Question

Can someone provide an expanded explanation on the statement that the Higgs field is already 3/4 detected?

Link to ref (@nic, sorry I left it off, do a quick search on Higgs to find the right location on page)

Answer 1

The link you provided is a page of G t'Gooft on an official site and is quite interesting reading.

the statement you are wondering about is:

consider the scientific facts concerning the Standard Model. Fact is that the W+, W? and the Z boson each carry three spin degrees of freedom, whereas the Yang-Mills field quanta, which describe their interactions correctly in great detail, each carry only two. Those remaining modes come from the Higgs field. What this means is that three quarters of the field of the Higgs have already been found. The fourth is still missing, and if you calculate its properties, it is also clear why it is missing: it is hiding in the form of a particle that is difficult to detect.

He is stating that the Higgs' existence is based on the very strong verification of the Standard Model. There is strong experimental verification of the existence of W+ W- and Z The construction of the theory is such that since the gauge bosons exist one has 3/4 of the data needed to confirm the model, of which the existence of the Higgs is 1/4, counting up dimensions, of the necessary evidence/prediction. He is equating the existence of the Higgs to the validity of the SM in this statement.