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What happens to matter in a standard model with zero Higgs VEV?

What if the Higgs did not have a "Mexican hat" potential and the therefore it's vacuum expectation value were zero. Then the elementary particle masses would be zero, so the electron, W+, W-, Z and quarks would all be massless. Would a proton with non-zero mass be possible since most of the proton mass comes from the binding energy of gluons which are already massless?

The weak force would be long range and fall off like $1/r^2$. I assume the Z would take the role of the photon. How many kinds of weak charge are there? Would like charges be repelled and unlike charges be attracted via the Z? Would there be something equivalent to magnetism?

What would the massless W do? Would the long range weak "W" force change the electrical charge values of electrons/neutrinos and quarks? How weird is that!

I know, we wouldn't exist to see all of this, but I am curious about how this would all work.

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FrankH
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  • You might want to clarify your question a bit - even if the higgs wan't unstable QCD would still break electroweak symmetry. So do are you asking about the world where the higgs isn't unstable or the world where the higgs isn't unstable and there isn't QCD? – DJBunk Aug 02 '12 at 15:24
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    http://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/the-known-apparently-elementary-particles/the-known-particles-if-the-higgs-field-were-zero/ – John Rennie Aug 02 '12 at 15:53
  • @JohnRennie - Thanks for the link, that is almost exactly what I was asking for. I still have a few questions - would the hypercharge force be like the electrical force: 1/r^2 like charges repel, unlike attract. And what would the isospin force do? Would it change particle types at a distance as in 1/r^2? Thanks!!! – FrankH Aug 02 '12 at 16:33
  • @DJBunk - I am considering the case where the Higgs vacuum expectation value is 0, this is independent of the mass or stability of the Higgs Boson particle. I was not aware that QCD would break Electroweak symmentry - how does that work? I thought QCD only affected quarks and gluons due to there (3 and 8) color charges. How could that affect electrons/neutrinos or create a non zero Higgs vacuum expectation value? – FrankH Aug 02 '12 at 16:36
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    @FrankH - The short answer is because of QCD there is still a $<q \bar{q}>$ condensate. I am pretty sure the following questions encompasses yours, so I'll flag it as such. http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31395/what-happens-to-matter-in-a-standard-model-with-zero-higgs-vev/31440#31440 – DJBunk Aug 02 '12 at 16:45

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