ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Alternatives to the Standard Higgs Model

Okay, imagine you have a big toy box filled with different toys. Now imagine that in this toy box, there is one special toy that stands out from the rest – the Higgs toy. This Higgs toy helps other toys in the box stick together, and gives them mass.

Now, scientists have been playing with this Higgs toy for a while and they’ve been trying to understand it better. But they’ve realized that there might be other toys in the box that could do the same job as the Higgs toy, or even do it better. So they’ve been thinking about different ways they can use these other toys to help explain how the world works.

But why would they want to do that? Well, scientists are always looking for new ways to explain things, because it helps us understand the world around us better. So they’ve been coming up with different ideas for how they could replace the Higgs toy with other toys in the toy box.

One idea is to use a different toy called the dilaton to help give things mass. Another idea is to use a toy called the axion, which could help explain another mystery in physics called dark matter.

So, instead of just using the Higgs toy to explain everything, scientists are now exploring these different toys in the toy box to see if they can help make more sense of the world around us. It’s like trying out different ingredients in a recipe to see which one makes the best cake.

Overall, scientists are always looking for new and better ways to explain things, and exploring alternative models to the standard Higgs model is just one way they do that.