Reference no: EM131490381

It is the Higgs field that gives mass to the pointlike fundamental particles such as the six quarks, the six leptons, and some of the twelve spin-one bosons responsible for strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions. But the mass of matter itself comes from the masses of protons and neutrons, and the mass of protons and neutrons is not due to the Higgs field. Where does it come from?

1. This is a mystery that science has not been able to solve.

2. The energy of the sea of virtual particles that fills the volume of the nucleons.

3. There is another field, the Brout field, that gives rise to nucleon masses.

4. The masses of the proton and neutron are intrinsic, and not due to interactions with external fields.

5. Dark matter concentrates inside the nucleons, to give them their mass.

6. The mass of the proton and neutron arises from their gravitational interactions.