To HIGGS or not to HIGGS, That is The Question

[NeutrinoWave]

The experiments together rule out the simplest version of the Higgs boson over a mass range from 141GeV (gigaelectronvolts, the units of mass used in particle physics) to 476GeV.

Higgs boson's moment of truth is fast approaching at the LHC | Science | guardian.co.uk

A predecessor to the LHC, a machine called the Large Electron Positron collider at Cern, the particle physics laboratory near Geneva, ruled out the existence of the Higgs boson up to a mass of 114GeV, but saw what might have been hints of the particle before it shut down in 2000 to make way for the LHC.

That leaves a mass range of 114GeV to 141GeV where the Higgs particle might still be found.

In September, managers at Cern commissioned a report from its scientific policy committee on the implications of failing to find the Higgs boson between 114GeV and 600GeV and how to communicate such an eventuality to the public. The report suggests that "finding the Higgs boson, exactly as postulated in the Standard Model, would be a triumph. Ruling it out would be revolutionary, requiring textbooks to be rewritten."

[themos]

He he, I should have put my money where my mouth was: There's no Higgs.

[JulianO]

So what do you think gives some particles mass if not the Higgs field? Just curious what other options there are out there.

[x6gas]

If you haven't read it yet, the author of that Guardian article, Ian Sample, published a book on the story of the Higgs and the seacrh for it. It's called Massive and was shortlisted for the Royal Society Winton Prize for science books (but it didn't win!)

It's an excellent read...

[DarkStar7]

Couldn't it be that the relativistic effects of virtual particles spiralling inwards on themselves towards infinitesimally small scales at one location is what gives mass to a particle.

We are often told that mass bends space-time. What if it the energy ie the angular momentum of virtual particles bends space time through acceleration and time dilation,and causes mass? ... Ie the other way round. There is no need for a higgs boson. Mass is energy, energy is momentum and accelerated particles experience time dilation. High energy particles with their time slowed would appear sluggish. So there we have mass.

The non-relative nature of an accelerating collapsing particle would also give an understanding to the equivalence principle.

[themos]

So what do you think gives some particles mass

Their interactions, somehow. If you look at the particle zoo one fact stands out: neutrinos, one interaction (weak), tiny mass - electrons, two interactions (weak + electro), medium mass - quarks, three interactions (weak + electro + strong), large mass.

And yet the Standard Model takes this as a complete coincidence.