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We have fermions (named after Fermi) and bosons (named after Bose). Why don't we name the particle corresponding to the Higgs field a "higgson"? The superpartner particle (sparticle) of the Higgs boson is the higgsino, which makes the name "higgson" more reasonable (the sparticle of the photon is the photino).

HDE 226868
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Ooker
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    Related, but not a duplicate of http://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/6/when-did-the-names-of-scientists-first-become-the-names-of-scientific-units –  Oct 29 '14 at 02:10
  • It's worth pointing out that Higgs boson -> Higgsino follows the same convention of the SU(2) gauge bosons, (e.g. W boson -> Wino), though we more commonly talk about the mass eigenstates, termed charginos and neutralinos. So the analogy with the photon isn't entirely justified. – Logan M Oct 29 '14 at 19:01
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    higgson sounds as a surname – Anixx Apr 28 '15 at 20:36
  • worth noting that a Majoron is a thing – Rho Phi Sep 10 '20 at 10:47
  • also Goldstone bosons fall in the same box – Rho Phi Sep 10 '20 at 10:48
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    I'm not sure if the premise of the question is right; elementary particles are generally not named after people, neither are many composite particles, and if they are named after people, they often (although not exclusively) follow the "Name type" format (Majorana fermion, Dirac fermion, Bogoliubov quasiparticle). So it doesn't seem to me that there is a strict convention that needs to be followed here, and it's perhaps more a question what name sounds better to people and the preference of whoever used a term first? – Stephan Matthiesen Feb 03 '22 at 13:20

3 Answers3

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There are a number of reasons:

  1. The thing that differentiates fermions and bosons from the Higgs boson specifically is that they are general classes of particles (based on spin), while the Higgs boson is a specific particle (or particle type, if you will).
  2. The names "fermions" and "bosons" were coined by Paul Dirac, who was no longer in prominence when the idea behind the Higgs field was proposed. In general, particles aren't named after people (the Higgs boson is an exception).
  3. Just ask Benjamin Lee (unfortunately deceased) who first used the term.
  4. The idea behind the higgsino, supersymmetry, didn't come around until the early 1970s, and didn't rise to prominence until much later; by then, the term "Higgs boson" was well established, and "higgson" wouldn't have been catchy enough.
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    Dirac was no longer in prominence? I thought by dint of having his electron equation, he was always in prominence. – Manjil P. Saikia Oct 29 '14 at 16:35
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    @ManjilP.Saikia Sure, he was famous, but he was no longer participating in research at the level he was at his prime. Others were making headlines. – HDE 226868 Oct 29 '14 at 17:29
  • Shorter makes it better. The "higgs" is irresistible, so much so that it eclipsed Englert and Brout, the earliest introducers of the Higgs doublet field. Several Gell-Mann acolytes further use "goldston" for "Goldstone boson", the latter being an alarming coupling of two names serving different grammatical functions, which M-GM detested. – Cosmas Zachos Jan 24 '22 at 16:04