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Why is it that the standard model gives very even charge and spin for elementary particles that can easily be compared to each other as integers and simple 1/2, 1/3, fractions whereas some particles like the Higgs Boson and Top quark are billions of times as big as the neutrino?

Qmechanic
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1 Answers1

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In large part, the masses of the particles in the Standard Model are a mystery inasmuch as the model does not assign masses the way it does spin and charge. The argument is made that if their masses were significantly different from the values we measure, then the universe that would result would be so different that we probably wouldn't be here to make those measurements. But this argument doesn't get us much closer to the truth.

Some people assert that for a model to be complete, it has to furnish not only masses for the particles it contains but also other things like coupling constants and the like that the Standard Model is similarly silent on. This makes the job of creating such a "theory of everything" an extremely difficult task.

niels nielsen
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