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this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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The Higgs boson isn't an atom like plutonium, it's "further down". I think of it in levels:
Quarks are a kind of elementary particle called fermions, which are at the same level as bosons (and electrons). Down here it's all weird and quantum but in an oversimplified nutshell, it's not so much that they physically exist as that in the maths* we can treat them as existing which makes it easier to think about.
* of the physics models we use
I'm a computer scientist, not a real scientist, so I stand ready to be corrected by those more knowledgable.
edit: @SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world is more knowledgable and helped me fix this up a bit.
The fermions are particles with mass, an electron is already a fundamental fermion and not made up of quarks like protons and neutrons. The fundamental bosons (as far as I know) are particles that "handle" the interactions between other particles for instance gluons enable the strong force, while W and Z Bosons enable the weak force.
I believe the fundamental Higgs boson does occur in nature but likely immediately decays. (if I'm wrong I'd love to know how it actually enables certain interactions in nature)
Also I'm not studying quantum physics so I wouldn't be surprised if someone needs to correct me. :)
Edit: clarified when fundamental fermions/bosons were meant.
Small clarification - the fundamental bosons are the ones that handle particle interactions, whilst fundamental fermions make up matter.
It is however possible to have atoms that are fermions or bosons depending on the total number (even or odd) particles that make them up.
Yup, should've clarified that I meant fundamental bosons, as any particle with integer spin is considered bosonic, while particles with half integer spin are fermionic, fundamental bosons alone still can't make up matter though and protons/neutrons are fermionic.
That's true... kinda makes a mess of my simple model 😅
I'll edit in your correction, thanks.