Martin King (University of Bonn)
Six years after the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, there is still a large number and variety of viable models in particle physics that offer potential explanations of particle masses via electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). All of these are, to some degree, still active research avenues in particle physics. The Standard Model (SM) features the simplest implementation of the Higgs mechanism, which is a single doublet with one fundamental scalar particle. Other models treat the fundamental scalar as part of an extended Higgs sector, or have the symmetry breaking role played by a composite, rather than a fundamental, scalar. Though the SM is heavily favoured as the explanation of masses, philosophical accounts of explanation are unable to either accommodate it or it single out. This paper proposes an account that looks to theory in order to maintain a high threshold for explanation and distinguish between the SM Higgs mechanism and other models that are merely potential explanations of particle masses.
I argue that what makes the Higgs mechanism the best available explanation of particle masses is not its realistic representation of causes or structure, but its association with other models in an empirically broad and highly-confirmed scientific theory. A goal of the paper is to singularly pick out the SM explanation as the best available explanation, yet allow for changes in explanatory judgements among the relevant scientific community as that scientific theory is advanced, changed, eventually replaced. The SM Higgs mechanism is a part of the most highly-confirmed theory in particle physics and, I argue, we are therefore highly justified in claiming that it provides an explanatory account of particle masses.
