Mass Without the Higgs: A Critical Field Theory Proposal

Physicists Vitaly Galinsky and Lawrence R. Frank of the University of California, San Diego, have published a theoretical paper in Frontiers in Physics proposing a new route to one of the deepest questions in fundamental physics: how particle-like mass can emerge from fields that are themselves massless. The work, titled “Quantum Fields as Critical Waves,” appears in the journal’s section on Complex Physical Systems and was accepted on 28 September 2026.

The proposal is set within the Critical Field Theory framework, an approach the authors have developed in earlier work. Its central claim is that a single Abelian gauge field, governed by a gauge-invariant Lagrangian, can generate massive-like behavior through nonlinear self-interactions alone. In this picture, no auxiliary scalar field, such as the Higgs field, is required to hand mass to the excitations of the theory.

The mechanism the authors describe is a nonlinear critical transition. According to the abstract, a system of delocalized, oscillatory field dynamics can undergo a transition to strongly localized field configurations. At that transition, the field develops a massive-like dispersion relation, meaning its excitations behave as if they carry mass, while the total energy of the underlying field is conserved throughout the process.

Producing a massive-like dispersion relation from a gauge-invariant, massless starting point is therefore the technically significant step in the paper, and the authors present it as a concrete demonstration of the framework’s reach.

The paper is explicitly positioned as part of a broader program. The authors note that the same Critical Field Theory framework has previously been applied to gravitational and cosmological phenomena, including redshift dynamics, galaxy rotation curves, and gravitational lensing. Those earlier applications motivate the possibility, they argue, that quantum, gravitational, and electromagnetic phenomena may share a common critical dynamical field origin.

By demonstrating mass-like behavior arising from nonlinear electromagnetic field dynamics, the authors present the new work as a concrete instance of that unifying possibility. The claim is theoretical: the paper demonstrates a mechanism within the framework’s mathematical structure, and the abstract describes the result as a demonstration of mass-like behavior rather than an experimentally confirmed account of known particle masses.

The work is classified as original research and draws on established theoretical tools, including classical solutions in field theory, effective field theory, gauge theory, nonlinear dynamics, and quantum field theory, as listed in the paper’s keywords.

The paper is published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and the authors note that all claims expressed in the article are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations or the publisher.

Subject of Research: Theoretical emergence of particle-like mass from nonlinear gauge field dynamics in Critical Field Theory

Article Title: Quantum fields as critical waves

Article References: Galinsky, V. L., & Frank, L. R. (2026). Quantum fields as critical waves. Frontiers in Physics, 14, Article 1961773. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2026.1961773

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2026.1961773

Keywords: Critical Field Theory, gauge fields, mass generation, Higgs mechanism, nonlinear dynamics, quantum field theory, dispersion relation, field localization, theoretical physics, Frontiers in Physics, Quantum, fields