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The just-so Higgs story: a response to Adrian Wüthrich

Lyre, Holger (2010) The just-so Higgs story: a response to Adrian Wüthrich. In: [2010] Philosophy of Physics in Germany - Current State and Perspectives (Hannover, 11-12 June, 2010).

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    Abstract

    I give a response to Adrian Wüthrich's critical review of my analysis of the Higgs mechanism, in which I try to clarify some possible misunderstandings. I concede that, as Wüthrich points out, many physicists see the Higgs mechanism as the roll-over from a symmetrical potential in the initial Lagrangian to a symmetry-breaking potential, while my former analysis had basically focused on the gauge-invariant transformation of the initial Lagrangian into the intended form. My main contention, however, still is that neither Higgs story has (as yet) much explanatory power.

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    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
    Commentary on: Wüthrich, Adrian(2010) Eating Goldstone bosons in a phase transition: A critical review of Lyre's analysis of the Higgs mechanism. [Preprint]
    Keywords: Higgs mechanism, spontaneous symmetry breaking, gauge invariance, mass of gauge boson
    Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
    Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles
    Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory
    Conferences and Volumes: [2010] Philosophy of Physics in Germany - Current State and Perspectives (Hannover, 11-12 June, 2010)
    Depositing User: Holger Lyre
    Date Deposited: 17 Aug 2010
    Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 11:19
    Item ID: 5513
    URI: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/5513

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