Does the Higgs Mechanism Exist?

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the conceptual foundations and interpretative issues of the Higgs mechanism in the Standard Model, questioning its ontic status and explanatory power.

Contribution

It provides a philosophical analysis of the Higgs mechanism, highlighting its formal re-shuffling of degrees of freedom and challenging its ontological and explanatory claims.

Findings

The Higgs mechanism is a gauge-invariant re-shuffling of degrees of freedom.

Gauge transformations lack real instantiations, undermining ontic interpretations.

The explanatory value of the Higgs argument is critically questioned.

Abstract

This paper explores the argument structure of the concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking in the electroweak gauge theory of the Standard Model: the so-called Higgs mechanism. As commonly understood, the Higgs argument is designed to introduce the masses of the gauge bosons by a spontaneous breaking of the gauge symmetry of an additional field, the Higgs field. The technical derivation of the Higgs mechanism, however, consists in a mere re-shuffling of degrees of freedom by transforming the Higgs Lagrangian in a gauge-invariant manner. This already raises serious doubts about the adequacy of the entire manoeuvre. It will be shown that no straightforward ontic interpretation of the Higgs mechanism is tenable since gauge transformations possess no real instantiations. In addition, the explanatory value of the Higgs argument will be critically examined.