We present a pedagogical discussion of spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Goldstone theorem, and the Higgs mechanism. If the Higgs boson is found, it might provide an explanation of the origin of mass.

1.
This translation from the Latin can be found in
Ernst
Mach
,
The Science of Mechanics
(
Open Court
,
LaSalle, IL
,
1960
), p.
298
.
2.
P. W.
Higgs
, “
Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
13
,
508
509
(
1964
).
3.
This is not a misprint. Ludvig Valentin Lorenz was a 19th century Danish physicist to whom we owe this choice of gauge. I am grateful to Wolfgang Rindler for making the fact that this choice is the Lorenz gauge and not the Lorentz gauge clear so the use of “Lorenz” and not “Lorentz” is not a misprint. See
J. D.
Jackson
, “
Examples of the zeroth theorem of the history of science
,”
Am. J. Phys.
76
,
704
729
(
2008
) for a brief biography of Lorenz.
4.
W.
Gilbert
, “
Broken symmetries and massless particles
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
12
,
713
714
(
1964
).
5.
For a discussion of the boundary question see
Jeremy
Bernstein
, “
Spontaneous, symmetry breaking, gauge theories, the Higgs mechanism and all that
,”
Rev. Mod. Phys.
46
,
1
48
(
1974
).
6.
F.
Englert
and
R.
Brout
, “
Broken symmetries and the mass of gauge vector mesons
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
13
,
321
323
(
1964
).
7.
G. S.
Guralnik
,
C. R.
Hagen
, and
T. W. B.
Kibble
, “
Global conservation laws and massless particles
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
13
,
585
587
(
1964
).
8.
S.
Weinberg
, “
A model of leptons
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
19
,
1264
1266
(
1967
).
9.
J.
Schwinger
, “
Gauge invariance and mass
,”
Phys. Rev.
125
,
397
398
(
1962
).
10.
P. W.
Anderson
, “
Plasmons, gauge invariance and mass
,”
Phys. Rev.
130
,
439
442
(
1963
).
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