Deriving Ontological Statements from the Unnatural Higgs Mass

Abstract

We provide novel, metatheoretical arguments strengthening the position that the naturalness problem of the light Higgs mass is a pseudo-problem: Under one assumption, no physics beyond the standard model of particle physics is needed to explain the small value of the Higgs boson. By evaluating previous successes of the guiding principle of technical naturalness, we restrict its applicability to non-fundamental phenomena in the realm of provisional theories within limited energy scales. In view of further breaches of autonomy of scales in apparently fundamental phenomena outside particle physics, the hierarchy problem of the Higgs mass is instead reinterpreted as an indication of the ontologically fundamental status of the Higgs boson. Applying the concept of robustness of theoretical elements under theory changes by Worrall and Williams justifies this seemingly contradictory attribution within the effective theories of the standard model of particle physics. Moreover, we argue that the ongoing naturalness debate about the Higgs mass is partly based on the adherence to the methodology of effective theories (often claimed to be universally applicable), for which there is no justification when dealing with presumably fundamental phenomena such as the Higgs mechanism, even if it is embedded into an effective theory.