Elementary particles with nonzero spin must be massless

Abstract

We present an ontological argument why elementary particles with nonzero spin must be massless. This argument implies that, from an ontological perspective, the massive quarks and leptons of the standard model cannot be elementary particles. This conclusion is less disquieting than it might seem at first sight because the Higgs mechanism entails that not only the masses of the W and Z bosons but also the masses of quarks and leptons arise from the interaction of massless elementary particles with the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field, which is a result of symmetry breaking.