A fundamental test of the Higgs Yukawa coupling at RHIC in A+A collisions

TL;DR

This paper discusses the use of heavy quark measurements in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC to test the Higgs mechanism's role in giving mass to fermions, addressing a key puzzle in quark suppression.

Contribution

It proposes a novel test of the Higgs Yukawa coupling in quark mass generation using heavy quark correlation measurements in A+A collisions.

Findings

Heavy quark suppression observed similarly to light quarks.

Historical methods from CERN ISR applied to RHIC data.

Future measurements could confirm or refute the Higgs mechanism's role in fermion mass.

Abstract

Searches for the intermediate boson, $W^{\pm}$, the heavy quantum of the Weak Interaction, via its semi-leptonic decay, $W\to e +\nu$, in the 1970's instead discovered unexpectedly large hadron production at high $p_T$, notably $\pi^0$, which provided a huge background of $e^{\pm}$ from internal and external conversions. Methods developed at the CERN ISR which led to the discovery of direct-single-$e^{\pm}$ in 1974, later determined to be from the semi-leptonic decay of charm which had not yet been discovered, were used by PHENIX at RHIC to make precision measurements of heavy quark production in p-p and Au+Au collisions, leading to the puzzle of apparent equal suppression of light and heavy quarks in the QGP. If the Higgs mechanism gives mass to gauge bosons but not to fermions, then a proposal that all 6 quarks are nearly massless in a QGP, which would resolve the puzzle, can not be excluded. This proposal can be tested with future measurements of heavy quark correlations in A+A collisions