Physicists have proposed a number of models that advocate different views of the origin of mass.
The problem is complicated because the primary role of mass is to mediate gravitational interaction between bodies, and no theory of gravitational interaction reconciles with the currently popular Standard Model of particle physics.
The Higgs mechanism is based on a symmetry-breaking scalar field potential, such as the quartic.
In these theories, as in the Standard Model itself, the gravitational interaction either is not involved or does not play a crucial role.
[1][2][further explanation needed] Coleman–Weinberg mechanism generates mass through spontaneous symmetry breaking.