is going to be revolutionary I suspect.
Sorry, can’t answer your question. Quick correction though, uranium is the highest atomic number that occurs nationally.
Edit: so I’m wrong about this. In school we learned that it was uranium and that’s also what it said when I checked sources, but not enough. Apologies.
The Oklo natural nuclear reactor has naturally occurring plutonium and neptunium
