BEFORE · T > TEW · massless CW CCW v = c No chirality coupling — passes through freely Massless gauge modon AFTER · T < TEW · massive CW CCW chirality coat v < c W/Z boson — modon + eaten Goldstone mode SSB Gauge modon (vortex dipole) Ordered substrate Chirality-flipped (Goldstone excitation) Propagation mW = g·v/2 = 80.4 GeV mZ = √(g²+g'²)·v/2 = 91.2 GeV

Figure 12.3. The Goldstone eating mechanism. Left: Before electroweak symmetry breaking, a gauge modon (counter-rotating vortex dipole) propagates at c through the disordered substrate with no mass — it does not couple to the random chirality background. Right: After symmetry breaking, the same modon propagates through chirally ordered substrate. Each chirality flip it induces costs energy, creating a wake of disturbed orbitals — the "chirality coat" (eaten Goldstone mode). This coat gives the modon inertia: the W and Z bosons are gauge modons dragging chirality disturbances through the ordered substrate.