Talk:Higgs boson

Two points of semantics

In the 2nd paragraph of the section Higgs boson#Gauge invariant theories and symmetries one can read: « In these kinds of theories ». This choice of expression is poor english and arguably wrong: it should be two singulars -counting the determiner+noun pair as a single expression- instead of two plurals. 1 "this kind", because there is only one kind of theory (the gauge invariant theories described in the 1st paragraph) and 2 "theory", because "theories" means "a set of theories", so a "kind of theories" is a set of sets of theories satisfying some property. But gauge invariance is a property of a theory (not of a set of theories).

I think the use of singular for the 1st expression, "this kind" instead of "these kinds", is consensual, so i will argue on the 2nd point. I know that it is customary in english to use "kind of apple" and "kind of apples" as exactly equivalent expressions but i argue that this is wrong. From a logical perspective plural refers to the set of all things with some property. For instance "natural numbers" refers to a model of Peano arithmetic, eg the set of standard natural numbers, $\mathbb {N} =\{0,1,2,...\}$, or a nonstandard model, which may contain nonstandard natural numbers. Thus "a kind of natural numbers" would be a set of models of PA (of given kind), while "a kind of natural number" would be a set of numbers. Therefore the practice of using both expressions equivalently is inconsistent, lacks logic, is due to poor education, and should be discouraged. In particular wikipedia should always favor "granny smith is a kind of apple", and here "In this kind of theory". I have not edited the page myself because my proposal may not gather consensus, but i'd be glad if senior editors welcome it.

One could argue that "a property of theories" and "a property of a theory" are equivalent, and that so should be "a kind of theories" and "a kind of theory". But i think not because a property is viewed and used as possessed by some thing, as an element of some thing. One says "a granny smith has the property of being green", but not "a granny smith has the kind of being green". In other words "property x of thing X" is manipulated as an element of X, while "kind x of X" is manipulated as the set of all things X with a given property. This is reflected in the fact that we can read "a property of theories" as an ellipse of "a property of some apples" -but "a kind of some apples" is never used and would not be readily interpreted by most people. Plm203 (talk) 14:19, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Addendum: Reading the article further i found the expression « an unusual type of field », which follows the rules i proposed above -"type" being a synonym of "kind", with equivalent grammar. It thus appears that the expression « these kinds of theories » was not carefully decided, and i propose that we harmonize the language choice to two singulars. Plm203 (talk) 14:49, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

My understanding

is that the higgs boson is simply a quantum excitation of the higgs field; it is not a particle. The lead should reflect this. TheRealBalalaikaMaster (talk) 08:34, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

All particles are excitations of their corresponding fields. That's what "particle" means in quantum field theory. Nothing special about the Higgs. --mfb (talk) 08:45, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

"three components of the Higgs field"

Overview of Higgs boson and field properties According to this paragraph, there must be 4 components. What are those components? In general, this page does a good job in explaining exotic concepts. Would any further explanations or details help? As a comment above about the meaning of particles states, "All particles are excitations of their corresponding fields". There is a logical link that being skipped over. I don't understand what this comment means. For instance, I understand that a photon is produced when an electron drops to a lower energy state. What is the missing conceptual leap to the comment that is implied in most discussions of particles in this page? Cvhorie (talk) 15:56, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Spelling Convention

• MOS:ENGVAR (Spelling):
  • If no strong ties to one variety of English exist (e.g., British vs. American), default to the variety used in the first significant version of the article.
  • In this case, the Higgs boson article originated with a reference tied to American English, which can be seen as the default. See, The God Particle (book).
• MOS:CONSISTENCY (Links):
  • Wikipedia suggests matching links and terminology to their target articles. Since "color charge" and "technicolor" are written in American English, using "color" in this context aligns with that standard.

BJ Crowning (talk) 12:08, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

No, you're misinterpreting the point of those guidelines. We use one variety of English within a given article, and it does not matter what variety the other articles that are linked to use. This article is written in British English—it's that simple. Remsense ‥ 论 04:12, 25 November 2024 (UTC)