<<Now, as far as I can tell, the physics community has not even gotten to
step (A) yet. The people I know who are working on this are quite careful
to be modest about their accomplishments to date. When we get to step (D),
we will be able to give a definite answer to Bob's question.
In the meantime: If it were announced tomorrow that somebody had
discovered a particle with the same charge as the electron but 1/100th of
the mass, I would be somewhat surprised but I wouldn't die of shock. As
for zero rest mass, or something so small as to be indistinguishable from
zero, I would be somewhat more surprised. Therefore my best-guess answer
to Bob's question is that it is a remote possibility. But we are getting
waaay beyond what I actually know.>>
Thank you John for your thoughtful answer and kind words. We couldn't resolve
this question to anyone's satisfaction on the other list either. That's why I
brought it to this list. However one Physicist held the opinion that any
particle with an infinite range interaction could not be massless. Of course
what are we to do with the standard model's yang mills gauge symmetry which
requires all interchange bosons to be massless. Since the W and Z get there
masses from the Higgs field, the Higgs interaction and electroweak force are
connected in an interesting way. That why I asked the question, if we could
magically shut off the Higgs field must the EM field be shut off too.
Now this is just a speculation, not a serious proposal. Also I wonder what
role radiation resistance plays in this question. Radiation resistance looks
like inertia but it's not due to gravity at all. This is a very interesting
question too.