According to the standard model, neutron decay is caused by massive particles that pop out of empty space, but where did their mass come from? It had to come from somewhere so the answer was, of course, another field! The standard model Higgs field is then what explains the virtual particles that explain the weak force. The whole model was at stake, so the Higgs particle became the holy grail of physics, attracting over 30 billion dollars in funding. Finally in 2012, after a fifty-year search, CERN found a resonance in the right range to support its possible existence. Physicists all over the world breathed a sigh of relief and some called it the God particle, perhaps because it answered their prayers. Finding a million, million, million, millionth of a second 125 GeV signal meant the standard model lived on, yet the Higgs theory:
1. Doesn’t explain ordinary mass. The Higgs particle doesn’t explain any of the mass we see nor does it add any value to general relativity, our best theory of matter to date, or explain the dark energy and matter that is most of our universe. It just explains how weak particles get mass, nothing more:
“… the Higgs field allows us to reconcile … how … weak interactions work, that’s a far cry from explaining the origin of mass or why the different masses have the values they do.” (Wilczek,2008), p202.
The Higgs particle explains the mass invented by the standard model not ordinary mass.
2. Is literal thinking. Literal thought sees only what is, not what causes it. An example is the ancient idea that the fundamental elements of earth, air, fire, and water cause everything, so a fire element causes heat, a water element wetness, and so on, but scientifically this led nowhere. It can’t explain how hydrogen and oxygen gases that are dry like air create water that is wet, as they do. That mass must come from mass is another literal thought that will lead nowhere if matter came from light that isn’t massive at all.
3. Contradicts quantum theory. In a carefully crafted press release, CERN claimed that zero-spin would confirm the Higgs then found it so, but quantum theory doesn’t let spin-zero particles have mass (Comay, 2009). All quantum particles with mass have half spin, and only matter-antimatter mixes like mesons have no spin, so the resonance CERN found probably came from a top meson.
The so-called God particle doesn’t explain ordinary mass, is based on literal thinking, and contradicts quantum theory, so it is no surprise that it hasn’t led to any other discovery or benefit. That some now call it the origin of all mass is a tribute to marketing not science. Literal thinking is also circular, as if the Higgs particle creates mass, what gave it mass? If another Higgs, what made its mass, and so on? A Higgs particle that begets itself would indeed be a God particle!
It is ironic that a model based on particles now attributes most ordinary matter to gluons that have no mass at all:
“The Higgs mechanism is often said to account for the origins of mass in the visible universe. This statement, however, is incorrect. The mass of quarks accounts for only 2 percent of the mass of the proton and the neutron, respectively. The other 98 percent, we think, arises largely from the actions of gluons. But how gluons help to generate proton and neutron mass is not evident, because they themselves are massless.” (Ent, Ulrich, & Venugopalan, 2015).
Most of an atom’s mass is in its nucleus, but the quarks that make it don’t create its mass. Only 2% of a proton’s mass comes from its quark constituents, so gluons are said to create the other 98%. Our universe of matter bricks is then almost entirely made of the cement that binds them!
The Higgs is the virtual agent invented to explain the virtual agent invented to explain an observed effect. As will be seen, a model where one invisible cause explains another soon becomes a theoretical house of cards.