The Once and Present Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the evolution and current understanding of the Standard Model of elementary particles, emphasizing the importance of clear theories and categorizing unresolved mysteries like dark matter and neutrino mass.

Contribution

It offers a coherent description of the modern Standard Model, categorizes its unresolved mysteries, and advocates for interpreting cosmic phenomena as indeterminate regarding new particles.

Findings

The Standard Model has evolved significantly over fifty years.

Neutrino mass is best understood as a myth for progress.

Cosmological mysteries remain unresolved regarding new particles.

Abstract

There are many theories that have resided these last fifty years within the hazy mist we have been calling the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particles. An attempt is made here to construct a coherent description of the SM today, because only precisely articulated theories can be targeted for annihilation, corroboration, and alteration. To this end it is useful to categorize the facts, mysteries and myths that together build a single conception of the SM. For example, it is argued that constructing a myth for how neutrinos obtain mass is useful for progress. We also advocate for interpreting the cosmological constant, dark matter, baryogenesis, and inflation as four "mysteries of the cosmos" that are indeterminate regarding new particles or interactions, despite a multitude of available particle explanations. Some history of the ever-changing SM is also presented to remind us that today's SM is not our parents' SM, nor will it likely be our children's SM.