 and the smallest species of ant (0.01 milligram) differ in mass by more than 11 orders of magnitude--roughly the same span as the top quark and the neutrino. Why the particle masses should differ by such a large amount remains a mystery.)
MALE AFRICAN ELEPHANT (about 6,000 kilograms) and the smallest species of ant (0.01 milligram) differ in mass by more than 11 orders of magnitude--roughly the same span as the top quark and the neutrino. Why the particle masses should differ by such a large amount remains a mystery.
Image: BRYAN CHRISTIE DESIGN
More In This Article
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Overview
Higgs Physics
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Sidebar
A Cosmic Stocktaking
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Infographic
Properties of the Elusive Higgs
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Infographic
Masses of the Particles of the Standard Model
Most people think they know what mass is, but they understand only part of the story. For instance, an elephant is clearly bulkier and weighs more than an ant. Even in the absence of gravity, the elephant would have greater mass--it would be harder to push and set in motion. Obviously the elephant is more massive because it is made of many more atoms than the ant is, but what determines the masses of the individual atoms? What about the elementary particles that make up the atoms--what determines their masses? Indeed, why do they even have mass?
We see that the problem of mass has two independent aspects. First, we need to learn how mass arises at all. It turns out mass results from at least three different mechanisms, which I will describe below. A key player in physicists' tentative theories about mass is a new kind of field that permeates all of reality, called the Higgs field. Elementary particle masses are thought to come about from the interaction with the Higgs field. If the Higgs field exists, theory demands that it have an associated particle, the Higgs boson. Using particle accelerators, scientists are now hunting for the Higgs.
This article was originally published with the title The Mysteries of Mass.
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22 Comments
Add CommentWhy is the term "field" used in describing the "Higgs field"? Does it offer any explanation of "what is space?" Does the Higgs field say anything about where space ( and time) comes from? What is the relationship between General Relativity and the Higgs field? If mass distorts space , then might the Higgs field also create space/time and shape it? If there were no Higgs field nor mass, then might there be no mass or space/time? Does it offer any insight into whether two objects might interact across space instantly? Any thoughts on the Higgs field, space/time, relativity etc. ? thanks
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps the M-Theory 11 dimensions may have something to do with it!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have the fundamental origin of mass explained and I publish a precision formula for Baryon mass to prove it at cosmicdarkmatter.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisK. Tissa Perera
The origin of mass of an electron is evident in Einsteins relativity equation for total energy: E^2 = Eo^2 + (pc)^2. This is also the equation for the Pythagorean theorem. This means that the moving energy (pc) is perpendicular to the rest energy (Eo). If moving energy is apparent in our four space-time dimensions, rest energy must be in perpendicular dimensions, ones in which motion is not apparent to us. Thus an electron at rest can be viewed as a photon in this extra dimension. The frequency in these perpendicular dimensions gives rise to its mass in our dimensions. The property of charge comes from the fact that the passage of time is also not apparent to us and the photons wave is frozen at a maximum.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy thoughts on this are that energy within quarks react with the higg field like chemicals react with one another, it is a simple reaction but on the subatomic level with energy. This then causes energy to be released from the sub atomic particles within the atom. As this occurs within the electrons inside an atom and the electrons orbit the atom it causes the electrons to be slowed down as there is some sort of sub atomic friction between the energy that is released from the reaction with the Higg field. This energy is constantly being released and causing the atom to slow. However the electron still continues to travel as there is still gravitational energy causing it to be propelled from within the atom. Therefore the energy from the reaction with the higg field just slows down the atom, and once it reaches it's terminal velocity stays at a aconstant speed. Therefore I believe this interaction matter has with the higg field is caused by energy reacting with it from within quarks and causing some sort of slowing effect to be applied to th quark. Therefore I believe that mass is just the speed at which atoms are slowed
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis will not clear up any mysteries it will only create new ones. Anyone with a smidgon of understanding of Quantum physics should know this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the meantime monies & knowledge that could be used to build a better world are being diverted un-necessarily for what ammounts to hobbies for the boys & girls.
It is the INTENT behind these games that is most damaging.
@judynz: I could not agree more. Although I attach great importance to fundamental science, I think it should be limited to what we (mankind) can afford and it should be in a reasonable proportion to scientific research aimed at solving practical problems that face us all. Not finding out what constitutes matter etc., not finding a unified model does not pose a threat to mankind. Throwing billions at something that may turn out to be un-knowable, in a world plagued by very real problems, seems to me to be an almost obscene choice of priorities.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ al: I disagree. I believe it would be selfish of mankind to concentrate solely on its own problems. The quest to understand how the universe works is, I think, the most important task we can ever hope to accomplish. It is insanely arrogant to think that we are an integral part of nature. Mankind has been and will be around for only the tiniest fraction of the age of the universe, and for that matter the age of Earth. In order to keep from being overwhelmed by the insignificance of our existence, we must seek answers to these fundamental questions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMankind for Thousands of years has existed perfectly fine without trying to explain what a higgs bosun particle is or if it even exists. Unless the understanding of this will allow use to remove the mass from an object allowing travel at or beyound the speed of light or provide an endless power source that frootloops like algore and the global warming religous nuts can get on board with; it is a horrid waste of money.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf your aim is to ensure that mankind outlives the Earth and the Sun you are butting your head against the natural order of things. You are denying the fact that there is a begining a middle and an end to all things. Throwing money and resources wastefully at somehting that will most liekly do nothing but provide the world with a bigger bomb while trying to deny that the universe has a definate end. That is pretty close to insanity.
Applied science is the real key to the betterment of mankind not theoretical thought experiments. Theory is fine when it is used to further applied science but it should never be the end. Theory is only a means of getting to an end when it is substituted as the goal that is where horrid wastes of time and money come in.
I find it strange that a particle with 200 proton masses needs to interact with an electron to impart it mass (and not knock it senseless)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRajeev
For years Russian scientists humiliated themselves by trying to insert Marxian "dialectic materialism" into their scientific research. It pleased the politburo, but made Russian science a laughingstock. The American equivalent are the right wing nutjobs who base their entire worldview on libertarian political dogma. Nowadays you can usually spot them by their compulsion to rave about "algore" and global warming; but, if that's not enough, their abysmal ignorance of basic science is a dead giveaway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the history of science demonstrates one thing, it's that theory and experiment are ineluctably bound together, one advancing the other in an endless exchange of inspiration. The surest way to stultify the advance of human knowledge is to put arbitrary limits on it.
The Manhattan Project, which gave the world the atomic bomb, is one of the biggest examples of applied science known to man. A source of betterment?
MAYBE THE THREE FAMILIES ARE:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTHE REMNANTS OF THE PAST
THE PRESENT ITSELF
AND INTIMATIONS OF THE FUTURE
THREE UNIVERSES
ALL COMMUNICATION IS INQUIRY. ALL SPEECH IS INQUIRY. IT IS OUR NATURE TO INQUIRE. TO AFIRM OUR OWN VIEW OF THINGS. THIS IS INQUIRY. UNCERTAINTY IS SO TERRIFYING THAT WE BECOME VIOLENTLY ANGRY WITH QUESTIONING OF WHAT WE KNOW.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWHEN WE COMMUNICATE OUR OWN VIEW OF THINGS AND HOW WE COME BY IT -WE BUILD SOCIETY AND ALL ITS MANIFESTATIONS. -WE FIND WE ARE NOT ALONE.
could the Boson Mass (200 proton wight) be an ephemeral artifact of anihilation of matter -indicating the presebce of the Higgs Field rather than being a Product of it's interaction. I think of a field as something neutral that provides a context for manifestation -like Space Itself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs shown by the E=mc^2 equation and demonstrated by the explosion of an H-bomb or by the creation of particles in accelerators, matter can be converted to energy and energy back to matter following the equation ratio. So if a mass (quarks et al) of x amount of matter is converted into energy and if that energy was to be confined into a volume of space, wouldnt that volume curve space-time the same way it would do if the matter was not converted? When we say energy in this context, I guess we are not talking about quarks anymore no? So doesnt that mean that the energy still has a weight? Or mass?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen we talk about let-say, a one million-suns worth of mass collapsing into a singularity at the center of a galaxy, I guess we are not saying that all the entering quarks remains quarks when it reaches the singularity? If so, how could these quarks occupy such a small volume? The fact that the singularity curves space-time the same way a million-suns would do, implies that the singularity did not loose mass in its matter-crushing exercise. If a quark has a volume and a quark entering a black-hole remains a quark, wouldnt this put a constraint on how small of a volume the singularity could occupy? And throw-off by the same occasion the claim that at time-zero of the big-bang, the universe was concentrated into a microscopic point?
Cant we claim then that the singularity is composed of a very large amount of energy compressed down into a tiny volume? If mass is solely interactions with the Higgs field, then how does a singularity (or pure energy) interact with the Higgs field in order to conserve its mass?
Pierre
And if there IS no higgs boson? Or field?? Then what, dear readers??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe concept of the Higgs Boson is a fundamental theoretical error, which will become obvious once "Big Bang" is properly understood. Matter and antimatter were created in equal quantities at that time and antimatter must have survived being annihilated at that time by being partioned from matter in the extreme conditions then prevailing. Dark Matter is antimatter. This process probably involved antimatter being consigned to an alternate state of existence, an alternate quantum phase. This antimatter world operates in another time mode. In fact, looking at the bizarre nature of Quantum Mechanics in comparison to Classical Mechanics/Relativity, we appear to have inherited a Quantum world which functions in "Anti-time", hence we can only describe it in probablistic terms and it exhibits many weird features, defying normal cause and effect. The same must have happened to the Anti-World, on a Quantum Level their time mode is opposite to ours. If Gravity also propagates in Anti-time and given that Gravity and Mass are so closely related, then the sensation of Mass must arise through our connection to the anti-world and not through some hitherto undiscovered Paricle. Other evidence for Anti-time, would include the phenomenon of Entanglement.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJetthelooter, I think you are forgetting about how theoretical physics has impacted the world already. Sure, it lead to the invention of nuclear weapons - when put in the wrong hands, but also lead to MRI's, RADAR, nuclear power plants and many other technologies that would not exist today if it weren't for physicists theorising how the universe works.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is only in understanding how the universe operates that we can take advantage of its natural properties and progress further technologically.
When you fully understand the cause of mass / inertia then it will be easy to manipulate acceleration and gravity. TRUE SPACE travel will be possable. In the formula E= MC2 "M" is mass, not matter. Matter has mass / inertia due to it's angular velocity's effects on Aether. Remember a charge in motion causes a counter direction charge, and the strength of the charge is dependent on relative speed and direction.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMatter has spin, wobble, and direction, movement in 3 directions. this causes effects of mass / inertia due to it's push / pull on the Aether (dark matter / dark energy).
Aether is the primary building block of all matter, it has charge, and is supra magnetic.
Higgons, glueons, gravitons, photons, electrons, postrons and nutrinos are artifacts of the test equipment and the need to be the discover and describer of new and special particals.
The only true partical is the proton and and it's surrounding field of charge ( electron shell).
If you can grasp this by setting aside what you have learned, reality of everything will dawn.
It took over 50 years of study of physics for this to dawn on me. An in depth explanation would require a book that I may not have time to write, as I'm working on a high energy experiment to prove the concept.
mass is a consequence of the constructs of all atoms. The action of the quarks oscilalting at such high frequencies produce waves which are disrupted by both coherent and disruptive interferenec into minute pulses of charge emanating outwards. These build intense stress relationships between charge particles within the atom inextricably locked within the nucleus of all atoms. Any acceleration will disturb and intesify theses charge relationships, any speed of movement through charge differenetials will also disrupt these charges stresses within all atoms. Active mass, passive mass , and inertial mass may appear to te abserver as the same, but they most certainl are not, they develop from different sources of charge stresses, and though they may appear to be equal they are not fro they differ over time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the not-so-distant past, folks with the view of jetthelooter and judynz could easilly have argued that the efforts of Maxwell, etc to try to understand electromagnetics were a "horrid waste of money/time" as well. After all, from the perspective of someone living in the 19th century, what POSSIBLE benefit to mankind could come from trying to come up with some esoteric equation that helps you understand how this completely invisible and (presumably) irrelevant-to-me "electromagnetic field" behaves?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course, from our 21st century perspective, we know that the full impact to humanity that came from these studies was both hugely profound and totally unimaginable to the 19th century citizen. Absolutely everything about how we live our life and communicate today is defined by the technology that arises from our understanding of electomagnetism (electricity, computers, raido/TV, cell phones, the internet,...).
It could be argued, in fact, that it is the unlocking of each of the fundamental forces in nature (electromagnetism, strong/weak nuclear forces, and gravity) that enables mankind to make gigantic shifts in both society and technology. Unlocking the electromagnetic force led to literally everything that defines our life today. Unlocking the nuclear force led - yes - first to the creation of frighteningly huge weapons. However, this is ultimately the force that powers the stars and enables life on Earth - we are still just dabbling in the possibilites of its use. It may very well be that what saves our species from the (supposed) doom of global waming will be the harnessing of the energy from nuclear fusion.
Trying to unlock the Higgs is, in a sense, our current attempt to unlock the gravitational force. All indications are that this gets to the very underpinnings of reality itself (time, space, matter, energy - are all somehow or other constructs that result from this fundamental phenomena). If the harnessing of the electromagnetic force completely revolutionized humanity between the 18th and 20th centuries, how could we possibly comprehend the ways in which we may be changed by unlocking this final, fundamental force?
The REAL arrogance is saying with certainty that you know what you don't know. We are NEVER better by not knowing, and we can never possibly imagine what could come as the result of knowing.
matter at rest creates movement, example gravity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismatter in movement creates rest, example inertia, a force that can resist gravity, if matter has enough stored inertia it can defy gravity, thus a force is at work that is the same for rest as movement .