Tom

Here is what a theorist at Fermilab has to say about “Higgs vs. string theory:”

It is true that in string theory what we call “particles” are actually bits of string, and if the string is stretched and vibrating then the particle will seem to get a mass from the stretching and vibrational energy of the string. However particles that get mass this way are all superheavy; they probably have masses ~a thousand trillion times that of a proton.

So we believe that all the particles that we have discovered, that is, all the particles of the Standard Model, are actually strings that are neither stretched nor vibrating (we call these zero modes). The usual Higgs mechanism is supposed to explain their masses. The Higgs itself would also be one of the “zero modes” of the superstrings.

Tom Mason
Aliso Viejo, CA

Good catch. Yes, the six leptons are electron, muon, tau, and electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino. The three neutrinos have no electric charge, the other three do.

Kurt

If a journalist writes, or a magazine publishes, an article on physics, it might be a good idea to have it reviewed by a physicist!