A Philosophical Look at the Higgs Mechanism

Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 45 (2):335-350 (2014)
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Abstract

On the occasion of the recent experimental detection of a Higgs-type particle at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the paper reviews philosophical aspects of the Higgs mechanism as the presently preferred account of the generation of particle masses in the Standard Model of elementary particle physics and its most discussed extensions. The paper serves a twofold purpose: on the one hand, it offers an introduction to the Higgs mechanism and its most interesting philosophical aspects to readers not familiar with it; on the other hand, it clarifies widespread misunderstandings related to the role of gauge symmetries and their breaking in it.

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10.1007/s10838-014-9257-5

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Simon Friederich
University of Groningen

Citations of this work

Weyl׳s search for a difference between ‘physical’ and ‘mathematical’ automorphisms.Erhard Scholz - 2018 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 61:57-67.

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References found in this work

Interpreting Quantum Theories: The Art of the Possible.Laura Ruetsche - 2011 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
Empirical Consequences of Symmetries.David Wallace & Hilary Greaves - 2014 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 65 (1):59-89.
Group Structural Realism.Bryan W. Roberts - 2011 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (1):47-69.

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