Visualizing the Abstract: Deep Dive into the Higgs
Photo of the main wall of my series “Visualizing the Abstract- Deep Dive into the Higgs Field” in the exhibition “Full Disclosure” at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in April 2022.
In my continued series “Conceptualizing the Abstract”, I explore the Higgs Field and Higgs Boson through neon acrylic paintings. Through learning about topics in conceptual physics, my perspective of the world has been enriched with the curiosities of quantum strangeness that I hope to share in my work. The Higgs Boson and Higgs Field were theorized by a group of scientists including Peter Higgs in the 1960s and were proven to be true in 2012. The Higgs Boson was the missing piece of the Standard Model of Particle Physics as it is necessary to understand why some particles have mass and others do not. The Higgs Field has evolved with the Universe since the Big Bang so by understanding the way it works helps us understand why the Universe is the way it is. In my work I hope to portray the visualization of what I am learning as I continue studying conceptual physics.
I am drawn to the aesthetics of vapor wave, cyber punk and retro-futurism. Work done in these styles often show unfamiliar but vibrant imagery rooted in science and technology. Referring to these aesthetics through my color palette and shapes that I use, I want to express that same energetic excitement about what my work is expressing. My artwork consists of lots of neon and contrasting colors. If you stare at these colors long enough you may experience after images, similar to if you stare at the sun and the world around you has a blue hue as you look away. After viewing my work, I hope to leave my audience curious, excited and with a new perspective of the world around them.
Emerging from the Higgs
Through learning about the Higgs Field, I became fascinated by imagining how I am a physical, mass-having being and what that means through the physics of the Higgs Field. I wanted to paint a figure becoming materialized through walking through a field and eventually becoming three-dimensional. The hand on this piece is made up of plaster and emerges from the painting in the same colors as the figure painted behind it. I did this to represent how particles become three-dimensional through their interaction with the Higgs Field.
72x36 inches
Acrylic on Canvas, Plaster mold of hand
2022
Diving into the Higgs
In this piece, I am portraying the Higgs Boson and Higgs Field. Since Peter Higgs came up with the concept of a Higgs field in the 60s, many physicists accepted it as true and were waiting to find proof the Higgs boson, the force carrier of the Higgs Field. There was an analogy about this discovery of looking for a splash of water from a wave that you cannot see. The wave creates a splash from an excitation, so in this piece, I had a figure which is part of the wave do a cannonball into itself to create bosons, as the splash. These images are the portrayal of the detection of the Boson in its particle path. They are on the border and in the frame of the field because they connect the field and the observable world. This concept invigorated my curiosity for life because the Higgs Boson was discovered in 2012, so much has happened since, and so much will happen because of this modern discovery.
30x36 inches
acrylic on canvas
2022
The Higgs Field and the Big Bang
This piece depicts how the Higgs Field evolved with the universe to make everything what it is today. Moments after the Big Bang, the Universe filled with hot dense plasma and the Higgs Field was a symmetric field that occupied all of space. As the universe cooled, the particles that occupied the Universe that were once moving at the speed of light were slowing. That change affected the particles that existed in the Universe, and then something called spontaneous symmetry breaking occurred. In this piece, you will see a dark orange line that connects at the top center of the painting and goes down in a curve. This represents the exponential expansion of the universe from the big bang. The blue shape depicts the Higgs Field that goes from meeting a sliver after the Big Bang at the top and breaking its symmetry as you move down the piece representing the symmetry break as the universe expands.
24x48 inches
Acrylic on canvas
2022
Particle Collision and the Higgs Boson
The Higgs Boson was proven in 2012 by the use of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider sends charged particle beams hurling at each other through a large ring underground. At the point of collision you see shapes such as this, which are subatomic particle collision paths. Within these paths scientists deducted the findings of the Higgs Boson. Higgs Bosons are Higgs force carriers, so when particles interact with the Higgs Boson they gain a mass. The pink lines in this piece show the particle paths left behind from the high speed collisions done in the LHC. The blue circles are the particles and the green interacting with the circles represent the collision of them.
20x20 inches
Acrylic on Canvas
2022
Cosmic Molasses
The Higgs Field has been referred to as “Cosmic Molasses”. While this phrase may be a bit confusing because the Higgs Field does not slow particles down through a sort of friction to give them mass, as assumed by the phrase of molasses. However the phrase helps us understand what the interaction with the field can do for particles. In this piece the green grid represents the Higgs Field and is drawn inspired by the imagery used to describe gravity around a planet in space. I did this to show that the spheres have gravity that affect the field and are affected by the field. I painted this piece with the addition of modeling paste in my acrylics to add texture and thicken the paint I used. I did this to emphasize the volume and mass present in this concept.
36x36 inches
Acrylic and Modeling Paste on Canvas
2022
Higgs Mechanism
This is the shape of the Higgs Mechanism, which is often described as the “Mexican hat potential”. This depicts the potential energies of particles within a field and explains why fundamental particles can have a mass. It can also explain how particles of the early universe in the aftermath of the Big Bang went from having no mass in the high energy and symmetric universe, to then gaining mass in a lower energy, asymmetric universe. In this piece you will see a dark circle at the top of the hill moving to a more and more articulated sphere at the bottom of the hill. This is to describe where a particle would have mass on this shape.
20x20 inches
Acrylic on Canvas
2022
