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On the definition, design and implementation of an Integrated, Global,Intelligent Capacity Agent for telecommunications and unified networksbased on quantification and qualification of information by anelementary, transaction based model (convergence and unification ofEconomics and Physics through an elementary definition of information:applications to a process definition)

By

Abdul-Basit KhanOctober 22nd, 2002

Additions and revisions, February 13th, 2005

Unification of Economics with Quantum PhysicsTelecommunications and Information Technology convergenceSpeculated relationship of Infoton* with Higgs BosonInfo-phone, information-based-billing system, infotonic switchImpacts on telecommunications and IT industriesA new dimension in Information Economics or “Econo-Physics”

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Abstract:

In this treatise, many interesting and revolutionary and evolutionary ideas have beenlaunched.

The research begins by showing a process model for the customer operations andprovisioning group of an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier. This is a system beingmodeled in terms of information flows, based on the quantum definition of informationpresented later. In this process the correlation between time (and incremental changes intime) with information (in terms of incremental changes in information) are described. Insystem terms the effects of quantum values of information on entropy (disorder in thesystem) and changes in entropy with time (as information flows) are modeled.This model is the foundation of the product space for the new products introduced in thesecond part of this paper.

It can be seen that this entire process of provisioning and information flows can beoptimized, if a quantum definition of information, defining quality and quantity ofinformation, and defining information as an elementary force and field, possibly equivalentto the hypothetical Higgs field, where the Higgs Bosons are, in fact, the particle proposed inthis paper: Infoton. A detailed description of Higgs particles and Higgs force is presented inAppendix 2. A strong correlation to the Infoton is described by the following link:

http://www.coimbra.lip.pt/atlas/higgsmec.htm

Process optimization, re-definition of information at a quantum level, relationship describedbetween entropy, time and information, all lead to three new products for convergingcommunication networks: (I) an intelligent unified capacity agent, which is an artificialintelligence based expert system (consisting of several knowledge modules, specified below)(ii) an information based/content based billing system (iii) an Infoton switch based on aprinciple similar to the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle, and quantum symmetry and pairingof elementary particles actually applicable to information retention and loss.

These products lead to another theoretical arena and a hypothetical proposition(Appendix 1): Particle nature of information and wave nature of time. This proposition,taking into account information symmetry and completeness and correlation with time,directly provides a new evolutionary perspective for Economics impacting: Price theory.Game theory, arbitrage and negotiation economics (Nash/Cournot equilibriums),bargaining under uncertainty and dynamic games.

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PROCESS MODEL

This process model describes a basic application of the information definition laterdelineated. It attempts to model the provisioning process in a CLEC/ILEC environmentand how capacity constraints come into play in the provisioning process. An intelligentsystem is defined and depicted to meet such capacity constraints in network and servicesplanning in a CLEC or ILEC similar to AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. Later, a simple realizationof the Intelligent Capacity Agent based on the currently available Information Warehouse(IW) is described.

The information definition described below can be used for designing Next Generationwireless networks, optical systems and quantum databases. Mathematical proofs are currentlybeing sought for such an elementary definition of information. This definition ofinformation can be utilized in designing organizational decision support systems andnetwork management and control systems.

MODEL & PARAMETER DEFINITION:

The various parameters used in the models described below are defined as following for thereader to get a better understanding of the optimization criteria and solutions being sought.The relationships between time, information, entropy and quantum uncertainty in eventperception are applied in this model. Time and information are quantified and qualified asphysically realizable entities. It is assumed that the reader has the general idea of the TELCOprovisioning and order entry processes, for which these time/information relationship isdemonstrated, from a Systems perspective.

Order (Telco customer orders):1. delta Inf4, delta T4: I4,T42. delta Inf1, delta T1: I1,T13. delta Inf2, delta T2: I2,T2Critical I2,T24. delta Inf3, delta T3: I3,T35. delta Inf5, delta T5: I5,T5

delta Inf: I , Critical Information Qualified and Quantified.

TD = Delivery of Service to Customer (Total Time of Delivery, from sales initiationto service delivery)TD = F(T1,T2,T3,T4,T5) = F(ALFA)TD = F(I1,I2,I3,I4,I5) = F(BETA)QI = F(I1, I2, I3, I4, I5) = F (Gamma)QI = Quality of InformationHigher the delta I, superior the quality of informationProcess Optimization boils down to: Minimize TD = Min F(ALFA) & Max F(GAMMA)

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T1 is Proportional to I1 is Proportional to P(ENGINEERING WORKS REQUEST),where P(ENGINEERING WORKS REQUEST) = Time for processing ofENGINEERING WORKS REQUEST (requests for equipmentbuild/augmentation/removal)F(GAMMA) = Subjective to Personnel in each division, the information processingand the hierarchy

Oc (T2) = Orders completed per designer is Proportional toF(T1,T2,T3,T4,T5) + F(I1,I2,I3,I4,I5)TD is Proportional to delta T3 + delta T2 + nxdelta T1 +mxdelta T5 + pxdelta T4n, m, p is the number of times information is exchanged

EVALUATION OF PARAMETERS AND CORRELATIONSTRACKING AVERAGE PROCESSING TIME FOR ENGINEERING WORKSREQUESTTRACKING FEEDBACK TIME FROM TECHS/INSTALLERSSALES: REDESIGN REQUESTS, VARIATIONS ON THE ORIGINAL DESIGNSPECIFICATIONS

Tracking time delay *, **

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Design

NetworkEngineering

Capacity

delta T1' (Reactive Capacity Growth) >delta T1" (Futuristic Capacity Growth)

Order Managers

Sales

delta Inf1,deltaT1

delta Inf2,delta T2

delta Inf3,delta T3

delta Inf5,delta T5

After Completion ofdesign *

After completion ofdesign **

delta Inf4,delta T4

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Dynamic update of information content of the two systems depicted in the diagramsabove: "Delta I", is proposed.

If TD is irrelevant to design, then first design (not re-design):I2,T2 = f((I4,T4),(I1,T1),(I5,T5))I5 can come before I2 (if pre-design information is sought)I, Tools ----IBIS, FARS/NEAD, INM----different stagesIntelligent Capacity Agent Ca---dynamically updatedIntelligent Order Agent Oa---dynamically updatedCa Availability to designer minimizes T1, maximizes I1Oa Availability to designer minimizes T4, maximizes I4

Ca-----Engineering Work Requests, Updated capacity information from actualPhysical Status of Equipment, Predictive Capacity Growth depending on trafficforecast, node utilization (equipment utilization)Oa-----Intelligent update of order/requirement information

Ca: INTELLIGENT CAPACITY AGENT (EXPERT SYSTEM)

Expert System/DP System with dynamic information inputs

Design specifications of an Intelligent Capacity Agent are described below, after abrief description of the two possible products: “Infophone” and “Information basedbilling system”, realizable in this product space.

The Info-Phone

Abstract:This is a quantum device based on the generation, symmetry, detection and inherentparticle nature of information, which can be attributed to elementary “Infotons”, in fieldsparallel to the Higgs field (possibly the Higgs field itself). Spontaneous generation,symmetry and pairing of these particles, with ongoing elementary transactions, definesthe generation, transmission and detection methodology for these elementary (possiblyHiggs particles).The general idea behind the proposed development of an info-phone, a next generation personalcommunications device is described below in bullets:Based on the "infoton" transfer mechanism.Development of Information Sensors that detect "Infotons" and attribute values/energies tothem.Development of a new device: InfophoneInfo-Phone would utilize a separate billing system based on "infotons" transferred."Infoton" transfer mechanism would not require the normal telecom transmission media.Info-Phone would be based on elementary "infotons", which would be transferred byselective “ Information Windows”.Protocol independence, going beyond ATM, MPLS and cell switching.

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The information based matrix switch utilizing the Infoton generation/transmission/detection mechanism (The switch could be housed on a sub-

atomic quantum chip (quantum processor) within the Info-Phone, whereelementary particle generation and pairing (in probability windows of time)

would activate the particular parts of the matrix

Infoton/Higgs Bosongenerator/transmitter/

detectorsEven Symmetry (Evennumber of point-masses/generators/detectors) in theswitch (on either side of thepartition), so events aresymmetrical on eachcorresponding point-mass onthe sub-atomic switch fabric.Information is either lost orretained (Infoton exists ordecays)-PHYSICSGeneration of informationproduces competition, effectsprice level etc- Economics

Switching Matrix ofthe info-Phone:

Infoton generated/detected—Status:

Lost/Retained

IcId

Id = Ic

Ia

Ib = Ia

Basit’s Uncertainty Principle: Eitherthe time of occurrence of an event or

complete and symmetricalinformation about an event can be

known

Ib

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ASSUMPTIONS OF THE INFORMATION MODEL.

-INFORMATION SUB-PARTICLES: "INFOTONS"---AT A QUANTUM LEVEL-1 INFOTON HAS A CERTAIN UNIT PRICE ASSOCIATED WITH IT-DELTA I= N NUMBER OF “INFOTONS”-OPTIMAL BILLING SYSTEM IS ABLE TO EVALUATE DELTA I-THE PRICE/BILL TO THE SUBSCRIBER IS A FUNCTION OF NUMBERS OF INFOTONS AND THEPRICE ASSOCIATED WITH EACH “INFOTON”.

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MODEL:CALCULATION OF THE “INFOTONS” TRANSFERRED IN A GIVEN TRANSACTIONOPTIMAL BILLING SYSTEM SHOULD BE ABLE TO CALCULATE THE NUMBER OF INFOTONSTRANSFERREDA PRICING FORMULA FOR THE “INFOTONS” MUST BE ESTABLISHEDVOICE, VIDEO, DATA CAN ALL BE BROKEN DOWN INTO THE NUMBER OF INFOTONSTRANSFERRED

WORK TO BE DONE IN BUILDING THE THEORY.-QUANTIFICATION OF INFORMATION AS ELEMENTARY PARTICLES

-ANALYZING VOICE/VIDEO/DATA TRAFFIC IN TERMS OF THE ELEMENTARY INFORMATIONPARTICLES

-CAPABILITY OF THE OPTIMAL BILLING SYSTEM TO EVALUATE THE NUMBER OFELEMENTARY PARTICLES TRANSFERRED IN A GIVEN INTERACTION THAT COULD BE A VOICECALL, DATA TRANSFER, VIDEO TRANSFER ETC.

TRANSACTION BASED SYSTEMS AT THE QUANTUM LEVEL, WHERE INFORMATION TRANSFER ISACCURATELY QUANTIFIED AND QUALIFIED BASED ON THE CONTENT AND ATTRIBUTES OFINFORMATION. A MAJOR APPLICATION OF SUCH A TRANSACTION BASED SYSTEM IS TOCAPACITY PROBLEMS FACED BY TELCOS.ONE APPLICATION IS THE PREDICTIVE CA: INTELLIGENT CAPACITY AGENT (IDEAPRESENTED EARLIER). IT IS A TRANSACTION BASED DATA PROCESSING INTELLIGENT SYSTEM,WHERE INFORMATION INPUTS HAVE TO BE QUANTIFIED AND QUALIFIED FOR TRANSACTIONSBETWEEN THE DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGE MODULES. VARIOUS MATHEMATICAL TECHNIQUESOF QUANTIFYING INFORMATION BUT NOT FOR QUALIFYING INFORMATION ARE AVAILABLE.INFORMATION QUALIFICATION IS SUBJECTIVE AT PRESENT, PHYSICAL MODELS TO QUALIFYINFORMATION ARE REQUIRED, WHICH CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO DEVICES LIKE THEINFO-PHONE (ABOVE).CAPACITY FORECAST: FORECASTING KNOWLEDGE MODULES WITH A STATISTICALINFERENCE ENGINE BASED ON:REGIONAL DATA: NPA NXXTYPES OF BUSINESSES—NEW SET-UPS—CONSTRUCTION OF NEW OFFICES/BUILDINGS. THISDATA FOR EACH NPA-NXX WILL GO INTO A KNOWLEDGE MODULE: MARKET DATAMODULE.EQUIPMENT UTILIZATION OVER TIME AND CIRCUIT DATA—NEW INSTALLATIONS,CANCELLATIONS---USE DATA TO FORECAST CAPACITY GROWTH/CONTRACTION

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EQUIPMENT DATA FROM LIVE SYSTEMS—CIRCUIT DATATHIS WILL FORM TWO MODULES : EQUIPMENT DATA MODULE AND CIRCUIT DATAMODULE. TO BE DYNAMICALLY UPDATED, FOR THE INFERENCE RULES BASED INFERENCEENGINE.TRAFFIC GROWTH OVER THE NETWORK OVER TIME OVER AN NPA-NXX. TRAFFICFORECAST FOR A FUTURE PERIOD OF TIME. THIS PREDICTIVE MODULE WOULD BE THETRAFFIC ANALYSIS DATA MODULE.

USER INTERFACE OF THE INTELLIGENT CAPACITY AGENT:DATA INPUT/UPDATE INTERFACES FOR DIFFERENT MODULES, PROVIDING INPUTS TO THELEARNING/INFERENCE ENGINES.CAPACILTY ANALYSIS INTERFACE:USER SPECIFIES DH TYPE AND END-POINTS OF THE SERVICE REQUESTED----OUTPUT IS LOWSPEED AND HIGH SPEED BANDWIDTH COMPONENTS AVAILABLE ON THE SYSTEMS, IN TERMSOF PORTS, BETWEEN THE TWO END-POINTS. ONLY END-POINTS AND DH-TYPE HAS TO BESPECIFIED BY THE USER.FOR THE INTELLIGENT CAPACITY AGENT, CODE OPTIMIZATION IS ENTROPIC, MINIMIZINGPOSITIVE CHANGES IN ENTROPY.AN EARLY PRACTICAL REALIZATION OF THE INTELLIGENT CAPACITY AGENT CAN BETHROUGH THE INFORMATION WAREHOUSE.

THE INFORMATION WAREHOUSE (IW) CAN BE USED AS A PRELIMINARY CAPACITYANALYSIS SYSTEM PROVIDING REALTIME AVAILABILITY STATUS OF THE PORTS OF THENETWORK COMPONENTS REQUIRED FOR DELIVERING THE SERVICE, AS WELL ASOPTIMAL PATH, BASED ON RULES INCORPORATED AS QUALIFIERS, CAN BE DETERMINEDTHROUGH THE NETWORK DATA MODEL: THE VARIOUS NETWORK MANAGEMENT TOOLSWHICH GIVE THE LIVE STATUS OF PORTS IN THE ALLSTREAM NETWORK (LUCENT PORTS,FUJITSU PORTS, NORTEL PORTS, TITAN PORTS) CAN BE INTERFACED IN REAL-TIME WITH THEIW. DATA CAN BE DUMPED TO THE IW FROM THESE NETWROK MANAGEMNT SYSTEMS INREAL-TIME OR REAL-TIME INTERFACES CAN BE DEVELOPED.ALL THE PORT DATA CAN BECONVERTED AND UPDATED INTO DATA OBJECTS/TABLES, WHERE NUMBER OF PORTS IS AKEY IN THESE DATA OBJECTS. THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THESE DATA OBJECTS, WHICHMODEL THE POINT TO POINT NETWORK, WOULD BE THE TYPE OF SERVICE (DS-1/DS-3/OC-3/OC-12/ATM).THE QUALIFIERS WOULD BE PROTECTION STATUS, DIVERSITY AND OTHERPARAMETERS DEFINING THE PATH THROUGH THE NETWORK.

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APPENDIX 1:

Speculated relationship between information, events and time:It can be predicted that Particle nature of information is related to wavenature of time. When an Event occurs in time, information is generatedbefore, at the time of, and after the event. There is an uncertainty principlewhich comes into play at the time of occurrence of event. Either the time ofoccurrence or symmetrical information about the event can be known. Bothquantities cannot be known at the same time. Information has two qualities:Symmetrical or Complete information. Asymmetric or incompleteinformation. Information has two states: either it is retained or released inthe case of an event. At the time of occurrence of an event, symmetricalinformation is generated, but transmission and reception techniques render itasymmetric. Any event generates infotons*, which increases the entropy inthe universe around the event.

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APPENDIX 2:

INFOTONS? HIGGS BOSSONS?

INFORMATION? HIGGS FIELD?

IS THE INFOTON AND HIGGS PARTICLE MANIFESTATION OF THE SAMEPHENOMENA, TWO FACES OF THE SAME COIN?

http://pdg.lbl.gov/atlas/etours_physics/etours_physics10.html

Does Economics lead to the same results as theoretical physics?

Information below is being quoted from:

“http://www.openquestions.com/oq-ph008.htm”

“We say "fortunately", because Higgs theory makes certain predictions which are still notverified experimentally -- the primary example of which is the existence of (at least) onemassive spin 0 boson (i. e. a "scalar" boson) that has not yet been observed, despiteintensive experimental searches -- the Higgs particle.”

“The Higgs mechanismLet's review where we stand so far.

We have a nice, well-behaved (i. e., mathematically consistent, renormalizable)Yang-Mills gauge theory of the electromagnetic force, based on U(1) gaugesymmetry.

We would like to have an equally nice Yang-Mills gauge theory of the weakforce, and it should be based on a SU(2) symmetry.

Experimentally, it is known that the particles which mediate the weak force aremassive, instead of massless as required in a Yang-Mills theory.

The electromagnetic and weak forces are intertwined, because the weak SU(2)symmetry exchanges particles that have different amounts of electric charge.

Yet any potential symmetry between electromagnetic and weak forces can't beexact, since the forces have different strengths.

A series of profound insights by Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg, and Abdus Salam,mostly as independent contributions, led to the unified theory of the electroweak force.This was accomplished by taking the above givens, making a few inspired assumptions,and synthesizing everything in a new -- and quite effective -- way.

The insights were as follows:

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1. Most of the theoretical difficulties result from the existence of nonzero restmasses of the various particles. The masses break the symmetry between electronsand neutrinos (and other particle pairs), they are incompatible with astraightforward Yang-Mills gauge theory, and they are the root of the problemswith renormalizability.

2. At very high energies, the energy contributed by a particle's rest mass becomesinsignificant compared to the total energy. So at sufficiently high energy,assuming a particle rest mass of zero is a very good approximation.

3. A consistent, unified Yang-Mills theory of electromagnetism and the weak forcecan be formulated for the very high energy situation where particle rest masses areeffectively zero.

4. At "low" energies (including almost all levels of energy which are actuallyaccessible to experiment), the symmetries of the high energy theory are broken,and at the same time most particles acquire a nonzero rest mass. These two"problems" appear simultaneously when symmetry is lost at low energy, much assymmetry is lost when matter changes state from a gas to a liquid to a solid at lowtemperature.

The "Higgs mechanism" is basically nothing more than a means of making all of thismathematically precise.

The key ingredient not yet specified is to assume there is a new quantum field -- theHiggs field -- and a corresponding quantum of the field -- the Higgs particle. (Actually,there could be more than one field/particle combination, but for the purposes ofexposition, one will suffice.) The Higgs particle must have spin 0, so that its interactionwith other particles does not depend on direction. (If the Higgs particle had a non-zerospin, its field would be a vector field which has a particular direction at each point. Sincethe Higgs particle generates the mass of all other particles that couple to it, their masswould depend on their orientation with respect to the Higgs field.) Hence the Higgsparticle is a boson, a "scalar" boson, since having spin 0 means that it behaves like ascalar under Lorentz transformations.

The Higgs field must have a rather unusual (but not impossible) property. Namely, thelowest energy state of the field does not occur when the field itself has a value of zero,but when the field has some nonzero value. Think of the graph of energy vs. fieldstrength has having the shape of a "W". There is an energy peak when the strength is 0,while the actual minimum energy (the y-coordinate) occurs at some nonzero point on thex-axis. The value of the field at which the minimum occurs is said to be its "vacuum"value, because the physical vacuum is defined as the state of lowest energy.

This trick wasn't created out of thin air just for particle theory. It was actually suggestedby similar circumstances in the theory of superconductivity. In that case, spinlessparticles that form a "Bose condensate" also figure prominently.

The next step is to add the Higgs field to the equations describing the electromagnetic andweak fields. At this point, all particles involved are assumed to have zero rest mass, so a

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proper Yang-Mills theory can be developed for the symmetry group U(1)xSU(2) thatincorporates both the electromagnetic and weak symmetries. The equations are invariantunder the symmetry group, so all is well.

Right at this point, you redefine the Higgs field so that it does attain its vacuum value (i.e., its minimum energy) when the (redefined) field is 0. This redefinition, at one fellswoop, has the following results: the gauge symmetry is broken, the Higgs particleacquires a nonzero mass, and most of the other particles covered by the theory do too.And all this is precisely what is required for consistency with what is actually observed.

In fact, the tricky part is to ensure that the photon, the quantum of the electromagneticforce, remains massless, since that is what is in fact observed. It turns out that this can bearranged. In fact, the photon turns out to be a mixture of a weak force boson and amassive electromagnetic boson that falls out of the theory. The exact proportion of thesetwo bosons that have to be mixed to yield a photon is given by a mysterious parametercalled the "electroweak mixing angle". It's mysterious, since the theory doesn't specifywhat it needs to be, but it can be measured experimentally.

So, the Higgs mechanism is a clever mathematical trick applied to a theory which startsby assuming all particles have zero rest mass. This is especially an issue for the bosonswhich mediate the electroweak force, since a Yang-Mills theory wants such bosons to bemassless. While the photon is massless, the W and Z particles definitely aren't. Where,then does their mass come from? Recall that we observed that spin-1 bosons have 3"degrees of freedom" if they are massive, while only 2 otherwise. It turns out that thisextra degree of freedom comes from combining the massless boson with a massive spin-0Higgs boson. That Higgs boson provides both the mass for the W and Z, as well as theextra degree of freedom.

In fact, the mechanism furnishes mass to all particles which have a nonzero rest mass.This occurs because all the fermions -- quarks as well as leptons -- feel the weak forceand are permuted by the SU(2) symmetry. And since quarks acquire mass this way, so toodo hadrons composed of quarks, such as protons and neutrons, which compose ordinarymatter as we know it.

But this mechanism is more than just a trick. If the whole theory is valid, then the Higgsboson (or possibly more than one), must be a real, observable particle with a nonzeromass of its own. This is why the search for the Higgs boson has become the top priorityin experimental particle physics.

What about renormalizability? Has this been achieved in spite of all the machinations? Itseemed plausible that the answer was "yes", which was of course the intention, since thehigh-energy form of the theory has the proper gauge symmetry. But it took several yearsuntil a proper proof could be supplied, in 1971, by Gerard 't Hooft. “

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“SupersymmetryIt should be pretty clear by now that Higgs physics is very much tied in to the standardmodel. Indeed, it's necessary in some form to make sense of many features of thestandard model -- such as electroweak symmetry breaking and particle masses. In fact, it-- or something very like it -- seems to be necessary just to make the theory consistent.

And yet it's not quite a part of the standard model either. It has a bit of an ad hoc feel to it.If, in fact, the Higgs mechanism exists in more or less the form outlined here, then thestandard model certainly has no explanation for why it's there, for what makes it happen.We shall want more than that. We want to know the source of the Higgs physics itself.

There may be a number of ways to do that (which might be related among themselves).But there is one body of theory which can provide exactly the explanation of Higgsphysics we're looking for, and which has been in gestation since the early 1970s (i. e.,since the time the standard model assumed its present form). It's called supersymmetry.

We'll discuss it in much more detail elsewhere. All we need to say about it here can beput very simply. The essential idea is to postulate one more symmetry, but of a radicalsort. This new symmetry relates bosons (particles with integral spin) to fermions(particles with half-integral spin). The symmetry associates to each fermion and boson aparticle of the opposite type, known as its "superpartner". The equations of the theory areset up so that they remain true when a symmetry operation exchanges any fermion orboson with its superpartner. This is a radical step, because none of the postulatedsuperpartners can be identfied with any known particle, so the theory immediatelydoubles the number of particles which must exist. Even the Higgs boson has asupersymmetric parther, the higgsino fermion.

One justification for taking such a radical step is this: When the mathematics ofsupersymmetry is worked through, it turns out that the whole Higgs physics -- the Higgsfield, the Higgs boson(s), and the Higgs mechanism -- falls out as a necessaryconsequence. This is great for Higgs physics, if in fact supersymmetry is a correct theory.But the other side of the coin is that if the Higgs physics can't be verified experimentally,then supersymmetry can't be correct. This is yet another reason why Higgs physics is ofsuch urgent concern to particle physicists.

The fact alone that the Higgs physics is a mathematical consequence of supersymmetry isquite striking. It doesn't seem likely to be just a concidence. Further, the discovery of anysupersymmetric particles would validate the theory of supersymmetry, and therebyvalidate the Higgs physics also. On the other hand, the Higgs mechanism could still existeven if supersymmetry doesn't exist in nature. But it would have serious problems, suchas the "hierarchy problem", and the lack of any obvious source or cause of the Higgsfield.

If supersymmetry is correct, then, so is the Higgs mechanism. And in fact, there are moredetailed predictions. Most notably, there will be not one Higgs boson, but several, eachwith a different mass. All of the "extra" Higgs bosons could be quite a bit heavier thanthe lightest one which is needed by the standard model. In particular, they might be soheavy that they would not be detected soon, if at all. There are additional details

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predictable by supersymmetry which further constrain the mass of the lightest Higgsboson beyond what we might guess from the standard model alone.

If supersymmetric particles are detected before the Higgs boson, than will beconfirmation of supersymmetry, so the Higgs particle must show up eventually as well.But what about the converse? Suppose the Higgs boson is detected first. Will that beevidence for supersymmetry? Yes, probably.

The reason lies in what we have alluded to, namely that the Higgs physics by itself leavessomething to be desired, as long as it is an ad hoc addition to the standard model. Wereally want to have a good explanation for the physics itself. Supersymmetry providesthis. It automatically contains fields which behave as a Higgs field should, and henceentails the existence of Higgs bosons. It also says something about how standard modelparticles interact with these fields, which elucidates the mechanism.

A Higgs mechanism without supersymmetry would also introduce what is known as thehierarchy problem. This problem arises if (as seems likely) the strong and electroweakforces are unified just as the electromagnetic and weak forces are -- but at a much higherenergy scale -- around 1016 GeV. The problem is to explain how this can be so muchhigher than the electroweak unification scale of 100 GeV, or, alternatively, how the latterscale, and the masses of the W and Z bosons, can be so small.

In short, if Higgs bosons are observed, we will have evidence for supersymmetry, as thatis the only theory we know of that makes good sense of Higgs physics.

More detail on supersymmetry

Where does the Higgs field come from?OK. It's all well and good to say that mass comes from the Higgs field. But where doesthat come from? What is it exactly? Why is it there?

The Higgs field, in some sense, answers the question of where mass comes from. But thatmerely shifts the question of explaining mass to that of explaining the Higgs field.

This is still an open question, but there are some plausible answers, of different sorts.

There is, first of all, purely a mathematical and theoretical answer. It so happens thatthere is a theorem, called Goldstone's theorem, after Jeffrey Goldstone, who came upwith it around 1960. The theorem says that when a continuous global symmetry isspontaneously broken, there must exist a massless spin-0 boson. The particle is called(generically) a Goldstone boson. Unfortunately, such a particle has never been detected.Something's fishy.

Oddly enough, there is also this puzzle regarding a massless spin-1 boson which Yang-Mills theory requires in order to carry a gauge force. Physicists were going crazy becausethat could not be found either, for the weak force. They spent a lot of time trying to getaround the apparent requirement for both of these non-existent particles in the theory ofthe weak force.

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Eventually it was realized that there was a way to combine the two inadequate answersmathematically in order to concoct an answer that worked. This is basically whatWeinberg and Salam did in coming up with the theory of the electroweak force. Theyfound that by adding yet another particle -- the Higgs -- they could make the Goldstoneboson disappear and make the electroweak bosons massive. The electroweak bosons aresaid to "eat" the Goldstone boson and thereby put on weight. In the presence of the Higgsfield, the Goldstone boson, in effect, becomes the third polarization state of a gaugeboson. (Recall that massless spin-1 bosons have only two polarization states or degrees offreedom.)

There is a second type of theoretical way to explain the Higgs mechanism. Recall that abasic postulate about the Higgs field was that when the energy of the field is plottedagainst the strength of the field, the resulting graph has a W shape. The simplestmathematical curve with such a shape is a fourth degree polynomial of the formE = x4 + Bx2, where E is energy and x is field strength. (E is plotted on the y-axis.) If B isnegative, then for values of x close to 0 (but not exactly 0), E will be negative. Hence forsuch values, you actually get a lower energy with a non-zero field.

Now, in the standard model, all this just needs to be taken as a given. But it turns out thatin theories with supersymmetry, it is actually possible to compute how the coefficient Bin this equation behaves as a function of temperature. It is found that at high temperatures(say, corresponding to an energy of 1000 GeV), B is positive. The polynomial expressionfor E in that case has just a single minimum value (of 0) when the field strength is 0. Onthe other hand, at lower temperatures (such as what we have in the universe at present), Bis negative. In that case, there are two minima of the polynomial for E, at nonzero valueof the field strength, which is just what we need.

This mathematical behavior reflects exactly what is required to have a nonzero Higgsfield appear "from nowhere" at relatively low temperatures. That is, the field doesn't existat high temperatures, because minimizing energy requires it to not exist. Yet at lowertemperatures it does exist, because in the changed circumstances, that is what yields aminimum energy.

This puzzling behavior becomes much more plausible by analogy with a number of otherphysical phenomena. All of these involve a change of state, a "phase transition", in matterwhen the temperature of the system changes. Among the many examples are:

A magnetized piece of iron retains its magnetism up to a temperature of about768° C but loses it above that point. Upon cooling below that point, the magneticfield reappears.

A number of materials have the property of superconductivity at very lowtemperatures, but lose this property at a few tens of degrees above absolute zero.

A crystal has a small number of distinct symmetry axes at low temperature, butloses these axes, and becomes more symmetrical, when the temperature is highenough to melt the crystal. Water, in the form of an ice crystal or snowflake is aperfect example.

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What all these examples have in common is that a piece of matter exhibits a higheramount of symmetry at higher temperatures. In addition, this phase transition occurs at adefinite point. Finally, the higher symmetry is lost if the matter is cooled below thecritical point. This phenomenon is so familar we have various names for it (in differentcontexts), such as "precipitation" (e. g. rain), condensation, crystallization, etc.

This is precisely what happens with the Higgs field. It is "really" there all along.However, at high temperatures the equations governing the field are such that it does notaffect matter. As the temperature decreases, at some critical point the equations changeand the field condenses into a new state where it does affect matter. It suddenly causesmatter to have mass, because under the new equations the overall system has lowerenergy when matter has mass than when it does not.

This new state at lower temperature also corresponds to the breaking of previoussymmetry -- which is exactly what the Higgs mechanism is supposed to do. In fact, themechanism was, originally, consciously invented to account for the breaking of symmetrywhich explains the phenomenon of superconductivity, as we mentioned earlier.

Searching for Higgs bosonsWhy has it been so difficult to find the Higgs particle experimentally? The answer is thatit must be fairly massive, so that very high energy particle accelerators are required forthe search.

Well, then, how massive is it? The answer is: the expected mass isn't very wellconstrained by the theory, which makes the search even harder. It becomes necessary tosearch systematically at every possible energy level, which becomes all the more tedioussince the searches must be done at the limits of current accelerator capability.

Fortunately, there are upper limits on the possible mass, given reasonable assumptions.The standard model itself and existing experimental results imply that the upper limit ona Higgs particle mass is about 8 times that of the Z boson. Since that is about 91.2 GeV,the upper limit on the Higgs is around 700 GeV. Under some plausible furtherassumptions, the limit can be lowered to around 3 times the mass of a Z, or about 270GeV.

Experimental results already obtained place further limits on the expected mass of aHiggs boson. The way this works is to assume some particular value for this mass andderive various experimental consequences from that. Then consider experimental resultsactually obtained. If you look at what the mass needs to be in order to agree with all theresults simultaneously, you find that the mass of the Higgs can't be more than about 2times the mass of a Z, or about 180 GeV.

In the best case, if the simplest form of supersymmetry is correct, the limit must be evenlower, perhaps about 1.5 times the mass of the Z, or 135 GeV. Although there may bemore than one Higgs boson in a supersymmetric theory, this limit can be derived for thelightest Higgs boson. (There aren't similar constraints on the heavier Higgs bosons.)

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Even if a more complicated supersymmetric model is required to describe the real world(because there are additional interactions and particles and forces), it appears the masslimit on the lightest Higgs is still no more than 2 times the Z mass.

The very latest experimental results rule out any Higgs particles up to a mass of about115 GeV, so there is actually rather little range left to search. Perhaps only to 135 GeV,or 180 GeV at most.

We should expect some answers pretty soon.

What sort of evidence is being sought in order to detect Higgs bosons? Explaining thisgives a good illustration of how experimental particle physics works. To begin with,theory says the Higgs particles must decay into particle-antiparticle fermion pairs. Anysupersymmetric particles, as well as the top quark (at about 155 GeV) would be tooheavy.

Further, since the Higgs generates the mass of other particles by its interaction with them,theory says its probability of interaction is proportional to the mass. Thus the probabilityof decaying into any particular (allowable) particle-antiparticle pair is in proportion to theparticle mass. The next three heaviest standard model fermions are the bottom (or b)quark, the tau lepton, and the charm quark. All other fermions are much lighter. Thebottom quark is the heaviest, so most of the time a Higgs will decay into b and anti-bpairs. Therefore, experiments seeking to detect the Higgs will look for events thatgenerate mostly b, tau, and charm pairs in the appropriate ratios.

There are only three accelerators in the world which could in principle detect a Higgsboson. Two are at CERN in Geneva. The first of these is the Large Electron PositronCollider (LEP), which has already been decommissioned to make room for the second,the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which won't be ready to work before 2005 (or later).Just before the LEP was shut down late in 2000 there were hints that Higgs particlesmight have been detected. Subsequent analysis of the data indicated that this was a falsealarm.

That leaves only the Tevatron at Fermilab in Illinois. A good deal of time at that facilityis now devoted to searching for the Higgs boson. If it is a real particle, it ought to bedetected very soon -- given that experiments are quickly reaching the upper limit of theplausible mass range. By 2006 a large number of Higgs events should have beenobserved (again supposing the particle exists). This will permit even low probabilitydecay modes to be studied and should produce enough information to discriminate amongpossible theoretical alternatives.

Related issuesHiggs physics may seem like an esoteric issue. Except for fairly superficial references tothe search for Higgs particles and occasionally an allusion to the role that the Higgs fieldplays in explaining the source of particle mass, the subject is rarely discussed inpublications intended for a general audience. While it's hard to disagree that the origin of

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mass is an important issue, the concerns about the mechanism of symmetry breaking andrenormalizability might seem to be merely technical details only physicists worry about.

And yet it turns out that Higgs physics is involved in an astonishing -- almost an alarming-- number of aspects of frontier questions of physics and (especially) cosmology. Inaddition to the various topics touched on already, here are a goodly number of others.

Grand unified theories and the hierarchy problem

Following the succesful unification of the electomagnetic and weak forces in theelectoweak theory around 1970, there was much enthusiasm to seek a similar unificationof the electroweak and strong forces in a similar sort of Yang-Mills theory, called a"grand unified theory" (GUT), We discuss this in more detail elsewhere, but a central partof any such effort is the introduction of additional Higgs fields to account for thespontaneous breaking of the symmetry of this (hypothetical) unified theory.

Suffice it to say that, for a variety of reasons, the search for a GUT has not yet provensuccessful. One of the problems is related to the vast difference in the energy levels thatwould be involved. If there were such a unification of the electroweak and strong forces,it would be manifest only at extremely high energies -- at least 1015 GeV. In contrast, thebreaking of the electoweak symmetry occurs around 100 GeV.

This is a difference of a factor of at least 1013. There would have to exist many newbosons analogous to the photon, W, Z, and gluons. These bosons are collectively called Xbosons, and they would have masses at least 1015 GeV. The Higgs particles to account forsuch massive bosons would need to be of a similar mass.

It is theoretically difficult to understand how there could be such a huge mass differencebetween the lightest Higgs particle(s) which occur in the electroweak theory and theseother hypothetical particles. This is an aspect of what is known as the "hierarchyproblem". It is especially acute for Higgs particles, because they are scalar bosons, whichreflect relationships between different energy scales. In particular, the masses of suchbosons are related by equations whose parameters would require extreme "fine tuning" toaccount for particles of such vastly different masses. This problem can be handled if thetheory of supersymmetry is correct.

Inflationary cosmology

As we noted above, systems of matter and energy tend to undergo what are called phasetransitions as the temperature of the system varies. At a very early time in the existence ofthe universe (when it was about 10-36 seconds old, to be more precise), it is suspected thatan extremely important phase transition took place. The temperature at that timecorresponded to an energy of about 1015 GeV.

According to GUT models, somewhere around there is the critical point where theelectromagnetic, weak, and nuclear forces have the same strength. Above that energy(and earlier in time), there was just one unified force. Below that energy, the electroweakforce and the strong force become distinct. It is hypothesized that several Higgs fieldsexist which account for this symmetry breaking. (They are different from the Higgs fieldthat breaks the electroweak symmetry at a much lower energy.)

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As the universe cooled through the critical temperature (about 1028° K) at first nothinghappened. But the universe was not energetically stable. It was in a state resembling asupersaturated solution or water cooled below the freezing point. This state has beencalled the "false vacuum". Then a phase transition took place and -- in technical terms --all hell broke loose. So much energy was released by the phase transition (just as occurswhen water freezes, but a lot more dramatically) that the universe quickly inflated in sizeby a factor of 1050. This is the event known as "cosmic inflation".

Of course, it's still just a hypothesis. Yet it accounts for a number of features which canbe observed in the universe today, which we discuss elsewhere. Indeed, the evidence forthe correctness of this inflationary cosmology is good, and getting better all the time. Theevidence for inflation, in fact, is much better than that for the Higgs mechanism. It seemspretty clear that inflation really did occur. It's less clear what the exact mechanism was.But the best guess is that various Higgs fields which account for the breaking of GUTsymmetry were involved. If so, this is indirect evidence for the Higgs mechanism.

Magnetic monopoles

There is another complication related to the use of a Higgs field in grand unified theories.In some of those theories, such as the one based on SU(5) symmetry, if the Higgs fielddoes exist, magnetic monopoles should have been created during the first 10-35 secondafter the big bang -- during the phase transition responsible for cosmic inflation.

Magnetic monopoles would basically be constructed out of Higgs fields. Suppose thereare three such fields. At each point in space, each field is described by a single number,since it's a scalar field. But with three fields, you need three numbers, so we have,essentially, a three-component vector at each point. During the chaos of the phasetransition these vectors will tend to line up with each other at nearby points. But at a fewpoints, conditions may be so chaotic that no consistent direction can be established. Amagnetic monopole would develop at that point, with the magnetic field arising from theinteraction of the various Higgs fields.

A magnetic monopole is a type of 0-dimensional singularity. 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional singularities could also develop under these conditions. Such singularitiesare called "cosmic strings" and "domain walls", respectively. Objects of this sort are alsocalled, collectively, "topological defects". Just as when a liquid cools very rapidly to acrystalline solid, different regions may crystallize in different orientations, resulting in adiscontinuous boundary between the regions. This boundary would become a domainwall. The intersection of two walls would be a cosmic string. Such objects, if they exist,would be exceedingly massive, and could have acted to "seed" the clumping of matterwhen inflation ended.

Despite numerous experimental searches, magnetic monopoles have never beenconclusively observed. Cosmic strings and domain walls haven't either. However, this isnot necessarily a fatal problem, since inflation itself handily disposes of it. If inflationoccurred, all the monopoles that were created in the first instant would have beendispersed so thoroughly in the subsequent inflation that they would be very sparselydistributed in the present universe, and hence observation of them would be mostunlikely.

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Gravity

If "empty" space is actually filled with Higgs fields, and hence with rather massive Higgsparticles, how is it that they apparently have no gravitational effect at all? Yes, there issome sort of "dark matter" out there, apparently quite a bit of it. But physicists have ruledout any contribution in the form of Higgs particles to this dark matter.

What's really going on here is concealed from us because we lack a viable quantumtheory of gravity. Indeed, it certainly makes sense that if Higgs particles really do explainwhy particles of matter have mass, they there should be a very close connection withgravity -- which is a theory all about the reciprocal effects of mass and space on eachother.

The cosmological constant, vacuum energy density

Although we do not yet possess a consistent quantum theory of gravity, some essentialproperties of such a theory are known. If there is a quantum theory of gravity at all, itmust be mediated by a spin 2 boson, the graviton. The graviton must couple to anythingwhich has mass or (by the equivalence of mass and energy) anything which carriesenergy, including the Higgs field.

Computations of this hypothetical coupling indicate that the cosmological constant --which occurs in Einstein's fundamental equation of general relativity -- should have ahuge value far in excess of what is observed. In fact, the constant should be so large thatthe entire universe would curl up to have a diameter less than a meter.

It's hard to see how this could be. Theoretical explanations are forced to assume that ifthere were no Higgs field in the vacuum, then spacetime would have a huge negativecurvature precisely sized to cancel out almost exactly the positive curvature caused by theHiggs field.

This does not feel like an aesthetically satisfying solution to the problem of thecosmological constant. We must, presumably, wait for a satisfactory quantum theory ofgravity to really understand what goes on here.

Axions

A Higgs mechanism has been used to address a symmetry breaking problem quitedifferent from that of the electroweak theory. The symmetry involved is called CP, whichis a combination of two discrete symmetries: charge conjugation (C) and parity (P). Thereare various interesting issues associated with these symmetries and a third -- time reversal(T).

We discuss these issues elsewhere, but the basic situation is that there's a basic theoremwhich states the combination of all three symmetries (CPT) is always preserved in nature.That is, if you take any particle interaction and simultaneously apply all three symmetryoperations, the result will be another interaction that is exactly as likely to occur as theoriginal one. This is not necessarily the case if you take only two symmetries at a time,however. CP symmetry, for instance, is often violated in weak interactions.

But with interactions involving the strong force, the probability of CP violation isextremely small, possibly zero. There are two ways the strong force could violate CP

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symmetry. (One is inherent in the equations of the theory, and the other follows from thefact quarks have mass, which is a consequence of the electroweak force.) If the actualviolation is very small or zero, the two effects would cancel each other almost exactly,which is curious. This situation is known as the "strong CP problem".

It turns out that the probability of CP violation in a strong force interaction can beinterpreted as the average value of a spinless quantum field, and the quantum of this fieldis a particle called the "axion". The mathematics behind this result is basically the sameas that of the Higgs mechanism employed in the electroweak theory. It involves thespontaneous breaking of a global symmetry called the Peccei-Quinn symmetry. TheHiggs field which causes this symmetry breaking may have been one that contributed tothe formation of domain walls.

Like Higgs particles, axions have not yet been observed. Unlike the Higgs particles,however, they are expected to be extremely light -- less than 1/100 the mass of anelectron. In spite of their light weight, some theorists think axions could be so numerousin the universe that they might be a prime candidate to constitute "dark matter".

Alternatives to the Higgs mechanismIn light of all that's been said about the importance of the Higgs field and the Higgs bosonto particle physics, would it be a disaster if (as appears possible) no Higgs particle isactually found?

No. There are alternatives to the Higgs mechanism for explaining electroweak symmetrybreaking and particle mass, even though each has problems of its own. What we do knowis that if no Higgs boson exists, then there must be some other particles or forces -- of anunknown type -- which play the same role. The symmetry breaking isn't simply an"accident".

The typical form of such alternatives involves new particles and forces that bind togetherin such a way as to produce a composite particle which behaves in essential ways like theHiggs boson. Thus, although such a particle is not elementary, it still interacts withknown particles to slow them down and give them mass.

In any case, there would be no reason, based on current experimental evidence, to give upthe present standard model. It is not in conflict with experiment. There are certainly manythings which still require explanation. If something like the Higgs mechanism isn't true ofthe real world, then there will be other causes. It just may take a little longer to find them.

Technicolor

One of the more noteworthy alternatives developed in the late 1970s was an entirely newtype of force called a "technicolor" force. The basic idea was to construct Higgs bosonsas composite particles -- like mesons and hadrons -- rather than assume they areelementary particles like leptons and quarks. Essentially, this idea would hypothesize anew force rather like the color force, but at a scale about a thosand times smaller. Theforce was called technicolor because of the analogy with the color force.

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In this scheme there would be a new set of spin 1/2 particles called (of course)technifermions. A bound state of one of these with its antiparticle would be a spin 0particle (a boson) analogous to a pion (which consists of a quark and an anti-quark,bound by the color force). Naturally, this would be called a technipion. One such particlewould play the role of the Higgs boson in lending mass to the gauge bosons of the weakforce.

There are a variety of problems with technicolor theory in its various forms. Just to beginwith, while it explains the mass of the weak gauge bosons, it does not explain howfermions acquire mass. Although the theory predicts a large number of additionalparticles should exist, no evidence has been found for any of them, or any other effects ofthe hypothetical technicolor force. There are many other problems of a techni-cal nature,such as problems reproducing known phenomena of weak interactions. Efforts to extendthe theory to deal with such problems have only made it even more baroque and artificialthan it was to begin with.

In short, theories of this kind are still pursued by some who dislike the Higgs mechanismfor one reason or another. But deficiences and inelegance of such theories makes themunpopular with most physicists.

Open questionsTo sum it all up, physicists have pursued an understanding of the Higgs mechanism forthree related purposes:

To make the Yang-Mills theory of the electroweak force renormalizable andmathematically consistent

To provide an explanation for the fact most known particles (except for photonsand gluons) have mass

To explain why spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs in the theory of theelectroweak force (and the asymmetry of the electroweak and the strong force in agrand unified theory)

Theoretically, this effort has been successful on all counts. Experimentally, however,until Higgs particles are actually observed, there remains substantial room for doubt.Some of the causes for concern, aside from the lack of direct evidence for Higgs particles,are as follows:

Introduction of new fields and particles to solve theoretical problems, withoutindependent evidence, seems a little ad hoc and contrived.

There is little explanation of what causes or generates the Higgs field itself.(Perhaps another way of saying it is ad hoc.) This can be remedied with the helpof more ambitions theories, such as supersymmetry, but such theories arethemselves unverified.

Computations of the cosmological constant, assuming the existence of Higgsfields, produce a result that is absurdly large.

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Where are the Higgs particles?

This is the biggest concern at the moment. There should exist at least one Higgs bosonwith a mass less than about 135 GeV under reasonable assumptions. Actual experimentshave already ruled out any Higgs bosons with masses close to this limit.

What are the theoretical implications if Higgs bosons can't be found?

The standard model would survive. The Higgs mechanism solves various problems forthe standard model, but it is not actually predicted by the model. That is, the mechanismprovides a sufficient, but not necessary, means of resolving the problems. Thenonexistence of Higgs bosons would not lead to any conflict between theory andexperimental results.

The standard model is essentially a theory of massless particles. The Higgs mechanismprovides a means of explaining the masses of particles, through their coupling with theHiggs field, without sacrificing mathematical consistency of the standard model. If Higgsparticles do not actually exist, it may still be possible that there is a Higgs field whichprovides for mass. If there is no Higgs field at all (which would greatly mitigate thecosmological constant puzzle), then the explanation for particle mass would be a majormystery, yet the standard model itself wouldn't fall.

What is the origin of mass?

Assuming that the theory of the Higgs mechanism is essentially correct, and that Higgsparticles are eventually observed, then all particles that "couple" with the Higgs field willacquire a certain amount of mass. Here then is an explanation of where mass comes from.In fact, none of the particles which occur in the standard model could have any mass thatdoes not come from coupling with the Higgs field if the theory is to be mathematicallyconsistent.

But even if all this is correct, there are still puzzles. Where do the masses of the Higgsparticles themselves come from? For any other particle, their observed mass isproportional to the strength with which they couple to the Higgs particle. But what is itthat determines the strength of this coupling, and hence the specific mass of eachparticle?

Most mysteriously of all, since gravity is preeminently the theory of the interaction ofmass with spacetime, how is gravity related to the Higgs mechanism?

What is the origin of the Higgs field itself?

We have noted above various ways in which this question can partially be answered. Buteven if these answers are correct as far as they go, they don't seem like a "final" answer.The situation is somewhat similar to that of questions like "where does space comefrom?" or "where does time come from?" Physics may at some point be able to provideanswers to questions like this. Or at least, to questions of where the hypothetical singleunified force and the Higgs fields come from. (Ironically, though, the number ofnecessary Higgs fields seems to increase even as the number of independent forcesdecreases.)

If there is a Higgs mechanism, what solves the hierarchy problem?

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Although the Higgs mechanism handles a number of puzzles fairly well it creates a rathernasty problem of its own in grand unified theories, which unify three of the fourfundamental forces (excepting only gravity). This hierarchy problem, though rathertechnical, doesn't seem capable of being dismissed as a mere aesthetic blemish. Thatwould entail a fantastically improbable circumstance. Supersymmetry offers a solution,but supersymmetry itself currently lacks critical experimental evidence. If supersymmetryis real, many puzzles are solved. In particular, we have a way to explain the origins of theHiggs mechanism and to handle the hierarchy problem. But without supersymmetry, wemust find alternative solutions to both problems.

If there is a Higgs mechanism, what keeps the cosmological constant small?

The problem is, in short, that the Higgs mechanism is a bit too efficient. If the vacuum isactually as full of nonzero Higgs fields as it seemingly must be to account for particlemass and spontaneous symmetry breaking, then the cosmological constant (i. e., vacuumenergy density) must be enormous -- 120 orders of magnitude larger than whatobservation seems to allow. Somehow, the effects of all the Higgs fields need to canceleach other out almost (but not quite) entirely. It's a "fine tuning" situation that couldhardly happen by chance. Even supersymmetry does not appear to help out.”

“Surveys, overviews, tutorialsHiggs boson

Article from Wikipedia. See also Technicolor (physics).Physics with ATLAS: The Higgs Particle

Overview of the role of the Higgs field in accounting for the mass of StandardModel particles.

The Higgs MechanismAn elementary explanation in cartoon form, based on ideas by David J. Miller.The original brief article is here.

The Waldegrave Higgs ChallengeThe best 5 one-page particle essays on Higgs physics, written in response to achallenge by UK Science Minister, William Waldegrave.

My Life as a Boson: The Story of 'the Higgs'A slide presentation by Peter Higgs, given at the 2001: A Spacetime Odysseyconference.

The search for a standard model Higgs at the LHCPhD thesis by Ulrik Egede. Detailed technical treatment of theoretical andexperimental Higgs physics. Look in particular at Higgs physics at the LHC.

The Linear Collider OpportunityAn essay by Gordon Kane on the need for construction of a new linear collider.The essence of the matter is that an understanding of electroweak symmetrybreaking and the Higgs mechanism is a top priority in theoretical particle physicsand that a NLC will provide experimental data not obtainable any other way.

What exactly is the Higgs boson?Question and answers from Scientific American's Ask the Experts section.

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How does the Higgs boson affect string theory?Question and answer (by Gordon Kane) from Scientific American's Ask theExperts section.

What is a Goldstone Boson?Goldstone bosons play a technical role in symmetry breaking via the Higgsmechanism. The question is answered by Jeffrey Goldstone.

The Higgs BosonBrief introductory information.

Higgs Boson: One Page ExplanationFive articles that explain the Higgs boson in a page or less.

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articlesJiggling the Cosmic OozePeter WeissScience News, March 10, 2001, pp. 152-154

The Higgs particle is thought to be responsible for the existence of mass in thestandard model. Detection of the Higgs particle is the highest priority objective incurrent high-energy physics.

The Higgs BosonMartinus J. G. VeltmanScientific American, November 1986, pp. 76-84

Historically, physicists have developed the theory of Higgs fields for two differentreasons: to account for masses of elementary particles, and to give consistency tothe mathematics of elementary particle theory. Actual existence of Higgs fieldsand bosons would solve some problems, but pose others.

Recommended references: BooksAbdus Salam -- Unification of Fundamental ForcesCambridge University Press, 1990

An introductory lecture by one of the co-recipients of a Nobel prize for work onthe unification of the weak and electromagnetic forces. “

“How Particles Acquire MassBy Mary and Ian Butterworth, Imperial College London, and Doris and Vigdor Teplitz,Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA.

The Higgs boson is a hypothesised particle which, if it exists, would give the mechanismby which particles acquire mass.

Matter is made of molecules; molecules of atoms; atoms of a cloud of electrons aboutone-hundred-millionth of a centimetre and a nucleus about one-hundred-thousandth thesize of the electron cloud. The nucleus is made of protons and neutrons. Each proton (orneutron) has about two thousand times the mass of an electron. We know a good dealabout why the nucleus is so small. We do not know, however, how the particles get theirmasses. Why are the masses what they are? Why are the ratios of masses what they are?

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We can't be said to understand the constituents of matter if we don't have a satisfactoryanswer to this question.

Peter Higgs has a model in which particle masses arise in a beautiful, but complex,progression. He starts with a particle that has only mass, and no other characteristics,such as charge, that distinguish particles from empty space. We can call his particle H. Hinteracts with other particles; for example if H is near an electron, there is a forcebetween the two. H is of a class of particles called "bosons". We first attempt a moreprecise, but non-mathematical statement of the point of the model; then we giveexplanatory pictures.

In the mathematics of quantum mechanics describing creation and annihilation ofelementary particles, as observed at accelerators, particles at particular points arise from"fields" spread over space and time. Higgs found that parameters in the equations for thefield associated with the particle H can be chosen in such a way that the lowest energystate of that field (empty space) is one with the field not zero. It is surprising that the fieldis not zero in empty space, but the result, not an obvious one, is: all particles that caninteract with H gain mass from the interaction.

Thus mathematics links the existence of H to a contribution to the mass of all particleswith which H interacts. A picture that corresponds to the mathematics is of the lowestenergy state, "empty" space, having a crown of H particles with no energy of their own.Other particles get their masses by interacting with this collection of zero-energy Hparticles. The mass (or inertia or resistance to change in motion) of a particle comes fromits being "grabbed at" by Higgs particles when we try and move it.

If particles do get their masses from interacting with the empty space Higgs field, thenthe Higgs particle must exist; but we can't be certain without finding the Higgs. We haveother hints about the Higgs; for example, if it exists, it plays a role in "unifying" differentforces. However, we believe that nature could contrive to get the results that would flowfrom the Higgs in other ways. In fact, proving the Higgs particle does not exist would bescientifically every bit as valuable as proving it does.

These questions, the mechanisms by which particles get their masses, and the relationshipamongs different forces of nature, are major ones and so basic to having an understandingof the constituents of matter and the forces among them, that it is hard to see how we canmake significant progress in our understanding of the stuff of which the earth is madewithout answering them.

Last updated on 21st September 1998, by Dr S.L.Lloyd “

“Politics, Solid State and the HiggsBy David Miller Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College, London, UK.

1. The Higgs MechanismImagine a cocktail party of political party workers who are uniformly distributed acrossthe floor, all talking to their nearest neighbours. The ex-Prime Minister enters and crossesthe room. All of the workers in her neighbourhood are strongly attracted to her and

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cluster round her. As she moves she attracts the people she comes close to, while the onesshe has left return to their even spacing. Because of the knot of people always clusteredaround her she acquires a greater mass than normal, that is she has more momentum forthe same speed of movement across the room. Once moving she is hard to stop, and oncestopped she is harder to get moving again because the clustering process has to berestarted.

In three dimensions, and with the complications of relativity, this is the Higgsmechanism. In order to give particles mass, a background field is invented whichbecomes locally distorted whenever a particle moves through it. The distortion - theclustering of the field around the particle - generates the particle's mass. The idea comesdirectly from the physics of solids. instead of a field spread throughout all space a solidcontains a lattice of positively charged crystal atoms. When an electron moves throughthe lattice the atoms are attracted to it, causing the electron's effective mass to be as muchas 40 times bigger than the mass of a free electron.

The postulated Higgs field in the vacuum is a sort of hypothetical lattice which fills ourUniverse. We need it because otherwise we cannot explain why the Z and W particleswhich carry the weak interactions are so heavy while the photon which carrieselectromagnetic forces is massless.

2. The Higgs BosonNow consider a rumour passing through our room full of uniformly spread politicalworkers. Those near the door hear of it first and cluster together to get the details, thenthey turn and move closer to their next neighbours who want to know about it too. Awave of clustering passes through the room. It may spread to all the corners or it mayform a compact bunch which carries the news along a line of workers from the door tosome dignitary at the other side of the room. Since the information is carried by clustersof people, and since it was clustering that gave extra mass to the ex-Prime Minister, thenthe rumour-carrying clusters also have mass.

The Higgs boson is predicted to be just such a clustering in the Higgs field. We will findit much easier to believe that the field exists, and that the mechanism for giving otherparticles is true, if we actually see the Higgs particle itself. Again, there are analogies inthe physics of solids. A crystal lattice can carry waves of clustering without needing anelectron to move and attract the atoms. These waves can behave as if they are particles.They are called phonons and they too are bosons.

There could be a Higgs mechanism, and a Higgs field throughout our Universe, withoutthere being a Higgs boson. The next generation of colliders will sort this out.

Last updated on 30th August 1995, by Dr S.L.Lloyd “

“Of Particles, Pencils and UnificationBy Tom Kibble Department of Physics, Imperial College, London, UK.

Theoretical physicists always aim for unification. Newton recognised that the fall of anapple, the tides and the orbits of the planets as aspects of a single phenomenon, gravity.

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Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism and light. Each synthesis extends ourunderstanding and leads eventually to new applications.

In the 1960s the time was ripe for a further step. We had a marvellously accurate theoryof electromagnetic forces, quantum electrodynamics, or QED, a quantum version ofMaxwell's theory. In it, electromagnetic forces are seen as due to the exchange betweenelectrically charged particles of photons, packets (or quanta) of electromagnetic waves.(The distinction between particle and wave has disappeared in quantum theory.) The"weak" forces, involved in radioactivity and in the Sun's power generation, are in manyways very similar, save for being much weaker and restricted in range. A beautifulunified theory of weak and electromagnetic forces was proposed in 1967 by StevenWeinberg and Abdus Salam (independently). The weak forces are due to the exchange ofW and Z particles. Their short range, and apparent weakness at ordinary ranges, isbecause, unlike the photon, the W and Z are, by our standards, very massive particles,100 times heavier than a hydrogen atom.

The "electro-weak" theory has been convincingly verified, in particular by the discoveryof the W and Z at CERN in 1983, and by many tests of the properties. However, theorigin of their masses remains mysterious. Our best guess is the "Higgs mechanism" - butthat aspect of the theory remains untested.

The fundamental theory exhibits a beautiful symmetry between W, Z and photon. But thisis a spontaneously broken symmetry. Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a ubiquitousphenomenon. For example, a pencil balanced on its tip shows complete rotationalsymmetry - it looks the same from every side. - but when it falls it must do in someparticular direction, breaking the symmetry. We think the masses of the W and Z (and ofthe electron) arise through a similar mechanism. It is thought there are "pencils"throughout space, even in vacuum. (of course, these are not real physical pencils - theyrepresent the "Higgs field" - nor is their direction a direction in real physical space, butthe analogy is fairly close.) The pencils are all coupled together, so that they all tend tofall in the same direction. Their presence in the vacuum influences waves travellingthrough it. The waves have of course a direction in space, but they also have a "direction"in this conceptual space. In some "directions", waves have to move the pencils too, sothey are more sluggish; those waves are the W and Z quanta.

The theory can be tested, because it suggests that there should be another kind of wave, awave in the pencils alone, where they are bouncing up and down. That wave is the Higgsparticle. Finding it would confirm that we really do understand the origin of mass, andallow us to put the capstone on the electro-weak theory, filling in the few remaining gaps.

Once the theory is complete, we can hope to build further on it: a longer-term goal is aunified theory involving also the "strong" interactions that bind protons and neutronstogether in atomic nuclei - and if we are really optimistic, even gravity, seemingly thehardest force to bring into the unified scheme.

There are strong hints that a "grand unified" synthesis is possible, but the details are stillvery vague. Finding the Higgs would give us very significant clues to the nature of thatgreater synthesis.

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Last updated on 30th August 1995, by Dr S.L.Lloyd “

“Ripples at the Heart of PhysicsBy Simon Hands Theory Division, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.

The Higgs boson is an undiscovered elementary particle, thought to be a vital piece of theclosely fitting jigsaw of particle physics. Like all particles, it has wave properties akin tothose ripples on the surface of a pond which has been disturbed; indeed, only when theripples travel as a well defined group is it sensible to speak of a particle at all. In quantumlanguage the analogue of the water surface which carries the waves is called a field. Eachtype of particle has its own corresponding field.

The Higgs field is a particularly simple one - it has the same properties viewed fromevery direction, and in important respects is indistinguishable from empty space. Thusphysicists conceive of the Higgs field being "switched on", pervading all of space andendowing it with "grain" like that of a plank of wood. The direction of the grain inundetectable, and only becomes important once the Higgs' interactions with otherparticles are taken into account. for instance, particles called vector bosons can travelwith the grain, in which case they move easily for large distances and may be observed asphotons - that is, particles of light that we can see or record using a camera; or against, inwhich case their effective range is much shorter, and we call them W or Z particles.These play a central role in the physics of nuclear reactions, such as those occurring inthe core of the sun.

The Higgs field enables us to view these apparently unrelated phenomenon as two sidesof the same coin; both may be described in terms of the properties of the same vectorbosons. When particles of matter such as electrons or quarks (elementary constituents ofprotons and neutrons, which in turn constitute the atomic nucleus) travel through thegrain, they are constantly flipped "head-over-heels". this forces them to move moreslowly than their natural speed, that of light, by making them heavy. We believe theHiggs field responsible for endowing virtually all the matter we know about with mass.

Like most analogies, the wood-grain one is persuasive but flawed: we should think of thegrain as not defining a direction in everyday three-dimensional space, but rather in someabstract internal space populated by various kinds of vector boson, electron and quark.

The Higgs' ability to fill space with its mysterious presence makes it a vital component inmore ambitious theories of how the Universe burst into existence out of some initialquantum fluctuation, and why the Universe prefers to be filled with matter rather thananti-matter; that is, why there is something rather than nothing. To constrain these ideasmore rigorously, and indeed flesh out the whole picture, it is important to find evidencefor the Higgs field at first hand - in other words, find the boson. There are unansweredquestions: the Higgs' very simplicity and versatility, beloved of theorists, makes it hard topin down. How many Higgs particles are there? Might it/they be made from still moreelementary components? Most crucial, how heavy is it? Our current knowledge can onlyput its mass roughly between that of an iron atom and three times that of a uranium atom.This is a completely new form of matter about whose nature we still have only vague

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hints and speculations and its discovery is the most exciting prospect in contemporaryparticle physics.

Last updated on 21st September 1998, by Dr S.L.Lloyd “

APPENDIX 3

Some research and notes on convergence preliminaries by Abdul-Basit-Khan:

1.“Nowhere to Hide”

Question: How would you define “convergence” as it relates toinformation technology?Give an example.

Telecommunications and information technologies are converging in more than one way.The very definition of information is changing. Telecommunications networks carried datain bits per second (bit: our quantum of data) and computers were processing data as bytes,according to older definitions. The new perspective is that both computational andtelecommunications systems are processing information, a fundamental of this universe, anentity that has a quantity as well as a quality parameter. Information, however it may bequantified (and qualified) is being processed and transferred between systems around theworld.

Cellular networks were separate from the world-wide-web, now they are supporting Internetenabled devices as well. With the introduction of General Packet Radio Service Standards,and the overlay on GSM networks of GPRS by cellular providers, and the interconnectivityof fixed data networks to mobile networks by Gateway nodes, the very definition ofCustomer Premises Equipment is changing. A hand held or a cell phone, is not only acommunication device but it is also a small computer, an information processing andtransferring system. With new Fixed Wireless Applications in the local loop, with aconvergent IP Phone/ Computer (internet device), consumer would find no differencebetween telephony and computation. An example of this is ever increasing enhancements inbrowsing /surfing capabilities of cell-phones.

With standards evolving such as ENUM standards, a unique phone number for everysubscriber in the world would identify him/her on any of his communication devices/media,which ever one he sets his /her preference parameters to.

Whether the subscriber is logged into MSN Messenger on the desk-top, on the cell phone,on the land-line or has the preferences set to any other personal communication device, suchas a blackberry, his/her unique telephone number will identify him on this grand unifiedvoice/data network of tomorrow. All networks will converge, where not data alone, or voicealone, but “INFORMATION” is transmitted.

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These are the convergence trends in information technology and telecommunications, wherethere is no data or voice subscriber, but it’s a unified network with a unique identifier, whichis more than an IP address, more than a telephone number, to locate theend-user on any communications medium of choice.

2.

Question: Do you agree or disagree that the desktop is dead? Why?

Desktop is not completely dead, but it is mutating, changing andevolving. With Voice over IP as the new mode of unifiedcommunication, and ENUM standards evolving, the nature of CustomerPremises Equipment is evolving.

The desktop with a hard-drive and large, permanent memory has traditionally been used asthe repository of personal information for individual consumers and users of information.As illustrated in the “Mirror Worlds”, Internet as the world’s largest distributed informationsystem is taking over many of the functions of the desktop. Distributed databases,information storage and retrieval systems and transaction-based systems, do not require largestorage memories on the desktop any more. The constraint is now the speed of thecommunications channel, and the efficiency of the queries.

Many of us, use contact management software such as PLAXO to store contact informationon a central server, to be retrieved in an instance on the desktop. Often, we use hot-mail tostore important e-mails and to refer to them on a later date. For this course all theinformation exchange, submissions and grades, lie on a server at Humber. The desktop’sfunctionality has totally changed. We use the desktop to view information saved on remoteservers accessible by the Internet. In the current telecommunications world, an example ofthis kind of phone-desktop hybrid is the Bell’s Vista 350 telephone. Stock quotes, weatherreports, all accessible by the touch of a finger, on buttons configured based on preferences.

With Voice over IP and convergent technologies evolving, the speed and bandwidth ofcommunications channels will be much enhanced. Voice over IP will lead to new webdevices, which would not require a large hard-drive or memory. The functionality of thesedevices will be only to retrieve and display information. There will be enhanced bookmarksand new desktop software (i.e. Scope ware) to manage trends and mimic usage patterns andbehaviour of individual consumers. The emphasis will be on faster and more organizedinformation retrieval and display. The management of distributed information, retrieved onthe desktop and the pointers to this information would be dictated by the usage patterns. Aninteresting device currently available the web-racer mouse, which on the click of buttons,surfs the preferred Internet sites.

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With Voice over IP standards evolving and convergence in the computer-telephony worlds,the desktop is not going to die. Rather it is going to mutate into a specialized and customizeduser interface for globally distributed storage media.