Prediction: A Higgs Field Does Not Give Inertia to Particles
This book presents a theory of particles and forces that achieves rest mass (inertia) without the use of a Higgs field. Results from experiments at the LHC announced July 4, 2012 have found a fundamental particle in the energy range of 125 GeV. The popular press has assumed that the discovery of a particle with this energy is equivalent to finding the standard model Higgs boson. However, the experimental discovery of such a particle did not automatically confirm that the particle has zero spin and possess the ability to give inertia to all other particles. In fact, colliding protons and anti-protons together produces a very messy result that merely indicates the existence of a new particle without revealing whether it possesses any of the properties required for it to be a Higgs boson. As Dr Tony Weidberg, from the University of Oxford told the BBC, "Even at a certainty level of five sigma you're very far from proving it's a Higgs particle at all, let alone a Standard Model Higgs. If the most plausible hypothesis is that it's a Standard Model Higgs, you have to ask 'what experiments can we do to test that hypothesis'. The answer is to measure as much detail as you can about this particle. It's much harder to do these detailed measurements than just see if there is something there." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18521327
There is already discussion about building a linear accelerator capable of accelerating electrons and positrons to 250 GeV (the International Linear Accelerator). These collisions would produce a much cleaner result that could actually determine spin and some other properties of the new particle. In order for this 125 GeV particle to be the Standard Model Higgs boson and not just some previously unknown fermion or boson, it must be proven to be a fundamental particle (not a composite like a pion) that has spin of zero and gives mass to other fundamental particles through the existence of a Higgs field.
The particle model proposed in this book says that composite particles can have spin of zero, but not fundamental particles. Furthermore, the particle model proposed here has intrinsic inertia. This book starts off by examining the most fundamental properties of inertia. A photon is commonly described as a massless particle. It has energy and momentum but not rest mass. Therefore, what does it take to make a photon have inertia (rest mass)? The answer is that the photon must be confined in some way such that it is in a specific frame of reference. The photon example is examined in chapter #1 and a particle model incorporating intrinsic inertia is developed later in the book.
A brief summary of how a photon can be made to acquire rest mass is presented here. Suppose that a photon is placed in a hypothetical 100% reflecting box. The photon will exert photon pressure on the reflecting walls of the box. If the box is in an inertial frame of reference, then the photon pressure on all the reflecting walls will be equal. However, if the box is in an accelerating frame of reference (including gravity), then there will be unequal pressure on reflecting walls. This is easiest to see by assuming that the photon is reflecting between the two mirrors of a laser resonator. Accelerating the laser resonator in a direction parallel to the optical axis of the resonator will result in a Doppler shift being introduced in the accelerating frame of reference. The laser has two mirrors so the "rear" reflector in the accelerating orientation will perceive a higher optical frequency than the "front" reflector. There has been a bidirectional Doppler shift during the time of flight between reflectors. A greater force is exerted by photon pressure on the rear reflector than on the front reflector. The difference between these two forces is a net force that always has a vector direction that resists acceleration. This is the inertial force of the photon. Chapter 1 and Appendix A at the end of chapter 1 show that this net force exactly equals the inertial force expected from accelerating a particle of equal E = mc2 energy.
Chapter 1 also shows that if the reflecting box is moving at a constant velocity relative to an observer, then the observer perceives a bidirectional Doppler shift that results in a perceived net increase in energy relative to the photon’s energy when the box is in a rest frame of reference. This net increase in energy exactly equals the kinetic energy expected of a particle with equal rest energy.
Now, no Higgs boson or Higgs field is required to give inertia to the photon in a reflecting box. This inertia is the result of the speed of light being constant in all frames of reference. Perceiving a photon confined in a different frame of reference results not only in a bidirectional Doppler shift but also a difference in the perceived momentum for light propagating in opposite directions within the moving frame of reference. A freely propagating photon has momentum of p = E/c. Momentum is a vector, so when a photon is confined in a reflecting box it has oppositely propagating vector directions and the net momentum is zero (p = 0). It is shown in chapter 1 that anytime energy propagating at the speed of light has momentum of p ≠ E/c this energy must have inertia (rest mass). For example, if it was possible to confine gravitational waves in a hypothetical reflecting box, then these confined gravitational waves would also have inertia.
Imagine what it would be like if confined light (or confined gravitational waves) exhibited a different amount of inertia than a mass of equal energy. It would be possible to make an experiment that violated the conservation of momentum. For example, suppose that we have a closed system that is capable of converting a specific amount of energy from electron/positron pairs and gamma ray photons. If this closed system has a different amount of inertia when the enclosed energy is in the form of electron/positron pairs compared to when the energy is in the form of gamma ray photons, then this would be a violation of the conservation of momentum.
The standard model of particle physics explains the inertia of a fundamental particle as resulting from an interaction with the hypothetical Higgs field. This explanation says that a muon interacts more strongly than an electron; therefore a muon has more inertia. However, the Higgs mechanism does not have a precise requirement for exactly how much inertia a muon or an electron should possess. Now we learn that the inertia of an electron must exactly match the inertia of 511 KeV of confined photons and a muon must exactly match the inertia of 106 MeV of confined photons. Matching the inertia of a fundamental particle to the inertia of an equal amount of energy of confined photons adds an additional constraint to any particle model. The particle model proposed in the book perfectly fulfills this inertia matching requirement. The Higgs mechanism does not even address this requirement. Therefore, this book implies that the Higgs mechanism is inadequate to explain how fundamental particles attain the correct amount of inertia that corresponds to their internal energy.
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