# The hierarchy problem

- kind: problem
- status: open
- year: 1976

**Statement.** Why is the Higgs mass, and so the weak scale, so much smaller than the Planck scale?

Quantum corrections should pull the Higgs mass up toward the highest energy scale in the theory unless enormous cancellations occur. Supersymmetry was the favored solution, and the LHC has not found it at the energies where it was most expected. Physicists now take seriously that the answer may be environmental or may need a new principle.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Hierarchy problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_problem)

[The Standard Model's loose ends](/wiki/Space:standard-model.md) · [Physics](/wiki/Continent:physics.md)

## Relations to this page

- related to [higgs-boson](/wiki/Problem:higgs-boson.md) — The original curation links this problem to The hierarchy problem; the argument for the link has not been written yet.

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