![]() Then if the Higgs field is so important, why is there so much hype about finding the Higgs particle?.But the recent discovery of what may be its ripples - the Higgs particle - may soon give us additional insights. We have some limited information about how it interacts with matter, but not much. Mostly just that it’s there, and that it has a non-zero value. Our lives truly depend upon it.Īlmost nothing. ![]() Nothing like human beings, or the earth we live on, could exist without the Higgs field having a non-zero average value. That would be a disaster atoms and atomic nuclei would disintegrate. If the Higgs field’s average value were zero, those particles would be massless or very light. And because it does, many particles have mass, including the electron, quarks, and the W and Z particles of the weak interactions. The Higgs field (unlike most of the elementary fields of nature) has a non-zero average value throughout the entire universe. What’s so important about the Higgs field?.What they really care about is the Higgs field, because it is so important. Why do particle physicists care so much about the Higgs particle?.A version requiring a little math and physics background, such as one would get from the first few months of university-level physics, is available here. Sorry for my way-too-short version of the story. A Higgs wave is a ripple in the Higgs field, and the Higgs particle is the smallest - well, `dimmest’ - such wave. The key point: Higgs particle is to Higgs field as photon is to electric field. Here’s the webpage it’s from if you want to learn what the whole video is about.) ( Click here for a video which demonstrates this effect the screen registers the light one photon at a time. Your eye can absorb light one photon at a time (though it typically waits for several photons to arrive before sending a signal to your brain.) A laser produces very intense waves, but if you shield a laser with a screen so that only a tiny fraction of the light gets through, you will find, if you shield it enough, that the light passes through the screen in little blips - single photons - all of them equally dim. In the case of the electric field, its particles are called “photons” they represent the dimmest possible flash. It often behaves in rough accordance with your intuitive notion of “particle”, moving in a straight line and bouncing indivisibly off of things, etc., which is why we give it that name. The least-intense possible wave that a field can have is called a “quantum”, or more often is called a “particle”. The electric field can also have waves, in which the size of the field repeatedly becomes larger and smaller - visible light is such a wave, as are X-rays and radio waves, and all the other things we collectively call “electromagnetic waves”.Ī quantum field’s waves cannot be of arbitrary intensity they can’t be arbitrarily `dim’, or `quiet’. If it’s non-zero on average in some region, it can have physical effects, such as making your hair stand on end or causing a spark. ![]() At any given point in space, and at any particular time, you can measure it. So for example: the electric field is a part of nature that is found everywhere. ![]() and if it is a quantum field, then its waves are made from particles.is present everywhere in space and time,.If you have a little math in your background (algebra, trig, and calculus through derivatives) and a little physics (you know what energy is, what a ball on a spring does, and have thought at least once about what waves are) then, after reading this FAQ, you may want to follow up by reading my Particles and Fields articles, followed by my explanation of the Higgs field and how it works. If you have no math or physics in your background, you may also find it useful, after you read this FAQ, to read my literary article on Why the Higgs Particle Matters. I updated this slightly in 2022 - the changes are marked - but it’s remarkable how little I had to adjust it. The old version (from long before the Higgs-like particle was discovered in July 2012) is HERE. Here is the 2012 version of the Higgs FAQ, intended for those with little or no scientific background. ![]()
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