The Higgs mechanism is a cornerstone of the Standard Model, explaining how elementary particles acquire mass through spontaneous symmetry breaking. Yet its ontological interpretation remains debated: what is the physical nature of the Higgs field? What is the Higgs boson? Energy-Efficiency Theory (EET) offers a first-principles answer grounded in energy monism. We propose that the Higgs field is the continuous free-state energy background of the vacuum, and the Higgs boson is a localized constrained-state excitation of this background. The electroweak phase transition is reinterpreted as a critical escape event driven by the energy ratio = Ėₑ₄ₒ / Ė₌₀₈₍: when 1, the free-state background condenses into a non-zero vacuum expectation value v, and particles acquire mass via inertial resistance in this background. We derive the constraint barrier of the Higgs boson Eb = mH c² and its decay rate scaling H ^-1. Three Level VI falsifiable predictions are proposed: (1) channel-dependent deviation of Higgs decay branching ratios in high-energy collisions where 1; (2) critical exponent 0. 38 (3D O (4) universality class) for v (T) near Tc in BSM scenarios; (3) modification of the effective Higgs width in the early universe, affecting gravitational wave and baryogenesis predictions. This framework is fully compatible with Standard Model calculations at =1 while providing a unified energy-ontological foundation for the Higgs sector.
Hongpu Yang (2026) studied this question.