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Main Author: Öttinger, Hans Christian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17344
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author Öttinger, Hans Christian
author_facet Öttinger, Hans Christian
contents We present an ontological argument why elementary particles with nonzero spin must be massless. This argument implies that, from an ontological perspective, the massive quarks and leptons of the standard model cannot be elementary particles. This conclusion is less disquieting than it might seem at first sight because the Higgs mechanism entails that not only the masses of the W and Z bosons but also the masses of quarks and leptons arise from the interaction of massless elementary particles with the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field, which is a result of symmetry breaking.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_17344
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Elementary particles with nonzero spin must be massless
Öttinger, Hans Christian
General Physics
We present an ontological argument why elementary particles with nonzero spin must be massless. This argument implies that, from an ontological perspective, the massive quarks and leptons of the standard model cannot be elementary particles. This conclusion is less disquieting than it might seem at first sight because the Higgs mechanism entails that not only the masses of the W and Z bosons but also the masses of quarks and leptons arise from the interaction of massless elementary particles with the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field, which is a result of symmetry breaking.
title Elementary particles with nonzero spin must be massless
topic General Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17344