Demystifying the Higgs Boson with Leonard Susskind

Demystifying the Higgs Boson with Leonard Susskind 897,901 viewsAug 16, 2012 Stanford 1.68M subscribers (July 30, 2012) Professor Susskind presents an explanation of what the Higgs mechanism is, and what it means to "give mass to particles." He also explains what's at stake for the future of physics and cosmology. Stanford University: http://www.stanford.edu/
 Stanford University Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/stanford 1,229 Comments rongmaw lin Add a comment... Choadatios Toad Choadatios Toad 6 years ago this guy is amazing, he started out life fixing pipes & plunging toilets! now he is one of the most renowned scholars in physics. definitely one of my heroes. 388 Sam Ioannidis Sam Ioannidis 5 years ago Dear Leonard, finally I understand something about the Higgs particle. I'm not a scientist or a physics student, just a medical doctor in Australia who has been trying for the past week to understand the Higgs particle and field. After doing so much reading and watching videos I would say that you have outdone them all and I now feel more complete as a person understanding this. 36 Barry Pinch Barry Pinch 8 months ago (edited) I figured out what makes Leonard Susskind such a good teacher. Aside from being thoroughly knowledgeable about what he is talking about (that alone does no pre-suppose good teaching), he uses very pertinent vocabulary/words to describe particular scientific topics (and how they correlate/correspond to one another); that's more of an art I think. 3 Daniel C Daniel C 8 years ago Thanks to Stanford for all the Susskind lectures they release. Progressive university performing a progressive, extremely charitable act. 100 radiofun232 radiofun232 7 years ago This is a brilliant explanation, never heard the whole matter explained so clear. This man can even make me understand (some) math! 21 Pedro Tavares Pedro Tavares 3 years ago Stanford University should be so proud in having this man amongst the teachers who lecture there! I was won over from the word go and, after a few minutes listening to prof. Susskind my next action could only be to subscribe to the channel. 12 chess battlez chess battlez 5 years ago What Standford U is doing here w/ giving the global population access to such awesome stuff is truly an amazing great thing for those who take the time to explore such things lol 29 Prince Istalri Prince Istalri 7 years ago I just realized how many of these amazing lecture videos are available for viewing. There's truly a ton of them, I don't know where to start xD I guess I'll just go with playlists, one by one. There may be parts I don't understand very well, but any understanding at all, I am grateful for. I hope that with a few brush-up sessions in mathematics I'll be able to better grasp these concepts. 48 EnthusiasticCoder EnthusiasticCoder 9 years ago excellent!! more videos please! the lecturer is pure genius and a master of how to explain the complex. 1 Erwin Marschall Erwin Marschall 9 years ago Thank you for your explanation:Usually you find that the Goldstone bosons are "eaten" by the massless gauge bosons. The part on "Ziggs" confused me at first because I hadn't realized that the Godstone bosons can be considered forming a condensate! I completely agree with you: "Great talk" 1 Jeff Rey Jeff Rey 6 years ago Wonderful lecture, even to someone with a bachelor's in astronomy. The math is not something I will ever be good enough at but the concepts were very well explained here. It makes me appreciate what the experts are able to do! 13 irpacynot irpacynot 4 years ago Sat through over an hour of lecturing, which I thoroughly enjoy, but the most satisfying part was the end in which questions were opened up and Susskind says repeatedly, "we don't have an answer at the moment," or "we still don't know," or "it's still a mystery." :) 1 altareggo altareggo 3 years ago GOTTA love this guy: he is TOPS in his understanding of numerous fields but of course especially particle physics, and his "physics for the average person in the street" explanations is WONDERFUL!! Even relative morons like myself, who never progressed past Physics 101, can understand most of what he so meticulously explains - provided i actually pay attention, lol! Bravo to Stanford for making such delightful videos generally available, through the medium of YouTube. Generous actions such as this, make it clear that Stanford University is not simply a resource for the Wealthy Elite, but for anyone and everyone. 4 Madhav Mohan Madhav Mohan 3 years ago As a grad student in physics who was just about to convince himself to rely on routines instead of motivation, I think this video has given me all the motivation I will need! Absolutely brilliant. 2 Shea Martin Shea Martin 8 years ago Great lecture. I'm doing my final project on the Higgs boson and this will be a great help. 6 Keith Pieterse Keith Pieterse 7 years ago Thanks for the upload. Good teachers are priceless! A lecturer I respect[ed] once said that a good teacher needs nothing more than a blackboard and a piece of chalk. Leonard needs no gimmicks in order to convey the most complex concepts in his field. Respect! 6 Artie Dillon Artie Dillon 11 months ago To the folks @ Stanford: Thank you so much for giving us access to this tremendous lecture! For a physics neophyte like myself, this is absolutely fascinating!! Rickest of Ricks Rickest of Ricks 3 years ago Thank you for uploading these lectures professor Susskind is a great teacher. 3 JediJeremy JediJeremy 8 years ago Thanks, Leonard! Excellent lecture! Not only a great introduction to the Higgs, but a pretty thorough overview of the standard model too. I got a lot out of it. I enjoy your pragmatic and concrete approach. (However, I still think the name "weak hypercharge" is cooler.) :-) 5 Wes Thompson Wes Thompson 1 year ago Susskind is the best explainer of complicated physics to non-physicists out there. 1 FirstRisingSouI FirstRisingSouI 6 years ago Wonderful presentation. I finally understand fields, condensates, and how exactly particles get mass. 5 Davide Massa Davide Massa 9 years ago Susskind is very good at this level, I have the impression I understood almost everything!...and I'm not even a physicist, I've done some quantum mechanics only because of my studies on semiconductors and mesoscopic systems... sri harsha sri harsha 7 years ago Finally a great discovery really well explained. Still a wonder that even physicists don't know why some things are and why some are not. Ivan Horvat Ivan Horvat 8 years ago Excellent job by prof. Susskind, explains everything in such a simple manner that you can quickly understand, atho not thoroughly deep but enough to get you the basic idea. Great job! Nethaneel Mongonia Nethaneel Mongonia 7 years ago As always, wonderful lecture by Leonard Susskind. he has a wonderful way of using imagery to convey the lesson. Thank you Stanford for sharing. YoutubSUCKZ YoutubSUCKZ 9 years ago dr. susskind is a living legend thanks for publishing your lectures! Tommy Wit Tommy Wit 8 years ago I love the way this guy teaches, one up. How about more videos. 4 Robert Long Robert Long 8 years ago Thanks Leonard, as an Electronics/ Radio comms engineer, this is the best description for the non-scientist of the Higgs phenomenon Ive seen to date. 1 m s m s 6 months ago This alone has been worth the creation of the world wide web..where else would us poor scmucks who never got a chance at higher education in this class ridden English society get access to such outstanding educational material. It has been an exit from the dark ages into the light of accessible knowledge and a judgement on those who would deny us this access. 2 autarchex autarchex 1 year ago This is the first explanation of the Higgs that actually made sense to me. Thank you! 1 The Ultimate Art Bell Collection The Ultimate Art Bell Collection 4 years ago FINALLY! Thank you Professor for giving a lecture I can understand and follow without being lost after 45 seconds! ShieldsJohnny ShieldsJohnny 9 years ago Yes, the Higgs boson appears to us only when the Higgs field is excited and emits energy--the boson IS the energy emission. The Higgs field is made up of the same "stuff" as Higgs bosons, but because it is everywhere in space we can't see the Higgs bosons themselves until we excite them. A (not perfect) analogy: if we were fish in the ocean, we couldn't "prove" that water exists until we could 'excite' the water by splashing it in air and observe the droplets. 1 Tony Spilotro Tony Spilotro 8 years ago Best explanation i've seen so far. 10 O PENSADOR O PENSADOR 9 years ago it's a great fortune to be on the way with this living legend.eonard Susskind. thanks a lot! 1 Love & Division Love & Division 9 years ago Excellent, clear presentation for anyone who has a little background in particle physics. It's great being alive at the time of Dr. Susskind. Adam Mangler Adam Mangler 8 years ago Well, Leonard Susskind is one of the most clued-in Professors I have known. He is clearly several intellectual levels amongst his peers, let alone Joe Public. YouTubers are not so lame - they seek some truth and want to learn more about this phenomena. As do I. Jimmy Gray Jimmy Gray 8 years ago Excellent lecture as always Doc. Thanks again. Lydell Aaron Lydell Aaron 4 years ago He breaks down some simplified patterns at how fermions generally emit bosons, at 27:00 and beyond. I'm on my 5th repeat. Of course the entire lecture is awesome. Jason Chavis Jason Chavis 6 years ago before I lay down my mind tends to race. and I've had trouble sleeping. I found this guy on YouTube I simply watch his videos and about 20 minutes later I am completely passed out. 29 shelljump shelljump 9 years ago That was fantastic. It takes a master teacher to present such advanced material in a self-contained fashion without watering anything down. :) Green Hermit Green Hermit 6 years ago I have just finished my GCSE's so do not possess the technical know-how behind what i just watched yet i understood it perfectly. Why is this? Was this lecture dumbed down in terms of scientific explanation or is Susskind simply a fantastic teacher? 3 Thomas Wessel Thomas Wessel 3 years ago I really love the entertaining way Prof. Susskind is explaining this difficult matter. Where I struggle is when he - in the beginning - explains the "massless" particles like electrons only later to explain that Higgs particles decay into for example electrons etc. depending on their mass. My problem with LHC's confirmation of Higgs particles is the low 2.3 sigma confirmation of these blips. Shouldn't there be an at least 5 sigma confirmation as they required by their own before? Imagine aircrafts / turbine engines developed with a 2.3 sigma background for critical parts. You wouldn't aboard the next plane for sure. M R M R 8 years ago Just the fact that we can isolate a point of origin, and a time when this all started is pretty fascinating. 北村明 北村明 3 years ago "Life(life being) life does not bring about consciousness, but consciousness is intrinsic to the universe and precedes life," I deeply agree with Mr. Stewart Hammerov's idea. The principle that brings consciousness (mind) is a universal principle as "break of symmetry", and I think that it originates from one of three basic elementary particles constituting this universe. There is a reason why we did not declare "break of spontaneous symmetry" only as "break of symmetry" here. It is not exactly "spontaneous", but "unspontaneous (dependent on others)". That is to say that quantum mechanical symmetry is broken due to other causes. The cause of this symmetry breaking is elementary particles called Signalion (Signifi_cati_on) acting on Higgs particles, and its interaction is called IM (Interaction of Meaning). Buck Anderson Buck Anderson 2 years ago (edited) I kinda see interacting with the Higgs field as analogous to a car driving in the rain. Where the speed of the car and the shape of the windshield determining how strongly or weakly it interacts. The rain falls at a constant rate but the amount of rain hitting the windshield at any given time varies when velocity of the car and the slope of the windshield changes. How strongly a particle interacts with the field determines its type. 1 Yet Another Channel YAC Yet Another Channel YAC 1 year ago Thank you. This was a deeply significant lecture. Gilles Amalkik Gilles Amalkik 6 years ago You are demystifying the intimate nature of matter.... and you cannot find your purple marker!!! I totally love this guy! 103 Doug Berger Doug Berger 8 months ago This is a fantastic lecture. The explanation of how fields effect particle energies and masses, instead of comparing the Higgs field to jam, is especially helpful. But, being only a lay reader of physics, I didn't get what Susskind was referring to with the expressions "zilch" and "Ziggs boson." Could someone tell me? Thanks! 1 ian marshall ian marshall 1 year ago Three cheers for the Enlightenment and its continual success in improving our understanding and lives whilst producing wonderful human beings like Professor Susskind 1 Karthick S Karthick S 2 years ago I came for Higgs field, but learnt uncertainty principle in a new way. You are just fantastic 2 Xenophon Loud Xenophon Loud 9 years ago A big THANK YOU to Dr.Suskind and Stanford University for providing these lectures to the rest of the world for free. Making these lectures public will motivate many young people to become scientists. A good way to utilize the potential of the humanity. MidnightSt MidnightSt 2 years ago Before watching this lecture I had "a vague idea of what particle physics is about, probably", and a vague idea of what Feynmann diagrams are a notation for. After having watched this one hour lecture I kinda think I now understand a bit of actual particle physics , and principles of particle interactions which I could build on by looking up the relevant info about all of those that were not mentioned too much in here. Like, literal first part of a crash course. Done as an aside while explaining how mass and Higgs work. That's a level of amazing teaching skills I didn't know it was possible to have, let alone ever hoped I would ever have the fortune to be able to subject myself to. Susskind is amazing. And internet is awesome. What a time to be alive. Mehmetcan Sinir Mehmetcan Sinir 7 years ago I love to listen to this guy speak, for me this is leisure activity 11 aporiac aporiac 9 years ago There's a series of lecture by Siskind, also on YouTube, explaining quantum entanglement. Things can't always be explained in simple terms. When Richard Feynman won the Nobel prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics a journalist asked him if he could explain it in simple terms. He replied, "No - if it was simple, I wouldn't have got a Nobel prize." Some things can be simplified without losing too much. Some things are inherently complex and can't be simplified without misrepresenting them. Sven Van de Velde Sven Van de Velde 1 year ago (edited) Thank you Mr. Suskind for recognizing Mr. Englert discovery. It is unfair that the world is ignorant of Mr. Englert discovery and rather only refers to the predictor of the boson. 1 Danh Dang Danh Dang 2 years ago I took my intro physics class with Steven Weinberg and I see quite a lot of similarity between Prof. Weinberg and Prof. Susskind in their teaching styles. I can see why they're friends. Wirunchana Rattanasakuldilok Wirunchana Rattanasakuldilok 1 year ago I spent a whole semester fed up with rubbish from my professor but kinda instantly enlightened by this 1 hour lecture. Prof. Susskind, thank you! xrisku xrisku 4 years ago You clarified many of my queries. Excellent! Thank you. rsimon24 rsimon24 6 years ago fascinating and refreshing 3 Leo V Leo V 2 years ago Professor Susskind's lectures remind me of Feynmans. He can make you feel you understood something but at the same time have you come back time and time again to gain deeper understanding. 2 Joshua G Joshua G 5 years ago Yay, free knowledge I actually want to know about... 66 sangik7 sangik7 9 years ago Great lecture. Regarding chiral oscillation, from 49:30, Prof Susskind associates the left-right flips of an electron with emitting / absorbing quanta of zilch (weak hypercharge?). From time 52:45, he describes how a Z boson "becomes a ziggs" by absorbing zilch, then reverts, by losing its zilch. Question: is this absorbing and emitting of zilch by a Z boson also associated with (something like) a left/right flip? PS: thanks Stanford! bob smith bob smith 6 years ago One thought about the quantization of space (not really related to this higgs lecture): If space and reality truly is quantized, then that must mean that all the values of the fundamental properties of matter/space in that volume MUST be ROUNDED. Rounding, it seems to me at least, seems like a process that couldn't possibly be a "natural" function of a universe, in the same way adding or multiplying is. If that is true, that seems to imply this fact may be some sort of evidence for our universe/reality just being a giant simulation. That this rounding must be being done by SOME sort of computation, and that computation can't just be being done by "the universe" so to speak, it must be being done by some sort of actual computing machine. Isrek1 Isrek1 9 years ago I'm viewing it for the fourth time trying to get it down. Fantastic teacher. Really the BEST. pihi42 pihi42 8 years ago It took LHC, 50 years the internet and Susskind to bring to me another episode of The Grand Series. Really don't know why I was born at this time and point in the Universe, but I'm reconsidering solipsism :) 1 oneofspades oneofspades 3 years ago Mission accomplished Dr. Susskind. Great lecture. dannyboy12357 dannyboy12357 9 years ago ive listening to this guy talk for 3 hours so addictive 3 Yargo Ook Yargo Ook 3 years ago (edited) 26:26 : The first lecturer to say this that I've heard. But it's the first thing that comes to mind... And the first lecture, really, where I can also say that I, as a layman, really did begin to grasp something of what the Higgs is all about. And for bonus, just as I'm wondering what the conservation of energy has to say about all this, this is exactly what begins to be addressed. 2 Jean Meslier Jean Meslier 2 years ago In 1894 a Scots physicist was working on Ben Nevis. He got curious about the Brocken Spectres he saw. So he built a device to study the phenomena. The physicist was Charles Wilson and by 1911 he had perfected the Wilson Cloud Chamber. With it as a tool scientists could now study sub-atomic particles. It led to more and better tools for particle physics. Exactly 100 years later, it's off-spring, the Hadron Collider is finding particles never dreamed of in the early 20th Century. 1 Silvio Šarunić Silvio Šarunić 4 years ago Leonard is amazing!!! He se such a person!!!!! i Love him, his lectures...Thank You mr.Sussinkd!!! 1 kpb1337 kpb1337 9 years ago I'm interested in the implications of the higgs field. As soon as they found this higgs boson, the field is implied, which could be proof of extra dimensions. Irregardless of what those dimensions are, they imply that our universe is on some kind of brane. Now multiply the near-infinite stars on our brane by the proposed number of dimensions in the different string theories... Minds blowing! 鬼谷子 鬼谷子 3 years ago Best physics teacher ever, without him, I could not have understood a scratch of Higgs thing. bighugejake bighugejake 4 years ago The quantum mechanic fact #1 is just Feynman's "comes in lumps" point from his popular lectures. 3 MrTommy4000 MrTommy4000 4 years ago Professor Susskind is OK. Right on top of the discovery. Outstanding explanations. Little by little a model of Rome is being built. DaMav DaMav 9 years ago Yes! High resolution at last! (At least to 720) Thank you for moving these wonderful lectures into the 21st century Bruno Manuel Rosas Marques Bruno Manuel Rosas Marques 4 years ago What a genius... And a great teacher Andrea Prinsloo Andrea Prinsloo 9 years ago Yes - but, in this case, the massless Goldstone mode gives rise to the extra polarization state of the Z boson, which is needed for it to pick up a mass (massless gauge bosons - like the photon - only have two polarization states, but massive ones - like the Z - must have three). This is what he meant when he said that the "Ziggs" was discovered when the Z boson was discovered in the 1980's. Great talk! jeffreyscomputer jeffreyscomputer 9 years ago gluons are massless in the sense that they have no "rest mass" or "rest energy". A gluon/photon at rest can be visualized as a small lump on a billiard table. It has no effect on the billiard balls (charged particles) unless one happens to roll over it. Given enough speed, an approaching ball would jump into the air (gaining potential energy). This effect would also be realized if the lump moved about at some speed. As with photon/gluon, table lump energy is dependent on both speed and geometry. 1 shnops shnops 8 years ago The one observation I get from all this is imagine some highly advanced ET alien in the audience musing over the preposterous standard model described could be compared to a primitive man building boat without knowing the slightest thing about the physics of buoyancy . Yet he can fish with it ! 8 Tom Hauer Tom Hauer 3 years ago Very good description. His explanation allows even an engineer to understand. drdca drdca 3 years ago (edited) Wait, so the value of the field (edit : at a point) is like a particle and so has momentum, and is subject to the uncertainty principle? Huh. 6 Jianhua Wang Jianhua Wang 4 years ago (edited) Thank you Professor Susskind! However, I have a question I wonder if someone could answer. Per Dr. Susskind, electron gets it's mass by dumping zilch and then taking it back from the condensate, back and forth (go from left handed spin to right handed). Could someone please explain what the relationship of this is to the roles of Higgs boson/higgs field? I'd really appreciate that. Baelor Baelor 3 years ago Finally a simple but not over simplified explanation of mass Bohdan Chernovol Bohdan Chernovol 8 years ago Отлично, доходчиво, и не особо усложняя объясняет. +) graemejmuir graemejmuir 9 years ago The particles that get created have all been found in experiments. The model has been around for almost fifty years and has been holding up well. George Eliozov George Eliozov 9 years ago Perfect lecture! thank you!!! perikaveera perikaveera 8 years ago Some interesting trivia; everybody knows BOSE stereo systems. The father of it's founder, the late Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, MIT Professor of Physics, was a cousin of Dr. Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-1974), the Indian physicist after whom the Boson particle was named and which later became the Higgs-Boson after it's existence was proved by Peter Higgs. Bose lived, worked and died in India but did spend two years doing research in Berlin, Germany at the invitation of Albert Einstein. Jackson, Mississippi. 11 Oleksandr Fialko Oleksandr Fialko 9 years ago He is a great teacher ! aragorn4242 aragorn4242 1 year ago even as a layman, he tries to make it simpler to break down a complicated subject. O PENSADOR O PENSADOR 9 years ago it's great lock can to stay in the way with this live legend. Leonard Sussikind. thanks a lot! Dylan Hall Dylan Hall 9 months ago this is still the explanation I come back to. it also explains a lot of related things incidentally better than lectures attempting to explicitly describe them, which is remarkable. Also I named my Corgi after Lenny because he's a hero of mine. 1 jomen112 jomen112 8 years ago "There was always SOMETHING in the Universe" Besides there was no universe in the "begging". My understanding of Susskind's explanation is that 'nothing' is defined as the lowest energy state, i.e. a complete void of anything, no fields, no particles, no space, literally nothing as we thinks of it. However, that nothing is unstable and is 'something', and that 'something' is a condensate. That condensate, due to the uncertainty principle, can generate energy big enough to create our universe. Art Moss Art Moss 7 years ago I've been watching a lot of physics videos lately, and I long for the day when I can scan the comments without encountering half a dozen anonymous "experts" condemning the work of the world's most accomplished physicists, even as they proffer their own puerile, barely intelligible gibberish as the truth. 264 Suzy Que Suzy Que 7 years ago this is great...he does a great job! brainkill brainkill 8 months ago I like “ziltch” better. Thank you for sharing, love being able to consume this kind of educational content! 2 Siheon Seong Siheon Seong 1 year ago I'm watching almost all of your lectures on YouTube. You are actually my physics professor. Tobias C Lawson Tobias C Lawson 6 years ago Thanks Leonard. I always enjoy learning from you. You would have liked my grandfather, who coincidentally taught me a gambling dice game called Zilch when I was about 5 or 6. He also taught me to draw proper 2 point perspective drawings, and encouraged my knife collecting hobby by giving me a Mexican stabbing dagger, and a bayonette from the Mexican american war I think. Although I was very young then, he gave me these very complicated grown up things to think about. Thanks for not dumbing it down, just making it simple. Tobias. 1 veronicats100 veronicats100 8 years ago I enjoyed that immensely. Thank you so much for posting it. shivansh tyagi shivansh tyagi 2 years ago 36:40 brian green does exactly that. He tries to dumb down non zero highs field vacuum expected value to Higgs ocean explaining mass of particles as resistance to Higgs ocean. Thanks to the man in video, I realised my mistake 4 Jainam Desai Jainam Desai 6 years ago Thanks for such a great lecture ,excellent.... sirawesome hat sirawesome hat 6 years ago "The Higgs boson is greatest thing since flushed toilets" ~Leonard Susskind. 131