Higgs and other fields

 This week, Peter Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. More than 40 years ago, Higgs and his co-workers predicted theoretically the existence of an elementary particle known as the Higgs boson. In 2012, the Higgs particle was finally detected in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva.

In a popular-science book by Leon Lederman, the Higgs boson was nick-named the God particle. This name is strongly disliked by both physicists and priests, because it could give the false impression that God has something to do with it. That’s not the case.

Science deals with theoretical predictions and experimental confirmation (or rejection) of the theories. Religion is just a question of belief (or lack of it), and is outside the scope of science.

Lederman, in his book, first wanted to call it the Goddamn particle, because of the enormous efforts and billions of dollars spent in the search for the Higgs boson. But the publisher didn’t approve it

I thought it was really cool when the Higgs particle was found, because I used to work with this kind of stuff when I was a physics student. Elementary particles are the basic building blocks of everything, all kinds of matter, and even light. The weird part of theoretical physics known as “quantum field theory” is the mathematical description of elementary particles and their interactions.

For every particle there is a field, and for every field there is a particle, the observable quantum of the field. Even light has a particle; the photon. And of course, there is a Higgs field, associated with the Higgs particle.

In fact there are many Higgs fields, at least four. Three of the Higgs fields are busy, giving mass to other particles, by so-called spontaneous symmetry breaking. The 4th Higgs field is free (because light, the photon, didn't acquire a mass), and is observable as the Higgs particle.  

More than 20 years ago, I wrote my master thesis on an even crazier part of quantum field theory, something called super-symmetry. In super-symmetry, there are more Higgs-like particles, and a myriad of other new particles, none of which have been observed in the labs so far.  

Working with super-symmetry was very entertaining, but I’m not sure it’s useful. I was in doubt if I should continue with this, or switch to something else. Once, I discussed this with a professor I knew (he was an outstanding teacher). The advice he gave me is probably the best I ever got:

“It doesn’t really matter which wave-equation you solve, but for some you get better paid.”

So, I swapped field (literally speaking), from elementary particles to acoustic and electromagnetic waves. I did my PhD in applied geophysics, and started to work for BigOil. I never regretted, and I even think I’m useful to society, sometimes >:)

(The picture is a random page from my master thesis, written back, in 1992. I still have a copy of the thesis in my bookshelf. I haven't opened it for more than 10 years, until recently, when I wanted to refresh my mind on the Higgs stuff.)