1
00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:11,160
Speaker 1: Hey, or hey, I've got a thought experiment for you.

2
00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:17,079
Speaker 1: I have experimental thoughts. H Well, what if physicists discovered

3
00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:21,160
Speaker 1: something totally new? All right, sounds good and it turns

4
00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:24,599
Speaker 1: out to have been under our noses the whole time.

5
00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:29,560
Speaker 1: Is it like a new booger particle? It's something that

6
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:34,440
Speaker 1: changed everything we thought we knew about the universe into

7
00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,800
Speaker 1: a fundamental booger? Where is it more like a summer

8
00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,959
Speaker 1: blockbuster type of movie discovery? But then we named it

9
00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:45,320
Speaker 1: after a hat? I don't know if I could see

10
00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:47,960
Speaker 1: that movie. Maybe depends on the kind of hat or

11
00:00:48,000 --> 00:01:05,640
Speaker 1: the kind of booger. Hi, I'm more handmate cartoonists and

12
00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,680
Speaker 1: the creator of PhD comics. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a

13
00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,480
Speaker 1: particle physicist and a professor at u C Irvine, And

14
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,560
Speaker 1: I'm suddenly unsure about how to pronounce the word booger.

15
00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:17,720
Speaker 1: But you know how to pick up though, right, no comment.

16
00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:22,040
Speaker 1: But I'm wondering what they're made out of if they're

17
00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:25,880
Speaker 1: made out of fundamental little boogerons, that's right, Yeah, boogers

18
00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:27,959
Speaker 1: are are just matter, so therefore they're made out of

19
00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:29,479
Speaker 1: the same things we were made out of. We are

20
00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:31,800
Speaker 1: all made out of star boogers, or it would be

21
00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:33,679
Speaker 1: weird if they were made out of something else, because

22
00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:36,400
Speaker 1: people make boogers, So it would be pretty amazing if

23
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,000
Speaker 1: we could make another kind of matter. That would be fascinating.

24
00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:41,319
Speaker 1: It would be pretty cool if a fundamental discovery about

25
00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,320
Speaker 1: the universe was literally right under our newses. You should

26
00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:48,000
Speaker 1: go pick up that problem. Or what if dark matter

27
00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:50,440
Speaker 1: is just boogers? That would be pretty weird to find,

28
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,600
Speaker 1: like huge blobs of boogers in space. You mean, like

29
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:56,960
Speaker 1: every time we sneeze, we're making dark matter. Has somebody

30
00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 1: written that scientifiction? No, but anyways, Welcome to our podcast

31
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,040
Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of I

32
00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,120
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in which we get our fingers deep deep

33
00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:10,080
Speaker 1: into the mysteries of the universe and try to pick

34
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:12,520
Speaker 1: them out for you. We go all the way up

35
00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:15,760
Speaker 1: there and try to understand what the tiniest little particles

36
00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,160
Speaker 1: are made out of, how they come together in their swirling,

37
00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,920
Speaker 1: chaotic buzz to create this bonkers universe we get to explore,

38
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:26,079
Speaker 1: and we go on a journey with you to unravel

39
00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,560
Speaker 1: the puzzle of physics, which seeks to explain everything around

40
00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,079
Speaker 1: us in terms of cute little mathematical stories that makes

41
00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,160
Speaker 1: sense to us and also makes sense to you. That's right,

42
00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:39,600
Speaker 1: because it is a pretty sticky universe and it's smart,

43
00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,519
Speaker 1: readily discoverable. We have to go out there and search

44
00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,000
Speaker 1: for it and look for it and dig through it

45
00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:47,160
Speaker 1: to understand how it all works and what's it all

46
00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:49,280
Speaker 1: made out of. Right, And thanks to hard work by

47
00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:53,960
Speaker 1: a crazy international team of physicists, some of whom speak Flemish,

48
00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:56,760
Speaker 1: we have made a lot of progress in understanding the

49
00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 1: nature of the universe, in sorting out how all these

50
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,960
Speaker 1: little particles we've together to make the universe that we

51
00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,640
Speaker 1: experience at our macroscopic scale. And it's a pretty crazy

52
00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:10,600
Speaker 1: story they tell about how they all come together. Yeah,

53
00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,040
Speaker 1: we've discovered that everything that we're made out of were

54
00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:14,840
Speaker 1: made out of atoms, and atoms are made out of

55
00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,880
Speaker 1: electrons and protons and neutrons, and protons and neutrons are

56
00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:20,760
Speaker 1: made out of quarks, and all those particles are swimming

57
00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:24,239
Speaker 1: through the universe in quantum fields, interacting with each other

58
00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:27,000
Speaker 1: and to create the amazing universe we all live in.

59
00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:30,320
Speaker 1: And one particle is at the heart of all of it,

60
00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:32,919
Speaker 1: revealed only in the last ten years or so by

61
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,320
Speaker 1: collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. The Higgs boson was

62
00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,160
Speaker 1: the last piece of the Standard Model and one the

63
00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:42,200
Speaker 1: answers a lot of really deep questions about the nature

64
00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:45,360
Speaker 1: of stuff and the nature of matter and why things

65
00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:48,920
Speaker 1: have mass at all. Yeah, it's the famous Higgs boson.

66
00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,640
Speaker 1: I would say it's probably the second most famous fundamental particle.

67
00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:56,000
Speaker 1: What do you think, Daniel, after the after the that's

68
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:58,440
Speaker 1: not it, After the electron. I think, you know, probably

69
00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:01,400
Speaker 1: electron is the most famous fundamental particle. But I would

70
00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:03,680
Speaker 1: say the Higgs boson is right up there, because you know,

71
00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,360
Speaker 1: people know protons and neutrons, but they're not fundamental. That's true. Yeah,

72
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:09,760
Speaker 1: I was going to guess photon, but electron is a

73
00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:12,600
Speaker 1: good candidate. Also, probably up there in the like a

74
00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:16,960
Speaker 1: list particles is Higgs boson, photons, and electrons. Yeah, maybe

75
00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:19,799
Speaker 1: the Higgs is more like a C list particle after

76
00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:22,000
Speaker 1: the photon and electron. Maybe it's sort of like the

77
00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,920
Speaker 1: behind the scenes mover and shaker that nobody really knows,

78
00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,880
Speaker 1: you know, I see, he's the Kevin Faggy of the

79
00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:32,200
Speaker 1: real universe. Who's that I don't even know that name.

80
00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:39,880
Speaker 1: He's the higgs Boson of Marvel movies, or the Higgs

81
00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,679
Speaker 1: Boson is the Kevin Figgy of the particle universe. Yeah,

82
00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,440
Speaker 1: either way, it holds everything together and digit weight. But

83
00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:48,360
Speaker 1: it is true that the Higgs boson plays a very

84
00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,320
Speaker 1: special role in this crazy dance of the particles due

85
00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,279
Speaker 1: to make our reality. But it does so because of

86
00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:57,600
Speaker 1: a really strange and special property that it has that

87
00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,320
Speaker 1: no other particle has that makes it really kind of weird. Sing.

88
00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:04,800
Speaker 1: So it's because it has this weird property that it

89
00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:06,400
Speaker 1: does what it does, or it just does what it

90
00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:08,760
Speaker 1: does and it has this weird property. It couldn't do

91
00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:11,359
Speaker 1: what it does without this weird property. This is what

92
00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,560
Speaker 1: gives it its superpower. It couldn't create mass for all

93
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:17,640
Speaker 1: the other particles without this really strange thing that it

94
00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:22,599
Speaker 1: does that no other particle in the universe can do. Yeah,

95
00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:25,839
Speaker 1: and this interesting property has something to do with headwear

96
00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:30,680
Speaker 1: app that's right, only because physicists that we are creative

97
00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:34,000
Speaker 1: people mathematically are always seeming to come up short when

98
00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:37,479
Speaker 1: it's time to name things. So there's a special mathematical

99
00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:41,080
Speaker 1: function that only the Higgs boson follows, and it has

100
00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,080
Speaker 1: a bit of a weird shape, So physicists looked around

101
00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,440
Speaker 1: for something that had a sort of similar shape and

102
00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:48,800
Speaker 1: give it that name. And so today on the program,

103
00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:56,400
Speaker 1: we'll be asking the question, what does a Mexican had

104
00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,640
Speaker 1: have to do with a higgs Boson? Sorry, I mean

105
00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:02,760
Speaker 1: the higgs boson, not a higgs boson. There's not just

106
00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:05,360
Speaker 1: like thousands and thousands of higgs bosons out there. There's

107
00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,320
Speaker 1: just the one. There's just an infinity amount potentially, but

108
00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:14,480
Speaker 1: they're all the same one. Yeah, it's the higgs boson,

109
00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:16,599
Speaker 1: even though it's a celess particle. I guess we should

110
00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,800
Speaker 1: still call it the Higgs boson. Well, yeah, I mean

111
00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:22,480
Speaker 1: you are the Jorge Cham right, not just a Jorge

112
00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:24,840
Speaker 1: Cham Are there more of you? I think there are

113
00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:26,839
Speaker 1: others in the world. Yeah, you wouldn't think it's a

114
00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:29,800
Speaker 1: common name, but I think it's It's happened more than once. Really,

115
00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:32,680
Speaker 1: have you gotten together online? Hang out the Jorge Chan

116
00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:36,160
Speaker 1: fast And I don't want to create a matter antimatter

117
00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:38,440
Speaker 1: annihilation or anything. What if it is the same meat,

118
00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:40,400
Speaker 1: but it's just from another universe. You want to avoid

119
00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:43,000
Speaker 1: those paradoxes. You could punch a hole in the multiverse.

120
00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:46,320
Speaker 1: Man travel the other dimensions. It's just a bad science

121
00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,200
Speaker 1: fiction movie I see. And then those other universes that

122
00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:52,440
Speaker 1: actually an Argentinian hat that the Higgs boson wears, or

123
00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:57,240
Speaker 1: maybe a Serbian hat or Russian hat. Yeah, it could be. Well.

124
00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:00,240
Speaker 1: I have actually met another Daniel Whiteson, not in real

125
00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:04,400
Speaker 1: life but online. Oh really, were they cooler or less

126
00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:06,960
Speaker 1: cooler than you? They were definitely cooler. I'm at minimum

127
00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:10,760
Speaker 1: cool value. He is a quite accomplished artist, actually living

128
00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:13,680
Speaker 1: in London. Turns out to be a very distant relative.

129
00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:16,840
Speaker 1: But it does sculpture and painting, and it's a it's

130
00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,240
Speaker 1: great stuff. People emailed me and said, wow, I love

131
00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:23,360
Speaker 1: your paintings, and you're like, thank you. I do paint

132
00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:26,600
Speaker 1: in my spare time in between physics experiment. Let me

133
00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,000
Speaker 1: refer you to the Artistic Bureau of the Daniel Whiteson firm.

134
00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:33,920
Speaker 1: My colleague here, you've only found one. I mean, no offense,

135
00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:35,760
Speaker 1: but I would think that you have a more common

136
00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:37,440
Speaker 1: name than needed. There might be more than two of

137
00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:39,800
Speaker 1: you know, they're only a couple of us. Weirdly, Whiteson

138
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:42,720
Speaker 1: is quite rare. Wits In much more common. But Whiteson

139
00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:48,120
Speaker 1: is a weird britishization of wights and and strangely very uncommon. Wow,

140
00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:52,000
Speaker 1: and you're related. We are related. Yes, Well anyways, um,

141
00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,720
Speaker 1: we're talking about the Higgs boson and how it's one

142
00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:57,320
Speaker 1: of the fundamental particles and the one that kind of

143
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,520
Speaker 1: binds everything together and gives things mass, and so it

144
00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:03,040
Speaker 1: has a strange property related to something that looks like

145
00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:05,920
Speaker 1: a Mexican hat. When physicists talk about the Higgs boson,

146
00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:09,120
Speaker 1: they almost invariably showed this one figure of a mathematical

147
00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:11,920
Speaker 1: function that looks like a sombrero. It looks a little

148
00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,600
Speaker 1: bit like a Mexican hat. It's ubiquitous in physics talks.

149
00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:16,840
Speaker 1: Everybody mentions it all the time, refers to it all

150
00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,680
Speaker 1: the time. But I was wondering if people out there

151
00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:22,920
Speaker 1: knew about this connection, if they understood about this special

152
00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,480
Speaker 1: property that this Mexican hat function gives the Higgs boson.

153
00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:28,920
Speaker 1: So Daniel went out there, as usual, out into the

154
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,800
Speaker 1: Internet to ask people the question, what does a Mexican

155
00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:34,720
Speaker 1: hat have to do with a Higgs boson? If you'd

156
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,120
Speaker 1: like to be the subject of absurd questions from a

157
00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:40,480
Speaker 1: physicist over the Internet without the opportunity to prepare, if

158
00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:42,800
Speaker 1: that sounds like fun to you, and I can't imagine

159
00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:46,400
Speaker 1: why it doesn't. Please participate in future episodes and write

160
00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,240
Speaker 1: to us two questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com.

161
00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:50,920
Speaker 1: So think about it for a second. How would you

162
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,240
Speaker 1: answer this question? Here's what people have to say. So,

163
00:08:55,480 --> 00:09:04,160
Speaker 1: Higgs boson are Higgs fiend probably some shape resemblance to

164
00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:08,360
Speaker 1: the Mexican hat. Yeah, it could be that. Well, if

165
00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,320
Speaker 1: the Higgs field was at a zero level of energy potential,

166
00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:13,559
Speaker 1: then we couldn't have any matter or mass in the universe.

167
00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:15,440
Speaker 1: And you've described it in the past as it being

168
00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:17,520
Speaker 1: like a ball on a hill that's trying to roll off,

169
00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:19,480
Speaker 1: and if it did reach you know, the floor the

170
00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:23,599
Speaker 1: ground state, then it would end up creating vacuum decay.

171
00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:25,280
Speaker 1: So I'd like to think that the Mexican hat is

172
00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:28,720
Speaker 1: just a different, more kind of cultural based example of this,

173
00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:31,360
Speaker 1: where you've got the ball, but instead of being on

174
00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:34,160
Speaker 1: a hill, it's on the top of a sombrero. Well,

175
00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:40,360
Speaker 1: I know about the Mexican had potential, and I saw

176
00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:46,720
Speaker 1: the funny drawing of a Mexican hat when the something

177
00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:52,480
Speaker 1: about the Higgs bossons explained, And I think that this

178
00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:57,760
Speaker 1: is the only link between the Mexican hat and Higgs boson.

179
00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:03,040
Speaker 1: Mexican hat, you're not Sombrero. I thought that Barretos had

180
00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,680
Speaker 1: not to do with Higgs bosons other than that, like everything,

181
00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:11,480
Speaker 1: it needs Higgs boson in order to exist. My only

182
00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:16,600
Speaker 1: guess would be that maybe I've seen wave functions for

183
00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:20,080
Speaker 1: quantum particles that kind of remind me of Sombrero. That's

184
00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:24,640
Speaker 1: an excellent question, and I have no idea. I don't

185
00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:29,400
Speaker 1: know who the Higgs pots on are, but like Mexican

186
00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:32,920
Speaker 1: hats are very colorful, so i'd say that tribe we're

187
00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:35,640
Speaker 1: talking about, I don't know what it is, but it

188
00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:39,120
Speaker 1: might be like a colorful thing. All right. Maybe the

189
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:41,440
Speaker 1: Higgs boson is not that famous, so people didn't have

190
00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,480
Speaker 1: no idea what there was the new Mexican hats. So

191
00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:47,840
Speaker 1: the Higgs Boson PR team needs to get somehow in

192
00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:51,920
Speaker 1: touch with Yeah, if you get what the Mexican had,

193
00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:55,560
Speaker 1: that uses because apparently it's pretty famous, maybe more so

194
00:10:55,640 --> 00:11:00,800
Speaker 1: than other hats. Well, Panama hats pretty famous. Oh that's right, Yeah,

195
00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:03,360
Speaker 1: are you the owner of any Panama hats? Panama hat?

196
00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:07,720
Speaker 1: It's not actually a Panama Are you saying it's just branding.

197
00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:11,040
Speaker 1: They're not actually from Panama. Well, the native Panamenian hats

198
00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:14,720
Speaker 1: are different than the one that people call Panama hats.

199
00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:16,959
Speaker 1: But anyway, so it's a pretty interesting. A lot of

200
00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:18,920
Speaker 1: people seem to know or think that it was some

201
00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:21,040
Speaker 1: some are related to the wave function or do some

202
00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,000
Speaker 1: sort of potential about the Higgs boson. Yeah, a lot

203
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,600
Speaker 1: of really informed ideas out there, some of them pretty

204
00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,560
Speaker 1: close to the mark. Not the one about burritos, but

205
00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:32,840
Speaker 1: that was a good guess. Anyway, Well, technically burritos are

206
00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,480
Speaker 1: made also out of quarks and electrons and use the

207
00:11:36,520 --> 00:11:40,280
Speaker 1: Higgs boson. Yes, every meal you had ose some of

208
00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:42,840
Speaker 1: its mass to the Higgs boson. That's true. It should

209
00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,040
Speaker 1: be getting a portion of the tips. Yeah, and if

210
00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:46,959
Speaker 1: you eat the whole burrito, you definitely feel those Higgs

211
00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,920
Speaker 1: bosons in your stomach. You get Higgs ear. But yeah,

212
00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:53,000
Speaker 1: so somehow the Higgs boson has this interesting property that

213
00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:55,760
Speaker 1: makes it special and it has a special shape to it.

214
00:11:55,920 --> 00:11:58,440
Speaker 1: And so Daniel, let's break it down for folks, recap

215
00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:00,720
Speaker 1: for us, what is the Higgs boson and what does

216
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:03,480
Speaker 1: the Higgs field? So the Higgs field is this thing

217
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:06,440
Speaker 1: that fills all of space, and we think that space

218
00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:09,040
Speaker 1: actually is filled with lots of different kinds of fields.

219
00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:11,439
Speaker 1: Remember that a modern view of space is not as

220
00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:15,000
Speaker 1: like emptiness or nothingness, but that every point in space

221
00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:18,600
Speaker 1: has quantum field, which means that it has the possibility

222
00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:21,360
Speaker 1: to have particles in it. Every point in space, for example,

223
00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,000
Speaker 1: can have an electric field or a magnetic field. It

224
00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:27,240
Speaker 1: can also have a Higgs field. It's like another kind

225
00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,000
Speaker 1: of way that space can wiggle. And in the modern

226
00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:33,240
Speaker 1: view of particles and fields, we think of space having

227
00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:36,280
Speaker 1: these fields in it, and particles are like wiggles in

228
00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:39,440
Speaker 1: those fields. For a photon, for example, is a wiggle

229
00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:43,200
Speaker 1: in the electromagnetic field, and a Higgs boson, the particle

230
00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:46,280
Speaker 1: associated with the Higgs field would then be a wiggle

231
00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:48,839
Speaker 1: in the Higgs field. So you might have like the

232
00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:51,200
Speaker 1: Higgs field all the way through space. And when we

233
00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:54,000
Speaker 1: smash particles together at the large hage On collider, we

234
00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:56,600
Speaker 1: excite that field and we create a Higgs boson, which

235
00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:59,120
Speaker 1: is like a little extra blob in that field, which

236
00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:02,520
Speaker 1: wiggles in the dissipates. And so the Higgs field is

237
00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:05,240
Speaker 1: the thing that fills all of space, and the particle

238
00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:08,120
Speaker 1: is a little wiggle in that field. And it's kind

239
00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:10,880
Speaker 1: of a special field because unlike some of the other fields,

240
00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:13,200
Speaker 1: like the electron field or the quark fields which make

241
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,440
Speaker 1: up matter, this one sort of like it. It's not

242
00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:19,040
Speaker 1: quite matter, right, but it gives things mass and matter. Yeah,

243
00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,120
Speaker 1: it is really a very special field and lots of

244
00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:24,199
Speaker 1: cool ways. Most of the fields that make up matter

245
00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:27,720
Speaker 1: fermion fields, like quark fields and left on fields. You know,

246
00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,880
Speaker 1: those are the things that make up the building blocks

247
00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:33,560
Speaker 1: of stuff. You know, up corks and down corks make

248
00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:37,239
Speaker 1: up the protons and neutrons inside our atoms and the electrons.

249
00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:39,800
Speaker 1: These are all fermions. There are matter fields, and the

250
00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:42,880
Speaker 1: other kind of fields are like force fields. The photon

251
00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:46,160
Speaker 1: is the field for the electromagnetic force, and there are

252
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,200
Speaker 1: fields for the W and Z bosons which make up

253
00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:51,520
Speaker 1: the weak force, and there's fields for the gluons for

254
00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:54,880
Speaker 1: the strong force. And then there's the Higgs boson, which

255
00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:57,839
Speaker 1: is different from all of those. It doesn't make up matter.

256
00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:00,280
Speaker 1: It's not something you find in the atom. It's not

257
00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,400
Speaker 1: stuff in that way, and it's also not really a

258
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:07,000
Speaker 1: force the way that like electromagnetism is or the weak

259
00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:09,800
Speaker 1: force is, and it's also different from the other ones

260
00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:13,840
Speaker 1: in that has no spin, Like electrons have spin, and

261
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,160
Speaker 1: photons have spin, and every other particle we've ever seen

262
00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:21,080
Speaker 1: has spin. But the Higgs does not have spin. It's

263
00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:23,520
Speaker 1: spin zero no matter what. Yeah, it's kind of a

264
00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,000
Speaker 1: different field because I think I've heard mathematically that it's different.

265
00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:29,520
Speaker 1: It's more like a constant the equations. Right, it's like

266
00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:32,000
Speaker 1: almost like a zero dimensional field. Yeah. We call it

267
00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:34,520
Speaker 1: a scale er because they can't point in any direction.

268
00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:37,520
Speaker 1: It's just like a number that fills all of space.

269
00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:41,160
Speaker 1: Fields can be like vectors, which, like the electromagnetic field,

270
00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:44,880
Speaker 1: has value but also has a direction. Like magnetic fields

271
00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:47,000
Speaker 1: also have a direction. You know, you have a magnetic

272
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,840
Speaker 1: field at some point in space, it's pulling in some direction.

273
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,320
Speaker 1: The Higgs field is just a number. It's a scale er,

274
00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,360
Speaker 1: so mathematically is different from the other fields. And that's

275
00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:57,760
Speaker 1: because it has no spin. These Higgs particles don't like

276
00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:01,080
Speaker 1: spin up or spin down, or spin one underspin two.

277
00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:03,520
Speaker 1: They just don't spin it all. It's just a number

278
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,160
Speaker 1: at every point in space, right, And it's this sort

279
00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:10,440
Speaker 1: of number that gives other particles mass. Like without this field,

280
00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:12,520
Speaker 1: particles wouldn't have the mass that they have. Yeah, the

281
00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,120
Speaker 1: Higgs not only has all these weird special properties, but

282
00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:18,520
Speaker 1: also it interacts with the other particles. So these fields

283
00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:20,840
Speaker 1: exist through all of space, but they don't just like

284
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,600
Speaker 1: hang out on top of each other. They do interact

285
00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,400
Speaker 1: with each other. So, for example, of the electromagnetic field

286
00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:29,560
Speaker 1: interacts with every other field that has a charge. So

287
00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:32,960
Speaker 1: that's why electrons can push against each other using electromagnetism.

288
00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:35,000
Speaker 1: So these fields somehow connect to each other, and the

289
00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,360
Speaker 1: Higgs field interacts with all the other fields where the

290
00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,440
Speaker 1: particles have mass. The Higgs field interacts with a lot

291
00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 1: of these particles, and the way it interacts with them

292
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:50,120
Speaker 1: changes the way the particles move as if they had mass. Yeah, well,

293
00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:52,200
Speaker 1: I guess that all these fields do sit on top

294
00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:54,160
Speaker 1: of each other, right, It's just that some kind of

295
00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,600
Speaker 1: interact with each other and some don't. Like there are

296
00:15:56,600 --> 00:15:58,440
Speaker 1: some fields that don't talk to other fields at all,

297
00:15:58,480 --> 00:15:59,920
Speaker 1: but there are some that sit on top of each

298
00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:01,360
Speaker 1: other there, but they do sort of like if you

299
00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:03,840
Speaker 1: do something in one, it's going to affect the others. Yeah,

300
00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:05,640
Speaker 1: you're right, they're all on top of each other. Like

301
00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:08,280
Speaker 1: every point in space has all of the fields. Some

302
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:10,840
Speaker 1: of them ignore each other, like the neutrino, for example,

303
00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:14,080
Speaker 1: totally ignores the electromagnetic field, and some of them interact

304
00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:16,240
Speaker 1: with each other so that energy can move between them,

305
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:18,360
Speaker 1: so energy can move from the photon field to the

306
00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:21,120
Speaker 1: electron field and back and forth, this kind of stuff.

307
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:23,120
Speaker 1: Some of them don't interact and some of them do,

308
00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:25,520
Speaker 1: and the Higgs interacts with a lot of them. So

309
00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:28,360
Speaker 1: the ones that it does interact with are the ones

310
00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:30,680
Speaker 1: that we say have mass, Like if it doesn't interact

311
00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:33,000
Speaker 1: with the Higgs field, then we say doesn't have mass. Yeah,

312
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:34,920
Speaker 1: that's right. And we talked about this once on our

313
00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:38,440
Speaker 1: episode about renormalization, about what it really means for particles

314
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,320
Speaker 1: to have mass. Without the Higgs, all the particles in

315
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,520
Speaker 1: the universe would be massless, Like electrons would fly through

316
00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:47,600
Speaker 1: the universe without mass, and so with the w boson,

317
00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:49,560
Speaker 1: and so would all of the particles. They would have

318
00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:52,200
Speaker 1: no mass. Now you add the Higgs field to the universe,

319
00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:55,600
Speaker 1: and it changes the way these particles moved through the universe,

320
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,200
Speaker 1: sort of the way like a photon moves through matter

321
00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:01,800
Speaker 1: different then it moves through a vacuum like it gets

322
00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:05,119
Speaker 1: absorbed by the atoms and re emitted. It effectively moves

323
00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,000
Speaker 1: slower through the universe because it's moving through matter in

324
00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 1: the same way. All the particles now move through space

325
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,639
Speaker 1: differently because they're busy interacting with the Higgs field, and

326
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,240
Speaker 1: the Higgs field interacts with these particles differently than every

327
00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:19,720
Speaker 1: other kind of interaction, and that interaction is exactly the

328
00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:22,720
Speaker 1: same as if the Higgs field wasn't there, but the

329
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:26,040
Speaker 1: particles had mass. So in one sense we say, truly

330
00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:29,160
Speaker 1: the particles and have no mass. Their mass comes from

331
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:31,480
Speaker 1: this interaction with the Higgs field, like the sort of

332
00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,560
Speaker 1: the bear. The pure particle on its own actually has

333
00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,600
Speaker 1: no mass, but it moves through space as if it

334
00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,959
Speaker 1: did have mass because it's busy interacting with this field.

335
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:44,560
Speaker 1: I feel like the run that's a very roundabout way

336
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:46,520
Speaker 1: of putting it. I think what he's saying is that

337
00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,520
Speaker 1: what we call mass is actually the interaction of these

338
00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,440
Speaker 1: particles with the Higgs field. It's one way to have mass.

339
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,160
Speaker 1: There are other ways you could have mass, but this

340
00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,680
Speaker 1: is one way that particles can get mass, and this

341
00:17:57,720 --> 00:17:59,600
Speaker 1: is the way that all the particles were familiar with

342
00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,200
Speaker 1: get mass. Dark matter has mass, but we're pretty sure

343
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,879
Speaker 1: it doesn't actually get mass through the Higgs field. So

344
00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:08,600
Speaker 1: you might be tempted to say, this is what mass means,

345
00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:10,679
Speaker 1: this is what it means to have mass. We just

346
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,320
Speaker 1: like reveal the nature of mass. But that's not quite

347
00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:16,240
Speaker 1: true because there are other ways to get mass. So

348
00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:18,640
Speaker 1: this is one way in which particles can get mass,

349
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:20,960
Speaker 1: but maybe not the only way. Well, I think it

350
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:23,960
Speaker 1: sort of maybe depends. Maybe what do you mean by mass? Right, Like,

351
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,240
Speaker 1: there's inertial mass, there's gravitational mass, and all masses to

352
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:30,119
Speaker 1: energy really at the end. So I guess maybe what

353
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:32,000
Speaker 1: do you mean by mass in this case? Is it

354
00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:34,080
Speaker 1: like the mass that you feel when you try to

355
00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:36,480
Speaker 1: push it and move it. Is it only the mass

356
00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:39,240
Speaker 1: related to moving? Yeah, here we're talking about inertial mass.

357
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:41,600
Speaker 1: We're talking about what it takes to get a particle moving.

358
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:43,920
Speaker 1: How a particle flies through space. You know how much

359
00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:46,800
Speaker 1: force is required to accelerate it. For example, the mass

360
00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:49,880
Speaker 1: that goes into like the equations of motions for a particle.

361
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:52,919
Speaker 1: And so if a particle has these interactions, then it

362
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:55,240
Speaker 1: changes how it gets from point A to point B.

363
00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:57,639
Speaker 1: And that is different if a particle interacts with the

364
00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:59,920
Speaker 1: Higgs field and if it doesn't and there are other

365
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,880
Speaker 1: ways to get inertial mass, there probably are other ways

366
00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:05,080
Speaker 1: to get initial mass. We've never discovered them, but we

367
00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:07,639
Speaker 1: suspect that there are. For example, dark matter, we know

368
00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:10,320
Speaker 1: it has some mass, but we don't understand how it

369
00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 1: gets mass, and we don't think it interacts with the

370
00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:15,280
Speaker 1: Higgs boson, so it can't get its mass from the Higgs.

371
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 1: And also people wonder about neutrinos. Neutrinos might be a

372
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,680
Speaker 1: really different kind of particle, and it might be myrono particles,

373
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,600
Speaker 1: which means that they are their own antiparticle, which means

374
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:27,959
Speaker 1: they can't get their mass from the Higgs. So there

375
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:31,119
Speaker 1: might be other ways to get mass. Interesting, but we

376
00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:33,240
Speaker 1: don't know what they are or I have any ideas

377
00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:35,600
Speaker 1: with the other way. We have some ideas, but we've

378
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:37,480
Speaker 1: never seen them. So the Higgs boson is sort of

379
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,760
Speaker 1: the only way we know for fundamental particles to get mass,

380
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:42,720
Speaker 1: but we do have some ideas for other ways it

381
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,560
Speaker 1: might happen. I see. But at least you know, as

382
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:48,439
Speaker 1: far as the universe is concerned, at least our universe

383
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:50,760
Speaker 1: or matter particles, that the stuff we're kind of made

384
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:52,960
Speaker 1: out of the Higgs field. It is how we get

385
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:55,399
Speaker 1: inertial mass, and without it we would all be flying

386
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,320
Speaker 1: around at the speed of light. Hey, which doesn't sound

387
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:03,120
Speaker 1: too bad, you know, and get play. This is much quicker. Yeah. Yeah,

388
00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:06,119
Speaker 1: The Higgs is a big bummer, let's be honest. Slows

389
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:08,399
Speaker 1: the party down. It weighs me down. It really weighs

390
00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:10,800
Speaker 1: on me. It's a massive bummer. All right. Well, let's

391
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,160
Speaker 1: get into this special property of the Higgs that makes

392
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:15,359
Speaker 1: it super special, and let's see what it has to

393
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:18,639
Speaker 1: do with a Mexican hat. But first, let's take a

394
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:33,480
Speaker 1: quick break. All right. We're talking about the Higgs boson

395
00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,520
Speaker 1: and how it's the universe's party pooper. Let's be honest.

396
00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:40,600
Speaker 1: Without the Higgs, we'd all be zipping around at the

397
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,239
Speaker 1: speed of light. Things we get done much faster, all right.

398
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:45,320
Speaker 1: Let me speak up in defense of the Higgs though.

399
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:47,720
Speaker 1: You know, at your party, when somebody hands your present

400
00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:50,560
Speaker 1: and it feels really good and heavy, you're like, oh,

401
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,560
Speaker 1: this is something good. That's also because of the Higgs boson.

402
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:59,439
Speaker 1: Good things coming small packages. The lighter it is, the

403
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:01,840
Speaker 1: more interesting it could be. Cash. Cash is pretty light.

404
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,200
Speaker 1: That's always a nice gift, all right, I'm gonna put

405
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,600
Speaker 1: you down on my Christmas list for an empty box

406
00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:10,480
Speaker 1: for that's right. Well it's not empty. We have a

407
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,480
Speaker 1: dark matter. So here you go, one particle of dark

408
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:16,400
Speaker 1: matter and that shot. My shopping is done for Jorge. Yeah,

409
00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:18,840
Speaker 1: there you go. I'm an easy body. But yeah, we're

410
00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:21,240
Speaker 1: talking about the Higgs boson and the Higgs field and

411
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,119
Speaker 1: how it's sort of different. I mean, we know it

412
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:26,439
Speaker 1: gives mass to most of the matter particles that we

413
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:28,640
Speaker 1: know about. There might be other ways to get mass,

414
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,840
Speaker 1: but the Higgs, at least as far as we're going serring,

415
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:35,280
Speaker 1: it's pretty fundamental, pretty important to our everyday experience. And

416
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:38,159
Speaker 1: you're saying that this kind of specialness is because of

417
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:41,320
Speaker 1: some mathematical property of it. That's right. Most of the

418
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 1: fields that are out there in the universe, the photon field,

419
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:46,679
Speaker 1: the electron field. If you have a chunk of space

420
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,000
Speaker 1: that's empty, you don't have any particles in it, we

421
00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:51,840
Speaker 1: call that vacuum. It still has those fields in it,

422
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 1: but those fields are like as close to zero as

423
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 1: they can be, sort of like a parking lot. It

424
00:21:57,680 --> 00:21:59,879
Speaker 1: can have cars in it, but it doesn't currently have

425
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,240
Speaker 1: like slots where you could put cars, and that's where

426
00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 1: those fields like to relax to. It's sort of like

427
00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:08,280
Speaker 1: their equilibrium, their default value of value of what I guess,

428
00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:12,679
Speaker 1: just like general excitability or like energy of the field.

429
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,560
Speaker 1: Like we talked about how the Higgs field, what is it?

430
00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:18,080
Speaker 1: It's a number through all of space, just like an

431
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:21,200
Speaker 1: electric field. Right, you can measure an electric field has

432
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 1: a certain value over here in a certain value over there.

433
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the value of the field. Electric

434
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,760
Speaker 1: fields like to be close to zero. If you pull

435
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,360
Speaker 1: as much energy as you can out of space, electric

436
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:34,679
Speaker 1: fields relax down to zero. That's like the lowest energy

437
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:38,040
Speaker 1: configuration for an electric field. It's at zero value of

438
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,159
Speaker 1: the field, there's no electric field. So most of the

439
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,080
Speaker 1: fields are like that, and it sort of makes sense,

440
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:44,040
Speaker 1: and you can think about it in your head, like

441
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:46,760
Speaker 1: the field has no value when there's no particles there

442
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:49,320
Speaker 1: and you add energy and then you get particles. Those

443
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 1: that energy goes into ripples of the field, which then

444
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,120
Speaker 1: wiggle around and move, and you can think about those

445
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:57,080
Speaker 1: as particles, and that sort of makes some sense, even

446
00:22:57,119 --> 00:22:59,679
Speaker 1: in this sort of bonkers view of particles. Is just

447
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,440
Speaker 1: like ripples in quantum fields. So that's how most fields are,

448
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,440
Speaker 1: but the Higgs field is different. When it relaxes its

449
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:10,760
Speaker 1: lowest energy configuration, when you like take all the particles out,

450
00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:14,040
Speaker 1: the vacuum state is at a very large value of

451
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 1: the Higgs field, some huge number. So you have a

452
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 1: chunk of space out there with nothing and no particles.

453
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:23,720
Speaker 1: It's filled with a very strong Higgs field, meaning like

454
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:28,040
Speaker 1: the Higgs field everywhere, even in empty space, has some

455
00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:31,320
Speaker 1: sort of like excitability about it, or some energy or

456
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of empt up. It's not. It doesn't

457
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,280
Speaker 1: like relax to zero. It doesn't relax to zero. And

458
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 1: the confusing thing is that's its lowest energy state. Like

459
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 1: when it relaxes, when you pull as much energy out

460
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,920
Speaker 1: as possible, it doesn't relax down to zero. It relaxes

461
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,320
Speaker 1: down to this weird non zero value that is the

462
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:52,240
Speaker 1: minimum energy configuration of the Higgs field at this very

463
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:54,800
Speaker 1: large value. It's sort of like if you pull all

464
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 1: the energy out of space and you discovered wow, and

465
00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,400
Speaker 1: now it has a very strong electric field in it,

466
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: it would be very strange. Yeah, it would be like

467
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 1: discovering the whole universe has like a charge to it almost.

468
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:06,679
Speaker 1: But the Higgs field you're saying it can go to

469
00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 1: zero or doesn't like to go to zero. It can

470
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 1: go to zero, but it doesn't like to And the

471
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:13,480
Speaker 1: way to think about this is to think about how

472
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:17,159
Speaker 1: things move, and when things move, there's a balance always

473
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 1: between kinetic energy, which is like the energy of motion,

474
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,879
Speaker 1: and potential energy. And you're used to thinking about this

475
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: when you think about like a string, for example, take

476
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 1: a string on a guitar. Its lowest energy state, when

477
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:30,880
Speaker 1: it's relaxed, you haven't plucked it, is that it's just straight.

478
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:33,959
Speaker 1: Right now, if you pull on the string, you deform it,

479
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: You bend the string, then it has energy and even

480
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: before you let it go, it has energy in it

481
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,959
Speaker 1: because of its arrangement, because of its configuration, because it's

482
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:45,720
Speaker 1: it's new position being deformed from straight. And we call

483
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,199
Speaker 1: that potential energy, sort of like if you put a

484
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,439
Speaker 1: book on a shelf that has gravitational potential energy. So

485
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 1: you pull on the string, it has potential energy. You

486
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:57,199
Speaker 1: let it go, it vibrates back and forth. That's kinetic energy, right,

487
00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:59,359
Speaker 1: So it's oscillating. So now this string has a lot

488
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:01,399
Speaker 1: of energy. It's silating back and forth. But when the

489
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,119
Speaker 1: energy dissipates out of the string into something else, you know,

490
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 1: heat of the room or whatever. It relaxes back down

491
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: to the lowest potential energy state, which is when the

492
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: string is flat. So that's the way a normal field operates.

493
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:17,160
Speaker 1: The Higgs field is weird because it likes to be deformed.

494
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 1: It relaxes its lowest energy state. Is like having a

495
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 1: string that's bent instead of straight, or maybe like having

496
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 1: a string that never stops vibrating. So that kind of

497
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 1: what you mean, like it's even if it's just sitting

498
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: there for a long time, it will still have a

499
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: little bit of a hump to it because the vibration

500
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: is energy, is kinetic energy. That would mean you have

501
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: like particles in there. We're talking about what happens when

502
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:39,639
Speaker 1: there's no motion, when there's no particles, When you have

503
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 1: space without particles in it, we're talking about the vacuum state.

504
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: The lowest energy configuration is when the field has a

505
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: large value, and that's because that's actually the place where

506
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,440
Speaker 1: it has the smallest potential energy. And that's where this

507
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: weird Mexican half function comes in. It explains the shape

508
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,160
Speaker 1: of the potential energy and why it likes to minimize

509
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,000
Speaker 1: at a value very far zero field. Well, maybe a

510
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:04,199
Speaker 1: step back a little bit too. It would it be

511
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,959
Speaker 1: weird if the Higgs boson had a zero value, because like,

512
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 1: if the Higgs boson or Higgs field had a zero

513
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 1: was zero anywhere, it would mean that whatever is moving

514
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: through there had zero mass. Is that true? If the

515
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 1: Higgs minimized at zero, then you're right, everything in the

516
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: universe would be massless. It's only because the Higgs has

517
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 1: this non zero standard value that things get mass. It's

518
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: from the value of the Higgs field that things have massed.

519
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: So in a universe where the Higgs field goes to zero,

520
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 1: then everything is massless. Interesting, But the Higgs field doesn't

521
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,880
Speaker 1: go to zero ever, right, Like it has this kind

522
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,199
Speaker 1: of floor to it. Yeah, exactly, It doesn't like to

523
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:44,080
Speaker 1: go to zero. It can potentially ascilly down to zero temporarily,

524
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: sort of like a string convibrating, get into a weird configuration.

525
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,159
Speaker 1: But when it relaxes, it likes to go to this

526
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 1: really weird non zero value. And it's only because of

527
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,440
Speaker 1: that that all these other particles have mass. So because

528
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: the Higgs likes to chill out of this very intense state,

529
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 1: all the other particles get mass. Interesting, and this is

530
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 1: the only field that we know that has a non

531
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: zero relaxed state. It's the only one exactly, We've never

532
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,160
Speaker 1: met another field like this, and this is the way

533
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 1: that it happens. This is sort of like the theoretical discovery.

534
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 1: People were wondering, like, jeez, how can we get mass

535
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: these particles? And Higgs and the other folks came up

536
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: with this idea. They were like, well, what if there's

537
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: a really strange field that chills out and when it relaxes,

538
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: it doesn't actually go to zero. It just sort of

539
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 1: like fills the universe with itself at a really intense

540
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: value that would mathematically accomplish what we needed. But it

541
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:36,199
Speaker 1: was a very very strange idea at the time, and

542
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,120
Speaker 1: it's still kind of bizarre, yeah, because it's also the only,

543
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 1: as you said, scaler field, right, the only sort of

544
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: like non directional field. It's almost like a clusion the equation.

545
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 1: You can put that on your Yelp review for the universe.

546
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,199
Speaker 1: You're like this, I don't know, a little ugly. The

547
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: writer should have come up with a better plot point,

548
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: I mean, like a clusion. Like they were looking at

549
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 1: the equation and they say, hey, we had a number here,

550
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:00,200
Speaker 1: it's going to make things work, and putting another where

551
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: there means that there's a scalar field in the universe. Yeah,

552
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:04,880
Speaker 1: you can think of it like a clue. It's also

553
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,160
Speaker 1: sort of beautiful, like things in the universe don't really

554
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 1: make sense without it. And then you come up with

555
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,240
Speaker 1: this one really strange but kind of simple idea and

556
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 1: it all clicks together like mathematically boom. It explains why

557
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 1: the w's have mass and the Z has mass and

558
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:23,000
Speaker 1: the photon doesn't. It explains how all the other particles

559
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 1: get mass. It's very weird, you're right, and it makes

560
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:28,199
Speaker 1: this prediction that there's this new field through all of

561
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,119
Speaker 1: space that's different from every other field we've ever seen.

562
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: But it does bring all the mathematics together to explain

563
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: what we're seeing, and that's why it was such an

564
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,760
Speaker 1: attractive idea theoretically. So you're saying that this sort of

565
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 1: like like a non zero like kind of buzz or

566
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 1: pull string of the Higgs boson this energy that it has,

567
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 1: and it's a default valley somehow looks like a Mexican head.

568
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 1: How does that come about? Well, in order to understand

569
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 1: where a field will relax to. You need to think

570
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 1: about the shape of its potential, and so most fields

571
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 1: their men mum value where the potential is lowest, which

572
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: means where they like to relax to is at the

573
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:06,800
Speaker 1: value of the field being zero. You can think of

574
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: the penantilla as being just like a cup, and at

575
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,560
Speaker 1: the center is the zero value of the field. And if,

576
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 1: for example, you put a ball in there, it would

577
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 1: roll down and it would relax at the bottom of

578
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 1: the cup, and that's what most fields do. And the

579
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 1: Higgs field, however, is weird. It's sort of like a cup,

580
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 1: but then in the very center of the cup it

581
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 1: has a big bump, maybe sort of like the bottom

582
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 1: of a wine bottle, you know. Sometimes it has that

583
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 1: bump in it for your thumb. What would happen if

584
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 1: you put a ball in there, Well, it might bounce

585
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: around a little bit and occasionally get to the center,

586
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 1: but it would typically roll off away from the center

587
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: and settle down in the valley. So the lowest point

588
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: of the Higgs potential is not at zero. It has

589
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: this weird shape. We have a bump in the middle

590
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 1: and then sort of like a circle around the middle

591
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 1: that has this minimum value in it before it rises

592
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 1: up again. Some people talk about this like it's the

593
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: bottom of a wine bottle. Other people call this the

594
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 1: Mexican hat shape because the sombrero sort of has a

595
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 1: point in the middle and then rises on the outside. Right,

596
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: it's kind of like there's almost like a little trench

597
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 1: kind of that goes in a circle, and that's where

598
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 1: the energy instead of like going to the center. That's

599
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: shaped like there's a groove that goes around in a circle,

600
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: and so that's where the energy kind of tends to go. Yeah,

601
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: if you have minimum energy, you have to head for

602
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: low potential right where the field relaxes when there's no

603
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: particles around. It's no actual Higgs bosons or no hadron

604
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: colliders smashing particles together and make energy density. If you

605
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:31,400
Speaker 1: have vacuums, you empty space. Everything has to relax to

606
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,760
Speaker 1: its lowest energy value. The lowest energy value for the

607
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,600
Speaker 1: Higgs is not at field equal zero's that's the field

608
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 1: equals some other very high value. Because that's where this

609
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: Mexican hat has its lowest dip. It doesn't dip down

610
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 1: in the middle where the field is zero. It dips

611
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 1: down as you say in this trench around the middle,

612
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 1: which is very far from zero because there's like a

613
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: bump in the middle that doesn't let it settle in

614
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 1: the middle. I guess the question is what middle of

615
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: are we talking about? Like I can see it in

616
00:30:58,040 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 1: my head. It sort of looks like a Mexican hat

617
00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: or the bottom of a wine bottle. But I guess

618
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: the question is what are we looking at? What are

619
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 1: we plotting in this shape? So we're plotting the value

620
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 1: of the Higgs field itself. That's the vertical value. So

621
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: we're planting the value of the Higgs field itself. That's

622
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 1: like the horizontal values, the things that are like sort

623
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,959
Speaker 1: of the directions of the hat. And then the vertical

624
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: value is the potential energy. So the Higgs field has

625
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 1: different potential energies for different values of the field, and

626
00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 1: most fields have minimum potential energy at field equal zero.

627
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 1: This one, you get to a minimum in the field

628
00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 1: as you move away from the value of the Higgs

629
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: field itself. M But I thought the Higgs field was scaler,

630
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 1: meaning like it's just a number. How can I have

631
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 1: two dimensions? Yeah, it is the scaler, but it's actually

632
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: a complex scale er. It's not a real number. It

633
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: has a real and an imaginary part. So it's sort

634
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: of like there are two directions in the Higgs field.

635
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: It's just a number, but it's actually a vector in

636
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: complex space. Yeah, I think I think you're saying that

637
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 1: some of this potential has another the engine. I guess

638
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 1: in complex imaginary space, because I guess it's quantum, right,

639
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 1: and it's like a way function, and so therefore it

640
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: has this sort of you know, imaginary dimension. Yeah, there's

641
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:12,920
Speaker 1: a real and imaginary part, just like every complex number,

642
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: you know, like seven plus two I there's really two

643
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: numbers there that are sort of independent from each other.

644
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: But you could also just think about this in one dimension,

645
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: you know, you could just think about like having a

646
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: V shape potential versus having like a W shaped potential.

647
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:29,960
Speaker 1: If you have a W shaped potential where the center

648
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,280
Speaker 1: of the WS at zero, then you're gonna want to

649
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: relax down to a value that's away from zero, because

650
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 1: the trenches the bottoms of the W are away from

651
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: the zero value of the field. And that's what this

652
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: field likes to do. Interesting, it doesn't like to relax

653
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,320
Speaker 1: to zero. It likes to relax it's some other value

654
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: in the trenches of the Mexican head. And it's kind

655
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 1: of interesting because I've heard that it wasn't always like that,

656
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 1: Like maybe at the beginning of the universe is when

657
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: this Mexican head form. Yeah, we don't exactly know what

658
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,000
Speaker 1: happened in the very beginning of universe, but we think

659
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: that as the universe cooled, this potential was sort of revealed.

660
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 1: Like if the whole universe is a higher temperature, it's

661
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 1: much denser, it's crazier than we think that this potential

662
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 1: originally in the early universe had a different shape. It

663
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 1: was more like a V or like a U where

664
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 1: it minimizes at the zero value. And then as the

665
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 1: universe cools, we think it's sort of relaxed down to

666
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: having this shape. And the interesting thing is the Higgs

667
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 1: field might have started out at the center, right, It

668
00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 1: might have started out at zero value, and then as

669
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: the universe cooled, it had to sort of like roll

670
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 1: down this new bump in the center of its potential

671
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: towards a larger value of the field. All right, So

672
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: then maybe the universe it's it's almost like at some

673
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: point in the beginning of the universe, the universe somehow

674
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: got mass like it needs to be massless everything, at

675
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: least the matter particles. And then something happened to this

676
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 1: field that made suddenly everything haf massed exactly. And that's

677
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:57,000
Speaker 1: the moment in the universe when electromagnetism and the weak

678
00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 1: force split off from each other. Because that's what the

679
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 1: Higgs boson does, is it breaks this symmetry between electromagnetism

680
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 1: and the weak force, which we think are really all

681
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 1: just one sort of big, happy force. But the W

682
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: and the Z particles, which carry the information for the

683
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:14,359
Speaker 1: weak force, they're really really massive. And that happened at

684
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,840
Speaker 1: that moment when the Higgs boson sort of rolled away

685
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 1: from the middle and settled at this large value. And

686
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 1: we call that electric weak symmetry breaking. So there was

687
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:25,120
Speaker 1: a time in the early universe when we think the

688
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:28,920
Speaker 1: weak force was as powerful as electricity and magnetism, and

689
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:31,920
Speaker 1: then the Higgs broke it. Oh, man, that Higgs. What

690
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 1: a bully man the week fourth week. It's just doing

691
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: its job, man, it's just doing its job. But we

692
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,879
Speaker 1: think of it this also in terms of like phase transitions,

693
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: Like the universe was very different before this and very

694
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 1: different after this moment, and you know people. You might

695
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:49,800
Speaker 1: hear people talking about like how there were different laws

696
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 1: of physics before this phase transition or something, and that's

697
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 1: because you know, these things control how things operated. The

698
00:34:56,719 --> 00:34:58,960
Speaker 1: things have no mass than the weak force is very

699
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: very powerful, than the effective laws of physics, the things

700
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,520
Speaker 1: we experience would be very different. Deep down, there's still

701
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: like the basic laws of physics underneath everything that are

702
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: controlling how this happens. Those don't change, but you know,

703
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 1: the way the things end up interacting and the way

704
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 1: they come together to form complex matter, that does change

705
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:19,360
Speaker 1: when you have one of these like big moments in

706
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 1: the universe. So that's why they call it like a

707
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:24,799
Speaker 1: phase transition in the laws of physics, like things click

708
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,760
Speaker 1: together differently, depending maybe on the size of the universe

709
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 1: or or the density of it. All right, well, let's

710
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 1: get into what this all means. Why is it important

711
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:36,759
Speaker 1: that the Higgs field has this potential shape like a

712
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: Mexican head. So let's get into that. But first let's

713
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:53,360
Speaker 1: take another quick break. All Right, we're talking about the

714
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,600
Speaker 1: Higgs field, and Daniel, you're telling me that it's weird

715
00:35:56,640 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 1: because the Higgs field relaxes to a value that's not zero.

716
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:02,799
Speaker 1: Most fields like to relax to zero. They like to

717
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:05,879
Speaker 1: chill out and just not do any work, or they

718
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: like to just do nothing. But the Higgs field is

719
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,640
Speaker 1: weird because it relaxes to sort of like an ampt

720
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: up value, like it's ready to go at all times. Yeah,

721
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:16,799
Speaker 1: it's sort of like you go into a room of

722
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: kindergarteners napping and they're all laying on mats on the floor,

723
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 1: but the Higgs field is sort of like up on

724
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:24,600
Speaker 1: the ceiling and you're like, really, that's where you like

725
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,279
Speaker 1: to relax. What kid is that one? The one on

726
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: the ceiling that's Peter Higgs as a toddler. It's like

727
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:35,360
Speaker 1: it's ready to go. But even though it's not moving,

728
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:37,439
Speaker 1: what we're just saying, it's like it's ready. It's ready

729
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 1: for action. It's ready for action. And the thing to

730
00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 1: avoid being confused about is that it doesn't have energy

731
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:45,240
Speaker 1: in it. That's where it relaxes when it doesn't have energy.

732
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 1: You know, the universe with minimum energy has a huge

733
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:51,360
Speaker 1: value of the Higgs field. It's a really bizarre concept.

734
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:53,879
Speaker 1: It really breaks a lot of the assumptions we make

735
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,240
Speaker 1: in the intuition we have like connecting like fields and energy,

736
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:00,120
Speaker 1: and so it's this number, this this number that's not

737
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: zero that gives things mass because what happens like as

738
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 1: a particle moves through this field, it runs into this

739
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:09,719
Speaker 1: number or this number slows the particle down because the

740
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:13,040
Speaker 1: Higgs field has this value and the particles interact with

741
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,760
Speaker 1: the field, then it's everywhere, And so as an electron

742
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:18,759
Speaker 1: flies through the universe, it experiences this Higgs field. It's

743
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:21,200
Speaker 1: sort of like the only way we can tell that

744
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:24,320
Speaker 1: the field is there is because it has this effect

745
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: on all the particles that were out there. So we

746
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,720
Speaker 1: can like sort of detect the existence of this Higgs

747
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 1: field filling space because it changes the way particles move

748
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:36,959
Speaker 1: as if they have mass. Interesting, and so I guess

749
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 1: the bigger question is what does it all mean? Like

750
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 1: why is the Higgs field like that? Why doesn't it

751
00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 1: have a zero value when it's relaxed, Like what what's

752
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 1: making it that way? You can look at it from

753
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:51,360
Speaker 1: a few different ways, like theoretically, this is like the

754
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: simplest possible way to solve this problem. You know, they say, well,

755
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 1: what do we need this particle to do in order

756
00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:00,440
Speaker 1: to have this property and then give mass to all

757
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 1: the other particles. So they came up with like the

758
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 1: simplest shape they could for this function that has this property,

759
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 1: has a minimum far from zero. You're saying, that's the

760
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,800
Speaker 1: only way the cluge works. It's the simplest possible cluege.

761
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:16,759
Speaker 1: You could have much more elaborate cluges, right, much more

762
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:19,239
Speaker 1: complex functions. This is like the simplest function they could

763
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 1: think of to make this cluge happen. And you know,

764
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 1: theoretical physics is always about like harmony and simplicity, right,

765
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: because I guess if you came up with the field

766
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 1: that was zero at its lowest state, that wouldn't be

767
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:31,080
Speaker 1: a solution, right, it would just be zero exactly. Then

768
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,800
Speaker 1: it would just minimize the zero and nothing would have mass.

769
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: And for this trick to work, for the Higgs mechanism

770
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 1: to work, the Higgs field has to relax to a

771
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:40,839
Speaker 1: non zero value. Doesn't work otherwise. So this is sort

772
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:43,520
Speaker 1: of the simplest function possible. It doesn't mean that it's

773
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,320
Speaker 1: the function in nature, right. The Higgs potential in nature

774
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 1: is something we're still figuring out by doing experiments the

775
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 1: Large Hadron Collider to really understand the shape of it.

776
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: Because what happens when you do experiments, is you excite

777
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 1: the Higgs field, you pour extra energy into it, and

778
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: then it wiggles, and when it wiggles, it's making Higgs boson.

779
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 1: And so by understanding like how many Higgs bosons you

780
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:04,880
Speaker 1: can make, like how much energy does it take to

781
00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:07,279
Speaker 1: excite the field to two or three Higgs bosons, we

782
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 1: can explore the shape of this potential function and understand like,

783
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:13,080
Speaker 1: you know, where its edges are and how it moves

784
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:14,799
Speaker 1: and stuff. So we're still trying to figure that out

785
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,400
Speaker 1: and see if the function is actually described by this

786
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 1: Mexican potential. Maybe there are other weird wiggles in it

787
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:23,800
Speaker 1: we don't even know about. M I see, I guess

788
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,399
Speaker 1: Another question is is it changing? Has it always sort

789
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,359
Speaker 1: of looked like this? And then we talked about how

790
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the universe it wasn't like that,

791
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,400
Speaker 1: But is it still changing today? We don't think that

792
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 1: it's changing today. We think that it's stable. The universe

793
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:38,240
Speaker 1: has sort of like cooled down to a pretty low

794
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:41,920
Speaker 1: temperature and sort of like revealed this shape of the potential.

795
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 1: You know, you can imagine it's sort of like the

796
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,520
Speaker 1: ocean emptying and revealing the shape of the bottom. You know,

797
00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: before the ocean empties, things float on the surface, it

798
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter where the shape at the bottom is.

799
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:54,799
Speaker 1: But as the universe cools, it's sort of like reveals

800
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 1: things down at the bottom and everything relaxes down and

801
00:39:57,400 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 1: you know, the shape of the ocean floor is actually important.

802
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,320
Speaker 1: So we think we're down there at the ocean floor,

803
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: that we're at this potential. We don't actually know because

804
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:07,160
Speaker 1: you know, we know mary a little about the universe,

805
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 1: and importantly we don't know sort of like whether there

806
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: are other wiggles in this potential, like whether there are

807
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,680
Speaker 1: minima and the potential that sort of go below where

808
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 1: we are. The Higgs Boson sort of like got stuck

809
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:22,800
Speaker 1: in this one minimum, but there could be other minima

810
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,400
Speaker 1: out there. I see. It's like there's maybe not just

811
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 1: one groove that goes into circle and at the rim

812
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:31,439
Speaker 1: with this wine bottle bottom or Mexican hat, But maye

813
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:34,720
Speaker 1: there are other wiggles somewhere further out, further out or

814
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:37,400
Speaker 1: further in. It could be that when the universe relaxed,

815
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:39,399
Speaker 1: the Higgs Boson just sort of like fell into this

816
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: one groove. But as you say, there could be many grooves. Wait,

817
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 1: what so maybe it's not a Mexican head, is what

818
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 1: you're saying. Yeah, maybe it's not a Mexican hat. Like,

819
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 1: we know that there's this like dip far from zero

820
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:52,600
Speaker 1: that the Higgs boson is sort of stuck in right now,

821
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:54,719
Speaker 1: and we know that it doesn't like to be at zero,

822
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 1: but we don't know sort of what's in between. We

823
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,239
Speaker 1: don't know if, for example, there are other grooves between

824
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,760
Speaker 1: us and zero or also out past us at higher

825
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: values of the Higgs field. And it's important because where

826
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,239
Speaker 1: the Higgs field minimizes determines not just the fact that

827
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 1: the particles do have mass, but how much mass they have.

828
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:16,240
Speaker 1: Like if the Higgs field minimized at half of its value, boom,

829
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,759
Speaker 1: all the particles suddenly half their mass. Same thing for

830
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:23,080
Speaker 1: if it minimizes it twice its value. So it's really important.

831
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 1: Exactly where it's settled completely determines all the dynamics of

832
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,840
Speaker 1: our universe. It's very sensitive to exactly where the Higgs

833
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 1: boson is sitting, right but what is this thing actually dynamic?

834
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:35,239
Speaker 1: Like does it have the possibility to like jump to

835
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: another groove? Like is it wiggling all the time, or

836
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 1: is it just like is this mathematical thing just like

837
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 1: this fixed thing and that's where we're at. No, it

838
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 1: is dynamic, and every time you make a Higgs boson,

839
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 1: you are wiggling the Higgs field. Like in an empty universe,

840
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,239
Speaker 1: the Higgs field would just be there doing nothing. But

841
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:53,840
Speaker 1: every time there's energy, every time the collisions, and some

842
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 1: of that energy goes into the Higgs field, then it

843
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,440
Speaker 1: creates wiggles in that field. If you put enough energy

844
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:01,520
Speaker 1: into the Higgs field, you could wiggle it so it

845
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:04,279
Speaker 1: like gets over a hump and maybe get stuck in

846
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:08,840
Speaker 1: a different groove. Wait, what like if as you're colliding particles,

847
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,600
Speaker 1: maybe you can excite you know, the Higgs field where

848
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,120
Speaker 1: you're colliding the particles, it could maybe like snap to

849
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 1: a different configuration exactly. Imagine like you have a ball

850
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:20,600
Speaker 1: and it's sitting in a sombrerow, and now you give

851
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 1: that ball energy, it can like get out of that

852
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 1: little groove and maybe if there are other grooves, it

853
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 1: can then relax into those grooves. So, as you say,

854
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:30,800
Speaker 1: you could collide particles and you could excite the Higgs

855
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:34,440
Speaker 1: field and you could snap into another configuration locally, just

856
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:37,600
Speaker 1: like right where you are, and relax that that value instead.

857
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:40,040
Speaker 1: And I've heard that could be catastrophic because then that

858
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:43,839
Speaker 1: could propagate and like infect the other bits of space around. Yeah,

859
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:45,960
Speaker 1: that would be devastating because the rest of the universe

860
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:49,239
Speaker 1: would then also relax to that new value. It would

861
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 1: happen sort of at the speed of light, not instantaneously,

862
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,719
Speaker 1: to propagate out from that point. The Higgs field now

863
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 1: collapsing to this new lower value of the field, and

864
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:00,920
Speaker 1: that would change the way physics were works completely. But

865
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: why would it propagate? Like putn't it? You know, if

866
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:05,799
Speaker 1: I just change it in one spot, why would it

867
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:08,320
Speaker 1: make the other spots change as well? Because the Higgs

868
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:11,279
Speaker 1: field is meshed together, you can't have like discontinuities in

869
00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:14,360
Speaker 1: the field. You know, the equations that describe how the

870
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:18,080
Speaker 1: Higgs field oscillates and where relaxes, they're like a wave equation,

871
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:20,880
Speaker 1: and so it tells you not just how the Higgs

872
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,719
Speaker 1: field oscillates at any point, but how different points on

873
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:25,920
Speaker 1: the Higgs field talk to each other and they're all

874
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:29,319
Speaker 1: linked together. And so that's for example, how energy moves

875
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:31,920
Speaker 1: through the Higgs fields. The Higgs boson propagates from one

876
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,680
Speaker 1: point to another, and so they're definitely connected to each other.

877
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 1: And if one collapses and the information propagates through the

878
00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:40,880
Speaker 1: Higgs field to other points in space. I see, But

879
00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 1: wouldn't the rest of the field just kind of like

880
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: stamp down that little bump, you know what I mean? Like,

881
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:48,440
Speaker 1: why would that bump survive and spread out? What wouldn't

882
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: the rest of the field kind of like tend to

883
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,400
Speaker 1: smooth it out? Yeah, if it jumped into a higher value,

884
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:55,600
Speaker 1: if it jumped into a minimum that had a higher

885
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:57,279
Speaker 1: value of the Higgs field, You're right, it would be

886
00:43:57,320 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 1: like a spike, and then it would it would get

887
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:01,719
Speaker 1: stamped out back down to the value where we are.

888
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,800
Speaker 1: But what if it jumped into a value that was lower,

889
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 1: Like what if between us and zero there's another minimum,

890
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: like a true minimum. We're sort of like trapped up

891
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 1: there on a ledge somewhere, but there's like really a

892
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 1: lower spot for the field to relax to. Then if

893
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: it relaxed to that new value at any point in space,

894
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: that would spread the whole field would sort of collapse. Wow, right, Yeah,

895
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:24,880
Speaker 1: that's what people call the Higgs boson Higgs field collapse.

896
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:27,239
Speaker 1: Which could end the universe. And so if we have

897
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: just a Mexican half potential, that's not an issue because

898
00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 1: we're in the minimum. It's a true minimum. There's nowhere

899
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 1: else to go. But if there are other wiggles in

900
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 1: this Mexican half between us and zero, then it's possible

901
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:42,120
Speaker 1: that the Higgs fields could collapse, and by creating the

902
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:45,080
Speaker 1: Higgs boson in collisions, you could get the Higgs like

903
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:47,640
Speaker 1: out of its little trench and into a lower trench

904
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 1: and trigger that collapse. Okay, first of all, hey, we

905
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 1: don't know what this Mexican had looks like like. They

906
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:56,719
Speaker 1: it might have little bumps in in the middle that

907
00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:59,160
Speaker 1: we don't we don't know about. We don't know exactly.

908
00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:01,040
Speaker 1: We've only sort of flored the little area in the

909
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:03,520
Speaker 1: vicinity of the higgs where it is. We know the

910
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 1: value of the minimum, and we've explored sort of rounded

911
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:09,280
Speaker 1: by tweaking the Higgs and perturbing it, making the field

912
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 1: oscillated in collisions, but we don't know exactly the shape

913
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:17,000
Speaker 1: of this potential. And second of all, in the collisions

914
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 1: you're doing at the particle collider, that you could could

915
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:24,000
Speaker 1: end the universe potentially, and you know this. Is that

916
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:27,880
Speaker 1: what you're saying. It's like, yeah, we know that, because

917
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:29,719
Speaker 1: that this could happen, But we don't know if it's

918
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:32,520
Speaker 1: gonna happen. So but let's cross cross our fingers and

919
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 1: hope for the best. My lawyer is whispering my ear

920
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:38,600
Speaker 1: over here, Hold on a moment. That's technically true. We're

921
00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 1: fairly confident that the shape of the potential is simple.

922
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:44,400
Speaker 1: Fairly confident that you're not going to destroy the universe.

923
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:50,400
Speaker 1: Is that what your lawyer is telling you? Well, I

924
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 1: guess the good thing is that if you do destroy

925
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:54,719
Speaker 1: the universe, nobody can sue you. I guess that is

926
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:58,239
Speaker 1: that your backup plan there? Yeah, eat, you're unsuitable if

927
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 1: you destroy the universe. Yeah, exactly. We will pay everybody

928
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:05,120
Speaker 1: a million dollars if we destroy the universe. I guarantee,

929
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: and one currency, everybody gets a million higgs boson joking aside,

930
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:14,080
Speaker 1: We do have some ideas for the shape of this potential,

931
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 1: because it turns out that the shape of it depends

932
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:19,360
Speaker 1: a lot on the mass of the other particles. It

933
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 1: comes out of the complex interaction between the Higgs and

934
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 1: the top cork, and the Higgs and the w Boson.

935
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:26,719
Speaker 1: So we do have some ways to get clues about

936
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:29,360
Speaker 1: the shape of this potential, and the information we have

937
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 1: so far suggests that it's a very very stable um,

938
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:36,399
Speaker 1: that it's been very very difficult, essentially impossible to get

939
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,200
Speaker 1: the Higgs out of its minimum, that this potential is

940
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:41,799
Speaker 1: very very steep. Even if there are other minima, the

941
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:45,239
Speaker 1: walls sort of protecting us from those other minima are

942
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:50,320
Speaker 1: very tall and very steep. Right, you think fairly confident

943
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:52,959
Speaker 1: going to I guess you know, like, you know, there's

944
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 1: a one in a million chance that one of my

945
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 1: cartoons could end the universe. I'd be like, maybe I

946
00:46:57,440 --> 00:46:59,760
Speaker 1: should stick to engineering. You know, one in a million?

947
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 1: Is that the threshold for you? If it was like

948
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:04,319
Speaker 1: one of a billion, you'd still go ahead. That might

949
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:06,560
Speaker 1: think about changing career is yeah? But but do you

950
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 1: guys are pressing on your like unlikely, but let's hope

951
00:47:10,040 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 1: for the best. Yeah, unlikely, but let's hope for the best.

952
00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:16,040
Speaker 1: I mean, what else can you do in life? It

953
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:18,319
Speaker 1: would be pretty exciting, all right. I feel like you're

954
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,520
Speaker 1: sticking up your your finger up your nose pretty deep

955
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 1: in there, and who knows what's going to happen? That's true.

956
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:25,000
Speaker 1: But that's also true every time you do anything at

957
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:27,000
Speaker 1: the boundary, you never really know, you know, when we

958
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,719
Speaker 1: send her over to Mars, we could like irritate the

959
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:32,520
Speaker 1: local inhabitants that they could launch an interplanetary attack and

960
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:35,040
Speaker 1: wipe us all out, right, But we go to Mars anyway,

961
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 1: I think that's even less likely. I think we're fairly

962
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:41,360
Speaker 1: confident that Mars won't attack. Well, we're fairly confident to

963
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:45,279
Speaker 1: have advance illisations, right that we can see Mars and

964
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,239
Speaker 1: we've flown around. It could be subterranean, right, they could

965
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 1: be laying in weight, in which case they don't have spaceships. Right,

966
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:58,000
Speaker 1: So also, it's not going to end the universe. We

967
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:01,840
Speaker 1: might get attacked, but it's not gonna end the entire universe,

968
00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 1: all right, So wiping out humanity and Earth, okay, threatening

969
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 1: the entire universe, that's over the line. Get yeah, because

970
00:48:08,239 --> 00:48:10,200
Speaker 1: you know there could be other you could you be

971
00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:14,560
Speaker 1: wiping but under underground Martians and who knows how many

972
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 1: trillions of life forms in the universe. All right, I'm

973
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:19,319
Speaker 1: writing down your concerns here. I will officially take note

974
00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: of them, Thank you, yeah, please please, And when it happens.

975
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:25,759
Speaker 1: I'll bring that up and complain about it, and I'll

976
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:29,400
Speaker 1: text you first of it happen, run whatnot. You'll be

977
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 1: poor because you have to give a million dollars to everybody.

978
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:35,279
Speaker 1: But anyways, it seems like existence sort of depends on

979
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:37,400
Speaker 1: this Mexican head. I feel like this Mexican had or

980
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:40,400
Speaker 1: wine bottle bottom is pretty important. Without it, we wouldn't

981
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 1: be here. It is absolutely fundamental, essential to the nature

982
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:47,040
Speaker 1: of the universe as we know. It is also very

983
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 1: very strange. It's the mathematical oddity, but we know it's real.

984
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 1: It's the kind of thing that it's been bouncing around

985
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:55,560
Speaker 1: in the heads of physicists for five decades wondering like,

986
00:48:55,719 --> 00:48:58,279
Speaker 1: is this really the thing that our universe has done?

987
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:00,640
Speaker 1: Is this the choice of the universe made to get

988
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:02,560
Speaker 1: mass to all these particles? And then we found it.

989
00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 1: We know that it's real, it's actually out there. This

990
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:07,480
Speaker 1: is what's really happening. So people have been scratching their

991
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 1: heads for ten years since we found it, going like, really, wow,

992
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:15,160
Speaker 1: that is weird. I wonder what that means. It's the strangest, weirdest,

993
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 1: most important particle we've ever found. And also why we

994
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 1: move with the speed that we don't. I don't move

995
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 1: with the speed of light because I have mass. And

996
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:25,960
Speaker 1: so if you had dreams to one tabe beam yourself

997
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:28,359
Speaker 1: to alfice centauri to move there at the speed of light,

998
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:31,279
Speaker 1: it's because of the Higgs boson that you can't there.

999
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 1: You go back to it being a bummer, a bummer boson.

1000
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:36,960
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we hopefully got you to think a

1001
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:39,200
Speaker 1: little bit about the makeup of matter and what makes

1002
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 1: things the way they are and why they are the

1003
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:43,480
Speaker 1: way they are. Apparently some things are just the way

1004
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:46,680
Speaker 1: they are, and we're trying to figure out why that is.

1005
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:48,719
Speaker 1: It's right, and if you're interested in the details of

1006
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:51,360
Speaker 1: the Higgs boson, check out our several other episodes on

1007
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 1: the topic, including ones about whether there are multiple higgs

1008
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:58,280
Speaker 1: bosons in the universe. Oh, it's not the higgs boson.

1009
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,360
Speaker 1: So it is a higgs boson. It's the only Higgs

1010
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:04,000
Speaker 1: boson we've discovered. But there could be other kinds of

1011
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:07,239
Speaker 1: Higgs boson ascilating out there in the dark. Interesting, but

1012
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:09,640
Speaker 1: they're not as famous as I guess yet. Maybe once

1013
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,120
Speaker 1: you destroy the universe will come out and be like

1014
00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 1: I told you so, you shouldn't have trusted that Higgs Boson.

1015
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:18,440
Speaker 1: They are the guy behind the guy that runs everything

1016
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:21,319
Speaker 1: in the universe. They're the secret shadow government of the

1017
00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:26,120
Speaker 1: secret shadow Government. Interesting the CEO of Disney. Really, you

1018
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:28,759
Speaker 1: are really tempting our faith there. You're threatening destroy the

1019
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:32,560
Speaker 1: podcast universe by throwing shade on the biggest corporation out there.

1020
00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:34,759
Speaker 1: I think Bob Iger's are pretty a chill guy. We'll

1021
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,240
Speaker 1: find out at least he's not trying to destroy the universe.

1022
00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:41,919
Speaker 1: It's your threshold now, huh. All right, well, we hope

1023
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:44,759
Speaker 1: you enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us, See you next time.

1024
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:55,320
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorghigg Explain

1025
00:50:55,400 --> 00:50:58,239
Speaker 1: the Universe is a production of my Heart Radio. For

1026
00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:01,319
Speaker 1: more podcast from my heart Radio, visit the I Heart

1027
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

1028
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:06,759
Speaker 1: favorite shows. H