Friederich, Simon (2012) A philosophical look at the Higgs mechanism. [Preprint]

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Abstract

On the occasion of the recent experimental detection of a Higgs-type particle at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) 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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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Friederich, Simon email@simonfriederich.eu
Additional Information:	forthcoming in "Journal for General Philosophy of Science"; significant overlap with http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/8854/, but more pedagogical and more focused on the Higgs mechanism
Keywords:	Higgs mechanism, symmetry breaking, gauge symmetries, quantum field theory
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User:	Dr. Simon Friederich
Date Deposited:	21 Dec 2012 15:12
Last Modified:	21 Dec 2012 15:12
Item ID:	9327
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date:	19 December 2012
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9327

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