Re: how many "forces" (or better, interactions)?

[DSCHROEDER@cc.weber.edu]

> I see. Am I to infer that phenomena at higher energies are not
> well modeled by the four interactions known, and that the Higgs
> particle's existence is accurately inferred from those higher
> energy data? You don't say exactly that.

> Leigh

I'm sorry, perhaps I didn't answer your question as directly
as I should have.  The phenomena that require the Higgs interaction
are the very existence of nonzero masses for most of the quarks
and leptons as well as the W and Z.  Also the various "mixing"
angles which allow, for instance, a strange quark to decay to
an up quark.  These phenomena are well modeled by various 
terms in the standard model Lagrangian, which I suppose 
are somewhat analogous to the old Fermi theory of beta
decay.  But just as the Fermi theory was silent on higher-energy
phenomena (like W and Z resonances), so also we expect there
to be a rich set of Higgs interaction phenomena at higher energies
which are not predicted by the "minimal" standard model.

-dan