Higgs mechanism and the added-mass effect

Area of Science:

• Theoretical Physics
• Fluid Dynamics
• Particle Physics

Background:

• The Higgs mechanism explains weak force carrier masses via Higgs condensate interactions.
• Accelerated rigid bodies in ideal fluids experience an added-mass tensor effect.
• Both phenomena involve mass generation and symmetry considerations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a physical analogy between the Higgs mechanism and fluid dynamics.
• To propose a dictionary for translating concepts between these two fields.
• To explore new theoretical viewpoints and research questions.

Main Methods:

• Identifying a correspondence between gauge Lie algebra and body motion directions.
• Relating gauge symmetry breaking patterns to body shapes.
• Connecting scalar vacuum manifold symmetries to body symmetries.

Main Results:

• A dictionary is proposed, linking Higgs mechanism components to fluid dynamics counterparts.
• The analogy provides a new framework for understanding mass acquisition and symmetry breaking.
• Examples illustrate the translation of concepts like gauge symmetry breaking and the Higgs particle.

Conclusions:

• The established analogy offers novel insights into both particle physics and fluid dynamics.
• This perspective raises questions about fluid analogues of broken symmetry and the Higgs particle.
• Further research can explore field-theoretic analogues of added mass for composite bodies.