[georgeaf99]

I will preface this by saying my understanding of particle physics is very basic...

Yes, that is correct. The Higgs particle is also extremely unstable and decays into two photons almost immediately.

[eli_gottlieb]

Wait, why does the field-quantum for inertia decay into the field-quantum for light?

[drdeca]

I am not at all sure, but my guess is that:

the results must be electrically neutral in total

the results must have the same total spin (0) (this might require that all the resulting things have spin 0 but I don't know)

the results must conserve a variety of other quantities,

I think maybe pairs photons are (one of?) the only things that meets these requirements?

I'm not sure. I'm mainly guessing.

But, if proton collisions can cause Higgs Bosons, I think maybe the idea is that so long as all the quantities are conserved(charge, mass, color, spin, momentum, etc. etc.), any particles with small enough energy can be the result maybe?

I don't know if that is the idea. I'm just guessing based on how things are described wrt protons, but I might be misinterpreting things.