Sunday, January 17, 2021

The Higgs boson and the Higgs field

 





The Higgs boson is the fundamental particle associated with the Higgs field. The Higgs boson was proposed in 1964 by Peter Higgs, François Englert, and four other theorists to explain why certain particles have mass. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland confirmed its existence in 2012 through the ATLAS and CMS experiments. 

The Standard Model predicts only massless particles, contradicting our experience. The solution was the Higgs boson, which can provide mass. The Higgs boson is the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, which takes a lower non-zero than a zero vacuum expectation value. This non-zero value supposes to break electroweak symmetry, giving mass to the weak force.

Questions about the Higgs hypothesis:

1, The Higgs boson lends mass to the weak force, electrons, and quarks by bumping into them. However, Einstein's general relativity tells us that mass is a permanent particle quality. Therefore, mass can turn into energy by the equation. 

E = M C^2

If the mass is an acquired quality, energy is just a figment of the Higgs boson. 

2, In the months leading up to the discovery, the media was awash in buzz for the so-called "God" particle. The discovery of the Higgs boson was supposed to solve fundamental questions in physics about our world's structure. Nevertheless, many years after the discovery, we are still waiting... 

3, The Higgs boson, with a mass of 125.35 GeV, is too light to form mass-giving interactions with other particles. To solve this problem, supersymmetry was born. Supersymmetry predicts the existence of extra particles, which would cancel out their Standard-Model partners' contributions to the Higgs mass, allowing a lighter mass Higgs boson. Thus, supersymmetry extends the Standard Model by predicting a super-partner particle for each known particle. These new particles, which could fix the Higgs boson's mass, explain the Higgs mass problem.

Unfortunately, no supersymmetric particles were observed in collisions at the LHC. However, physicists are very clever and can solve their problems. In the absence of supersymmetry, they proposed the existence of multiverses. According to this idea, the Higgs can take any mass. Therefore, each universe of infinite universes would contain a specific mass Higgs particle. It's reasonable to assume that if there were an endless number of universes, one of them might have a Higgs with the observed mass, and we are lucky to live in the universe with the correct mass. 

Another proposed solution to solve the light-mass Higgs problem is yet another field, the axion field. The Higgs mass would depend on the hypothetical axion field's numerical value, which permeates space and time. Axions could relax the value of the Higgs mass to its observed value. 

4, The Higgs boson is a massive particle, around 125 GeV – about 130 times the proton's mass at rest – with zero electric charges and spin. Where is Higgs boson mass coming from? At one point, the Higgs field turned on. Conveniently, the Higgs field has a non-zero value, so it can spontaneously break down to give mass to the elementary particles. The idea of the Higgs has only kicked the can down the road. What is your view? Is there a Higgs boson or a Higgs hoax?  

A 2014 paper by Belyaev, Brown, Froadi, and Frandsen is a reminder that the Standard Model is unsettled and the discovery of the Higgs Boson is not 100% certain. 

Image credit: CERN for the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations


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Saturday, January 9, 2021

Can we examine the mind as a physical system? Social consequences of the fermionic mind hypothesis

 



My latest paper connects basic research in neuroscience with psychobiology, clinical diagnostic, and therapeutic insights. Sensory processing can increase or decrease synaptic complexity and cognitive potential. Thus, we can calculate the energy associated with intellect.    

Positive psychology recognizes the close relationship between social climate and resource availability. The social environment is an effective determinant of the behavior of animals and people. In the late nineteenth century, the Russian scientist Peter Kropotkin studied species from bacteria and fish to mammals and birds in various supply settings. A biological richness and supply abundance allow ants, bees, falcons, swallows, gazelles, buffalos, herds of wild horses, tribes of dogs, wolf packs, and communities of people to form cooperation and generosity. Positive environments encourage generosity and collaboration by supporting security, trust, and confidence. Desirable population structures promote cooperation.

However, generosity disappears when the reduction of supplies reaches a tipping point. Defections sweep through the population, causing animals and people to abandon charity. The lack of resources inflicts a cognitive burden, negatively affecting IQ in people. The poor's lack of generosity originates in mental exhaustion rather than personality defects. The above considerations also explain poverty's role in negative personality transformations. Personal uncertainty can lead to conspiracy theories, terrorism, and crime. Moreover, the insecurity manifests as a widespread distrust of governments, public institutions, and even science. Therefore, basic social safety promotes security and improves cognitive performance.


Read the whole article in the Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal.



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