The Process of Generation of Mass, The Higgs Boson, and Dark Matter

A dynamical mechanism of symmetry breaking in which gauge and matter fields play an active role is proposed. It basically represents a covariant generalization of the mechanism responsible for superconductivity, and provides a {\em natural} mechanism of generation of mass which is not in conflict with the present value of the cosmological constant. When applied to SU(2)$\times$U(1) leads to exactly the same physics (Lagrangian density) as the Standard Model but modifying {\em only} the Higgs sector. It also predicts the appearance over all space of a classical scalar field as well as the existence of density fluctuations. According to it, space would be filled with a macroscopically large number of Higgs bosons which now appear as light, stable scalar particles {\em decoupled} from ordinary matter and radiation. Therefore they would play the same role as the Cooper pairs in superconductivity and would be a natural candidate for dark matter.