Higgs mechanism and the added-mass effect.

In the Higgs mechanism, mediators of the weak force acquire masses by interacting with the Higgs condensate, leading to a vector boson mass matrix. On the other hand, a rigid body accelerated through an inviscid, incompressible and irrotational fluid feels an opposing force linearly related to its acceleration, via an added-mass tensor. We uncover a striking physical analogy between the two effects and propose a dictionary relating them.