Here is a thought experiment I hope will provoke some discussion. Imagine an
electron in an electric field. What path would the electron take (here I
refer to the highest probable path since of course the electron has no absolutely
defined path). if we turned the Higgs field off making the electron massless.
Being massless it certainly seems it must take a non inertial geodesic path as
does a photon in a similar circumstance. If true this raises a few
interesting questions.
In what sense can inertial "forces" exists absent a Higgs field.
What can it mean to have electric or any non gravitational charges absent a
non zero Higgs field?
This of course ignores composite structures a major mass generating mechanism
but since we don't have composite systems (maybe) above the QGP phase I think
we can ignore this point. However, it must be noted that an alternate
explanation to a Higgs field is the notion of composite Fermions but we can lay this
point aside I think.