  An alternative for the Higgs mechanism is proposed. It predicts the
appearance in the broken phase of a scalar background field which may be
interpreted as describing an almost uniform (i.e., homogeneous and isotropic)
superfluid condensate of decoupled Higgs bosons. Quantum fields acquire mass as
a consequence of nonperturbative interactions with those particles condensed in
the zero-momentum state (which constitutes the physical vacuum of the theory)
giving rise in turn to the appearance of density fluctuations. This mechanism
has therefore remarkable cosmological implications.
