Quantum Traction vs The Standard Higgs Story (and why it’s weird)

Reference : https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17594186

In the Standard Model (SM), fermion masses come from Yukawa couplings:

$ m_f = \frac{y_f,v}{\sqrt{2}}, $

where

$m_f$ is the mass of fermion $f$ (e.g. electron, top, etc.),
$v \approx 246\ \text{GeV}$ is the Higgs vacuum expectation value (VEV),
$y_f$ is a dimensionless Yukawa coupling you just plug in by hand.

The SM says:

The Higgs field gets a nonzero VEV (it “condenses”),
This VEV multiplies each $y_f$ ,
That product is the mass.

But this comes with nasty baggage:

Hierarchy problem:
Loop corrections try to drive $m_h^2$ (Higgs mass-squared) up to the cut-off scale. If the cut-off is near the Planck scale, you need absurd fine-tuning to keep $m_h \approx 125\ \text{GeV}$ .
Vacuum energy catastrophe:
The Higgs potential contributes a huge vacuum energy of order $v^4$ , completely incompatible with observed dark energy.
Yukawa madness:
Yukawa couplings span ridiculous ranges:
- $y_t \sim 1$ (top quark)
- $y_e \sim 3\times 10^{-6}$ (electron)
- $y_{\nu} \sim 10^{-12}$ (if neutrinos are Dirac)
  and there is no explanation why.
Neutrinos & photon:
Neutrino masses require bolting on extra operators or new scales. The photon is massless largely because the Higgs potential is arranged that way.

QTT keeps the phenomenology but throws away the ontological story.

2. QTT’s Core Move: Mass = Capacity per Tick, Not “Higgs Gives Mass”

QTT starts with two clocks:

a hidden Absolute Background Clock (ABC) with time $T$ ,
physical clocks (the ones we build) with proper time $\tau$ .

They are related by:

$ d\tau = \mathcal N(x^\mu,v),dT, $

where in weak gravity and slow motion,

$ \mathcal N(x^\mu,v) \approx e^{\phi(x)}\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}, $

so QTT reproduces ordinary GR time dilation but relative to a deeper time $T$ .

Now comes the critical step:

Every species $X$ has a certain amount of capacity flow per tick of the ABC, and that flow is its mass.

Formally:

$ m_X = \frac{E_\ast}{c^2},\frac{dN_X}{dT}, $

where

$N_X$ is a capacity counter for species $X$ ,
$E_\ast = \frac{\hbar c}{\tilde\ell}$ is a universal endurance scale (set by the QTT regulator length $\tilde\ell$ ),
$\frac{dN_X}{dT}$ is “capacity quanta of X per tick of absolute time”.

So:

Heavy particle → big $\frac{dN_X}{dT}$ .
Light particle → small $\frac{dN_X}{dT}$ .
Massless particle → $\frac{dN_X}{dT} = 0$ .

The Higgs then becomes just the label we use in the Einstein gauge for how this capacity ledger shows up in an effective field theory. It’s not a magical field that “gives mass”; it’s the shadow of capacity-per-tick being redistributed when symmetries lock in.

3. QTT vs Higgs: What problems does this fix immediately?

3.1 Hierarchy problem: no more infinite Higgs self-energy

In QTT there is a physical Planck-scale regulator:

Minimal length $\tilde\ell \sim \ell_P$ ,
Endurance scale $E_\ast = \hbar c / \tilde\ell$ ,
Capacity per cell is finite.

Loop integrals in QFT become capacity-regulated sums; they do not run to infinity. The Higgs mass is no longer a delicate cancellation of huge bare vs loop terms. It is simply:

$ m_h = \frac{E_\ast}{c^2},\frac{dN_h}{dT}. $

The question “why is $m_h$ so small?” becomes “why is $\frac{dN_h}{dT}$ so small?”, i.e. a question about discrete combinatorics of capacity flows, not about subtracting infinities.

The technical hierarchy problem disappears.

3.2 Vacuum energy catastrophe: Higgs doesn’t blow up the vacuum

In the usual picture, the Higgs potential contributes something like $\sim v^4$ to the vacuum energy density. That’s insanely wrong compared to the tiny observed dark energy.

In QTT:

there is no literal “Higgs field filling space” with a classical VEV,
what we call $v$ is just a capacity amplitude in the Einstein gauge,
vacuum energy is governed instead by a capacity equilibrium law (a QTT relation between Planck energy density and cosmic vacuum).

So the huge Higgs $v^4$ vacuum energy never appears in the gravitational sector. The “Higgs vacuum catastrophe” is not something you have to fix; it’s something you never generate in the first place.

3.3 Yukawa madness becomes discrete Planck-geometry

In SM:

$ m_f = \frac{y_f v}{\sqrt{2}} \Rightarrow y_f = \frac{\sqrt{2}}{v},m_f, $

and the $y_f$ are arbitrary.

QTT says:

$ m_f = \frac{E_\ast}{c^2},\frac{dN_f}{dT} \quad\Rightarrow\quad y_f = \frac{\sqrt{2}}{v},\frac{E_\ast}{c^2},\frac{dN_f}{dT}. $

Then, using the Planck-lattice picture:

space and a “reality” direction $R$ are discretised in Planck steps,
each fermion’s left slot $L_f$ and right slot $R_f$ live on different cells in this 4D lattice,
the Higgs hub sits at the origin.

Let:

$\ell_f$ = number of Planck steps in the reality+space lattice between $L_f$ and $R_f$ (via the Higgs hub),
$n_f$ = integer counting the number of minimal paths (Yukawa edges) connecting them.

QTT postulates a universal per-step suppression factor $\epsilon$ (due to capacity projection loss each time you move one Planck length in the reality direction). Then the left–right capacity correlator behaves like:

$ \big\langle C_{L_f}C_{R_f}\big\rangle_T \sim \epsilon^{\ell_f}, $

and the Yukawa becomes

$ y_f \sim \sqrt{2},n_f,\epsilon^{\ell_f}. $

So:

the hierarchy of Yukawas is just the hierarchy of integer distances $\ell_f$ on the Planck lattice,
plus small integer multiplicities $n_f$ counting paths.

The crazy pattern

$y_t\sim 1$ , $y_b,y_\tau\sim 10^{-2}$ ,
$y_c\sim 10^{-2}$ , $y_\mu\sim 10^{-3}$ ,
$y_s\sim10^{-3}$ , $y_d,y_u\sim10^{-5}$ , $y_e\sim10^{-6}$

is no longer “Nature picked weird decimals.” It is:

“Third generation sits almost on the Higgs hub (small $\ell_f$ ),
second generation is a few Planck steps away,
first generation is many steps away,
and Yukawas are just $\epsilon^{\text{integer}}$ times small integers.”

QTT turns Yukawa madness into Planck-scale geometry.

3.4 Photon masslessness = a direction on the dial, not an accident

In Higgs language, the photon stays massless because:

the Higgs has a certain charge pattern,
the vacuum chooses a direction that breaks

$\mathrm{SU}(2)_L\times\mathrm{U}(1)Y$

$\mathrm{U}(1){\rm EM}$

the photon is the unbroken combination.

In QTT:

the internal dial (where gauge charges live) has radial and tangential directions,
massive gauge bosons are those directions where radial capacity is locked,
the photon is the purely tangential direction: its capacity flow doesn’t touch the radial reservoir.

So the photon has

$ \frac{dN_\gamma}{dT} = 0 \Rightarrow m_\gamma = 0, $

in a direct, geometric sense. No delicate potential or accidental cancellation.

3.5 Neutrinos: parameter-free pattern from clock tilt

In QTT, neutrinos are treated as capacity bundles tied to the time tilt between the ABC and lab clocks:

$ I_{\rm clk} = \cos!\left(\frac{\pi}{8}\right). $

This same angle appears in many QTT tests (optics, spin, etc.). For neutrinos, the key prediction is the ratio of mass-squared splittings:

$ \frac{\Delta m^2_{31}}{\Delta m^2_{21}} = 4\pi^2 \cos^2!\left(\frac{\pi}{8}\right), $

with no free parameter once QTT is assumed.

So while SM needs:

new Yukawas or seesaw scales to fit neutrino masses,

QTT says:

overall neutrino mass scale comes from a higher-order capacity bundle,
the pattern of splittings comes directly from the universal clock-tilt angle.

Neutrinos become another shadow of the same geometry and capacity rules.

4. Big Picture: What kind of framework does QTT really offer?

Summing up in plain language:

QTT does not kill the Higgs boson as a particle. You still see a resonance at $\sim 125\ \text{GeV}$ , you still get the same cross sections.
What QTT kills is the story that “the Higgs field filling space gives particles mass.”

Instead, QTT offers a capacity + Planck-geometry framework where:

Mass = capacity throughput per tick of an underlying universal clock:

$ m_X = \frac{E_\ast}{c^2},\frac{dN_X}{dT}. $

Higgs is just the Einstein-gauge name for how this capacity ledger shows up in low-energy equations — a shadow, not the origin.

Yukawa couplings are:

$ y_f \sim \sqrt{2},n_f,\epsilon^{\ell_f}, $

with integer distances $\ell_f$ (Planck steps in reality+space) and integer multiplicities $n_f$ , instead of arbitrary continuous parameters.

Photon masslessness, neutrino splittings, and Higgs mass stability all flow from the same set of capacity and geometry rules — no fine-tuning, no runaway infinities.

Quantum Traction Theory says: The Higgs field is not the source of mass.
Mass is how hard a worldline pulls on the universe’s capacity ledger each tick.
The Higgs boson is just how that ledger looks when we write it in Einstein’s language.

Quantum Traction vs The Standard Higgs Story (and why it’s weird)

2. QTT’s Core Move: Mass = Capacity per Tick, Not “Higgs Gives Mass”

3. QTT vs Higgs: What problems does this fix immediately?

3.1 Hierarchy problem: no more infinite Higgs self-energy

3.2 Vacuum energy catastrophe: Higgs doesn’t blow up the vacuum

3.3 Yukawa madness becomes discrete Planck-geometry

3.4 Photon masslessness = a direction on the dial, not an accident

3.5 Neutrinos: parameter-free pattern from clock tilt

4. Big Picture: What kind of framework does QTT really offer?

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2. QTT’s Core Move: Mass = Capacity per Tick, Not “Higgs Gives Mass”

3. QTT vs Higgs: What problems does this fix immediately?

3.1 Hierarchy problem: no more infinite Higgs self-energy

3.2 Vacuum energy catastrophe: Higgs doesn’t blow up the vacuum

3.3 Yukawa madness becomes discrete Planck-geometry

3.4 Photon masslessness = a direction on the dial, not an accident

3.5 Neutrinos: parameter-free pattern from clock tilt

4. Big Picture: What kind of framework does QTT really offer?

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Published by Quantum Traction Theory

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