Spontaneous symmetry breaking as a basis of particle mass

Abstract

Electroweak theory joins electromagnetism with the weak force in a single quantum field theory, ascribing the two fundamental interactions—so different in their manifestations—to a common symmetry principle. How the electroweak gauge symmetry is hidden is one of the most urgent and challenging questions facing particle physics. The provisional answer incorporated in the ‘standard model’ of particle physics was formulated in the 1960s by Higgs, by Brout and Englert and by Guralnik, Hagen, and Kibble: the agent of electroweak symmetry breaking is an elementary scalar field whose self-interactions select a vacuum state in which the full electroweak symmetry is hidden, leaving a residual phase symmetry of electromagnetism. By analogy with the Meissner effect of the superconducting phase transition, the Higgs mechanism, as it is commonly known, confers masses on the weak force carriers W± and Z. It also opens the door to masses for the quarks and leptons, and shapes the world around us. It is a good story—though an incomplete story—and we do not know how much of the story is true. Experiments that explore the Fermi scale (the energy regime around 1 TeV) during the next decade will put the electroweak theory to decisive test, and may uncover new elements needed to construct a more satisfying completion of the electroweak theory. The aim of this article is to set the stage by reporting what we know and what we need to know, and to set some ‘big questions’ that will guide our explorations.