Unveiling the Invisible Forces: The Higgs Field and the Origin of Inertia
Exploring the Foundations of Inertia
In simple terms, inertia is a body’s intrinsic property to resist changes in the state of motion or rest. It is more difficult to move a resting bowling ball than it is to move a tennis ball. But what exactly is the cause of inertia? Why do heavier bodies have greater inertia? To understand its cause, we must first understand the fundamentals of the fields. Simply put, a field is an entity that induces interactions over a distance. Fields are essentially the universe’s building blocks.
Our universe is governed by four fundamental forces. These fundamental forces are distributed throughout the universe as fields. The electromagnetic field is the most common of the four fundamental fields. Electromagnetic fields are present everywhere you can see (and cannot see). From sunlight to broadcast signals of radio and television, we are immersed in a sea of electromagnetic fields. Electromagnetic fields are communicated by photons, which act as their messenger particles. When you see something, photons that have bounced off an object enter your eye and stimulate your retina, causing you to perceive that information as an object. Photons send you a message about the object.
Similarly, we have a great deal of familiarity with the gravitational field. We are rooted to the earth as a result of it. It causes things to fall to the ground, the moon to orbit the earth, and the earth to orbit the sun. In our daily lives, we are aware of the presence of a gravitational field. Physicists believe that gravitons, like photons in electromagnetic fields, are the fundamental constituents of the gravitational field. Gravitons have yet to be discovered experimentally because they are extremely difficult to detect using our current knowledge and resources.
One of the reasons gravitons are difficult to detect is that gravity is the weakest of all fundamental forces. It is approximately one thousand billion billion billion billion times weaker than the electromagnetic force. When you bring a magnet close enough to iron pieces, they will fly towards the magnet as if there were no gravitational force. Because of their extremely weak nature, physicists are looking for different methods to detect them. We require more sensitive instruments. If gravitons exist, we can think of gravity as a type of communication relayed by gravitons between two or more bodies, bringing them closer together.
Aside from the well-known electromagnetic and gravitational force fields, there are two less well-known forces: the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, or simply the strong force and the weak force. They, like electromagnetic and gravitational forces, exert their influence through fields. These nuclear forces can only operate on atomic and subatomic scales. Because of these fields, the sun continues to shine through the liberated energy obtained by nuclear fusion (the combination of two or more nuclei to form a larger nucleus), and electricity is generated at atomic reactors through nuclear fission (the splitting of a nucleus into two or more smaller nuclei). Both the strong and weak forces have constituent particles. The particles of the strong force are known as gluons, while the particles of the weak force are known as W and Z particles. These particles, unlike gravitons, were discovered experimentally in particle accelerators.
So, to return to our original question, what causes inertia? To understand the reason for inertia, we still need to understand something else. It is about a discovery that was crucial to cosmology and the understanding of elementary particles. It’s about the Higgs Boson. Physicists discovered that, in addition to the fields discussed just now, there was another type of field that was distinct from the four fundamental forces. It is known as the Higgs field. The Higgs Boson is the elementary particle produced by excitation in the Higgs field. In 2012, scientists discovered the presence of the Higgs Boson, proving the existence of the Higgs field.
When the temperature changes, the fields respond accordingly. We can observe the fields behaving in some way, similar to how water boils when heated to a sufficient temperature. As the temperature rises, the field violently pulsates up and down. At normal Earth temperatures, the undulations are very small. However, just moments after the Big Bang, the temperature was so high that all fields undulated violently. And, as the universe began to cool as it expanded, the temperature began to fall, and the vibrations became more minuscule. The values of the fields averaged out to zero at this low temperature. We associate this zero value with emptiness or the absence of a field.
This does not appear to be the case for the Higgs field. The Higgs field fluctuated wildly, as all other fields do, at extremely high temperatures, like immediately following the Big Bang. However, unlike the other fields, when the temperature of the universe dropped sufficiently, the Higgs field set itself to a specific non-zero value. The Higgs field did not simply fade away. This phenomenon is known by physicists as the non-zero Higgs field Vacuum Expectation Value (VEV). That is, the Higgs field has spread throughout the universe. The non-zero Higgs ocean pervades the universe.
We are all submerged in the ocean of the Higgs field. So we must perceive it in some way, right? This is where inertia comes into play. A bowling ball is more difficult to move than a tennis ball. We know that the balls are composed of atoms and subatomic particles. The Higgs field interacts with these subatomic particles. More subatomic particles means more interaction. As a result, a bowling ball accelerating through the Higgs field interacts with the Higgs field more than a tennis ball. The Higgs field behaves like a “viscous fluid”, resisting motion.
Think of yourself pushing a ball through the air to get a sense of this. There will be a specific acceleration. Take that ball again, and this time immerse it in water. To achieve the same acceleration as in air, you must now apply more force because water resists motion more than air (You can later check this video from Smarter EveryDay of a bullet fired underwater). The Higgs field is analogous. However, unlike a viscous fluid, which resists both accelerated and uniform motion, the Higgs field is a different kind of “fluid” that only resists accelerated motion. That is why a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a body at rest tends to stay at rest.
The friction from the Higgs ocean would not slow down a particle moving through space. Its motion would be unaffected. Only when it tries to speed up (or slow down) does the Higgs field show its effect and we interpret it as inertia. Without the Higgs field, all particles could easily accelerate or decelerate. In this way, the invisible ocean composed of a very different type of field provided an answer to one of the most intriguing questions about inertia. Along with giving rise to the inertial property of matter, the Higgs field has a plethora of other fascinating properties that motivate scientists to conduct new experiments in the hopes of discovering, who knows, perhaps new laws of physics?
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