There is a formal analogy between the Higgs mechanism and superconductivity. The historical record provides ample evidence that analogies between superconductivity and particle physics played an important heuristic role in the development of the Higgs model.
But what has recently hit my hot button was the possibility that this analogy may be more than a formal one but actually a physical one. The Mexican hat potential and spontaneous symmetry breaking are present in both these mechanisms. It has recently been discovered that irradiating a superconductor with a laser will generate polaritons which inherit their Mexican hat potential from their superconducting electron feedstock. A highly probable slow light mixing cavity will maximize the light/matter quasiparticle environment that surrounds the superconductor. It has been experimentally verified that the polaritons that are produced by the superconductor will generate a tachyonic Higgs field. These quasiparticles are called cavity Higgs polaritons. This serendipity opens up a physical platform where Spontaneous symmetry breaking, Bose condensation, the Higgs field, and tachyonic condensation open up the door to a realization of the predictions of string theory such as black strings and bubbles of metastable AdS space. Generating a metastable bubble of AdS space would enable the possible experimental production of topological vortex-like defects such as the 'tHooft-Polyakov monopole. Furthermore, the radius of curvature of anti de Sitter space provides an extra length scale that could allow the study of the equations of motion in a limit where the masses of the Higgs field and the massive vector bosons are both vanishing. This alone might allow the study of how matter and forces behave in a new AdS based universe let alone allow for the availability of an experimental platform on which many of the posits of string theory can be physically tested in a real world rooted experimental system. This analogy explains how the Holmlid mechanism works. In the AdS bubble, the Higgs field is disabled which allows the black string to convert matter to energy. The energy is then transferred to the AdS environment which surrounds the black string where matter reforms in a new configuration. This discussion about tachyon condensation provides theoretical context on how an AdS bubble is structured and how that bubble decomposes and reforms matter. https://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/chord18/tachycond/rm/jwvideo.html
