What is the ORIGIN of all MASS in the Universe? Physics of symmetry breaking

REFERENCES:
Research Papers on Chiral symmetry breaking:

CHAPTERS:
0:00 No mass would exist without this
1:15 What is symmetry?
3:29 Why does the universe break symmetry?
4:56 Mass is a problem in the Standard Model
5:52 What is symmetry breaking?
6:12 What is expectation value?
8:15 How do fundamental particles gain rest mass?
8:45 How does ALL mass come from symmetry breaking?
9:45 Chiral symmetry breaking
11:55 Summary of the origin of mass
13:15 Chemistry and our universe

SUMMARY:
What is the origin of mass in the universe? Symmetry breaking. Symmetries in quantum mechanics result in 3 of the fundamental forces of nature - electromagnetic, weak and strong forces. However, the breaking of certain symmetries is just as important as symmetries. Without it no mass would exist in the universe and no life would exist.

What is symmetry in physics? it's when the properties of particles don’t change after being subjected to transformations. The simplest example is the fact that the laws of physics are the same whether you are here, or in China – this is space translation symmetry. Symmetries show us that mother nature has some simple rules it uses to build the universe.

Imagine a Mexican hat potential. Now if I asked you to place a ball such that you didn’t break symmetry, you would only have one choice - in the middle, at the maximum. What if instead, we put the ball in one of the minima? Now the symmetry would no longer exist. This is a representation of how the Higgs mechanism works to impart mass to fundamental particles. Certain fundamental particles break symmetry by not being in the center, by being in the non-zero potential of the Higgs field.

The issue with the standard model is that all particles must be massless according its equations. This is a demand from the symmetry of the equations. So how do masses of the fundamental particles come about? symmetry breaking.

What is symmetry breaking? Briefly, modern quantum theory shows that all particles are excitations in fields that permeate the entire universe. The lowest energy state of all the other fields is zero. This means that even though they are modulating and changing, meaning that particle and antiparticles are quickly coming in and out of existence forming and annihilating all the time, overall the energy used to create and annihilate these virtual particles has a net value of zero. But the Higgs field is different . It’s field is non zero, even in empty space.

This means our Higgs field becomes massive at a lower energy state, and any fundamental particle that interacts with it gains a rest mass. All the mass associated with the particles of the standard model is due to the fact that they interact with the Higgs field. Particles that don’t interact with the Higgs field remain massless, like the massless photon.

But symmetry breaking is responsible for all mass, not just the mass of fundamental particles. The mass of protons and neutrons comes mainly from the binding energy that keeps quarks glued together inside protons and neutrons, as well as the biding energy that keeps protons glued to other protons and neutrons in the nucleus. It comes from gluon interactions associated with the strong force.

What kind of symmetry breaking explains this binding energy? Chiral symmetry. A chiral symmetric theory treats left handed and right handed particles the same. But the standard model is not a chiral-symmetric theory. It does not treat left and right-handed particles the same.

Consider a left-handed up quark. It has a mass of about 2.3 MeV. The anti-particle of this quark will be right handed.
When these two quarks are bound together, this combination is called a meson. If left and right chirality were treated equally, this meson would annihilate with a net energy of roughly zero. The combination of a quark/anti-quark pair would result in zero mass.

However, if chiral symmetry is broken, they are not treated equally, and the net energy is NOT zero. In fact the total mass is 135 to 140 MeV. Where did this increase in mass come from? It comes about due to chiral symmetry breaking.
#symmetry
#mass
The gluons form a kind of cloud around the quarks. This confines the quarks, breaks chiral symmetry, and generates the binding energy that is measured as mass of the meson. The same phenomenon occurs in protons and neutrons. This is the origin of 99% of the visible mass in the universe. The other 1% is due to the Higgs boson.

[Rationalific]

I love it that you explain things in a clear way without hours of math formulae, but at the same time, treat us like we can handle these high-level concepts. Your unique style leads to us being able to gain a general overview of concepts that are at the cutting-edge of human knowledge. You go further than about any other person in explaining these in the most comprehensible ways possible.

[stevemonkey]

I'm really happy that you are going deeper into this subject than other channels. I'm just an ordinary guy and I want to understand this stuff better, and you're making it possible 😁👍

[n-da-bunka]

i would LOVE to get involve with this particular study of science. I was the grade school geek who read about quarks in one of those early science magazines and argued with science teachers when they graded me WRONG for answering that protons, neutrons weren't the "smallest parts of an atom". I literally had to SHOW her the article before she would change my grade. Her answer was that "i wasn't supposed to know that" but the reality was that SHE did not (yet) know that so she was teaching what everyone taught back in the early 70's. Now that I am nearing retirement I can return to this original thirst for knowledge and constantly watch yours and other science and math videos. While I took calculus, discrete structures, statistics and all those other higher maths, I am not as good at them as I am with physics, QED and such so these fit well with my objectives. I'd much rather watch these videos so THANK YOU for continuing to bring us AWESOME content like this! Could you do a video on "penta" quarks?

[sebastianclarke]

I'm once again truly humbled by your unparalleled ability to convey these mind blowing theories while continuously taking us closer to the core fundamentals. Thank you so much for these beautiful insights Arvin. What a video, keep up the good fight, kind sir!

[domenicobarillari]

Hi Arvin
Just a trolling physicist who landed here again by accident and glad I did. As usual, a fabulous job done by you and your expert physics team. I have no reservations recommending you (and PBS Spacetime, etc.) to any of my students for the correct explanations, backed up by good "production values" (as they say), to go further than dry equations.

[sngash]

Thank you Arvin. This topic was always mysterious to me but the veil has been somewhat lifted by your explanation. I look forward to more breakthroughs that will further demystify the universe.

[ibrarkhan]

I am watching your channel since 2019. Your channel and Pbs spacetime are outstanding.

[jaybingham]

Home run episode right there! Kudos. Side note: The bi-lateral symmetry of the human face can be nearly perfect. Yet, by far, those faces with noticeable minor asymmetries (like in this photo 2:16) consistently score the highest beauty-wise in aggregated results. Though totally subjective, might it be that it's our (lower conscious) way of paying homage to the universe's solid move of breaking symmetry? Pretty sure that needs to be a new Netflix series.

[dawnwatching]

Your visualizations are second to none, Arvin! Keep it up!

[nathanwalker]

Every single one of Arvin’s videos is incredible.

[aaronramsden]

What an amazing visual representation to help us learn

[DaellusKnights]

The Higgs Field is probably one of the most fascinating aspects of physics to me. Especially when discussing Vacuum Decay. Which I couldn't help thinking about watching the animations illustrating the non-zero energy expectations. Any chance you could do a deep-dive on the whole Higgs/mass/vacuum decay topic?

[MrPeterPanos]

I really enjoy your videos Arvin, I feel ever more enlightened with each one I watch. Thank you for making and sharing them🌌

[Thedanishundertaker]

Love the channel, the mass comes from the strongforce, and interaction between the gluons and the Quarks :)

[bdub]

You can place the ball anywhere on graph as long as u change ur perspective postition to make the ball appear symmetrical

[williejohnson]

That was clear vision and gave me understanding of the Higgs field.

[frankgaertner]

Your work is so wonderful. You are a top reference in the first and now the second Volume of my “Our Self Assembling Universe” AWTbook(tm) Series. The second one is in final stages of writing. It’s subtitled “Who is Us? The nanoscale answer to that question is so incredible and you nail so much of it with your beautifully clear answers. Whether my efforts make any difference remains to be seen. But I do think I am onto something with my new, may I say it, literary art form in which you were first featured in OSAU-2, C&I&L&E=mc2.

[camellkachour]

Arvin, you are an incredible teacher ! Myself I am mathematician very frustrated to not had good theoretical physics understanding, probably due to bad teaching of physics when I was student in Paris, 25 years ago. My dream would be to meet people like you who can explain me physics simply !

[euginrobinson]

Wow, amazing, though some of it went above my head, it is presented in an as simple as it can get manner. But what a lot to know about the universe, and you are doing a wonderful job communicating these extremely hard concepts in simple terms. I've signed up to you channel already.

[tcarr]

Great job! Great video! Great graphics! You might be the best science communicator in the world?! 👍