Searching for the Origin of Masses
Hiroyuki Iwasaki · AIP conference proceedings · 2002
The origin of masses of weak gauge bosons as well as quarks and leptons is one of the most mysterious themes in high energy physics. In the standard model, it is explained as a result of a spontaneous symmetry breaking of the vacuum, which is caused by self‐interaction of an unknown complex scalar field. Three weak gauge bosons acquire their masses by “eating” the three components of the scalar field. The remaining one component survives and called the “Higgs boson.” Masses of quarks and leptons are generated by an interaction between those particles and the scalar field. Searching for the Higgs boson is a key step toward deeper understanding of nature. In the lecture, a brief introduction of theoretical aspects and an experimental approach based on an ongoing project will be given.