No Way, Brook!
- Higgs invented his “Mechanism” specifically to explain why bosons like the W and Z particles are not massless like the photon. The electron, Brook, is a fermion.
Some physicists claim that the “Higgs Mechanism” only gives mass to bosons and not fermions like the electron. Other physicists say that the “HM” gives mass to both bosons and fermions. I would say that they are all lost in the cosmos without a reliable paradigm to guide them.
No one appears to be able to retrodict the masses for any of the particles accurately, so they use fudged models to get to within about 5–10% of the empirical values. They have no clue as to how to retrodict the electron mass, even approximately.
2. Many highly unstable resonances have been “identified” by their skid marks alone. The house of cards has many layers. Some day a far better paradigm is going to come along, shake the card table, and replace the card tricks with some real physics that is far less ugly and offers a more definitively testable understanding of the microcosm.
Science is fun and interesting. You should try it.