Model choice and crucial tests. On the empirical epistemology of the Higgs discovery

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2018.09.001MaRDI QIDQ666919zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Peter Mättig, Michael Stöltzner

Publication date 12 March 2019

Published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.09201

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Symmetry breaking in quantum theory (81R40) Unified quantum theories (81V22)

Abstract: Our paper discusses the epistemic attitudes of particle physicists on the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is based on questionnaires and interviews made shortly before and shortly after the discovery in 2012. We show, to begin with, that the discovery of a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson was less expected than is sometimes assumed. Once the new particle was shown to have properties consistent with SM expectations - albeit with significant experimental uncertainties -, there was a broad agreement that 'a' Higgs boson had been found. Physicists adopted a twopronged strategy. On the one hand, they treated the particle as a SM Higgs boson and tried to establish its properties with higher precision; on the other hand, they searched for any hints of physics beyond the SM. This motivates our first philosophical thesis: the Higgs discovery, being of fundamental importance and establishing a new kind of particle, represented a crucial experiment if one interprets this notion in an appropriate sense. By embedding the LHC into thetradition of previous precision experiments and the experimental strategies thus established, Duhemian underdetermination is kept at bay. Second, our case study suggests that criteria of theory (or model) preference should be understood as epistemic and pragmatic values that have to be weighed in factual research practice. The Higgs discovery led to a shift from pragmatic to epistemic values as regards the mechanisms of electroweak symmetry breaking. Complex criteria, such as naturalness, combine epistemic and pragmatic values, but are coherently applied by the community.

Recommendations

• From a boson to the standard model Higgs: a case study in confirmation and model dynamics
• Particle physics after the Higgs discovery: philosophical perspectives
• Model landscapes and event signatures in elementary particle physics
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Cites work

• Computer simulation validation. Fundamental concepts, methodological frameworks, and philosophical perspectives
• Effective theories in physics. From planetary orbits to elementary particle masses.
• Naturalness, the autonomy of scales, and the 125 GeV Higgs
• The construction of the Higgs mechanism and the emergence of the electroweak theory
• The utility of naturalness, and how its application to quantum electrodynamics envisages the standard model and Higgs boson
• Which fine-tuning arguments are fine?

Cited in

(5)

• Probing novelty at the LHC: heuristic appraisal of disruptive experimentation
• Model landscapes and event signatures in elementary particle physics
• From a boson to the standard model Higgs: a case study in confirmation and model dynamics
• Particle physics after the Higgs discovery: philosophical perspectives
• A Bayesian model of credence in low energy supersymmetry

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