Sep 20, 2023 10:30 PM
What is a quantum particle really like?
https://bigthink.com/hard-science/quantum-particle/
EXCERPT: . . . The name for the modern theory describing particles is “quantum field theory.” Modern quantum field theory postulates that space is full of a series of fields. There is a field for each kind of known subatomic particle. For example, there is an electron field, a photon field, and so on. There are even quark fields.
According to this theory, an electron is nothing more than a wave packet in the electron field. The meaning of the wave packet is the same as in traditional quantum mechanics — that is, if you square the wave function (representing the wave packet), the outcome is the probability of detecting an electron at that location.
The really neat thing about this understanding of particles is it gives us a very different mental picture of how particles are emitted and absorbed at the quantum level. For example, it is common for one subatomic particle to emit another, say, an electron emitting a photon. If subatomic particles are wave packets (localized vibrations of specific fields), then when an electron emits a photon, vibrations in the electron field are transferred to the photon field.
In a way, it’s like putting two identical tuning forks near one another and hitting one of them. The vibrations from that fork will transfer to the other, and soon both will be vibrating. In the quantum world, some of the vibrations of the electron field will transfer to the photon field, effectively creating a photon.
There is no question that modern physics theories can be difficult to envision. However, once you have embraced the idea that particles are little more than localized vibrations in several interacting fields, you have a reasonably accurate vision of how the quantum world works... (MORE - missing details)
Quantum Field Theory ... https://youtu.be/FBeALt3rxEA
What is neutral naturalness?
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article...entity=und
INTRO: The Higgs field is famous for its role bestowing mass on other particles. But it isn’t a one-way relationship: The Higgs field’s interactions also influence its own particle, the Higgs boson. Due to this give-and-take, some physicists think the Higgs boson should be approximately as heavy as the biggest mass scale with which it interacts, the Planck scale.
But this isn’t the case. The Planck scale sits at the enormous energies at which it is thought that gravity becomes as strong as the other three fundamental forces, around 10^19 gigaelectronvolts. This is many orders of magnitude bigger than the actual Higgs mass of 125 GeV.
How can the gap between expectation and reality be so huge? Is something protecting the Higgs from Planck-scale physics? The large, unexpected difference in these two scales is known as the hierarchy problem.
Over the last several decades, physicists have presented many theories to resolve the hierarchy problem, from supersymmetry to warped extra dimensions to imagining the Higgs as a composite particle. However, at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, where the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012, attempts to find evidence in support of these theories have come up short.
During the ongoing planning process for the US high-energy physics community, physicists have discussed another way to explain the mass of the Higgs: with a class of theories known as “neutral naturalness.”
When it comes to solving the hierarchy problem, neutral naturalness is “one of the few ideas out there that is still viable,” says Zackaria Chacko, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and one of the inventors of this framework.
Some scientists say neutral naturalness could be the missing piece that accounts for the deficiencies of the supersymmetry or composite-Higgs theories. Importantly to forward-looking physicists, experiments at the LHC and other planned future experiments all have the capability to put the theory to the test... (MORE - details)
https://bigthink.com/hard-science/quantum-particle/
EXCERPT: . . . The name for the modern theory describing particles is “quantum field theory.” Modern quantum field theory postulates that space is full of a series of fields. There is a field for each kind of known subatomic particle. For example, there is an electron field, a photon field, and so on. There are even quark fields.
According to this theory, an electron is nothing more than a wave packet in the electron field. The meaning of the wave packet is the same as in traditional quantum mechanics — that is, if you square the wave function (representing the wave packet), the outcome is the probability of detecting an electron at that location.
The really neat thing about this understanding of particles is it gives us a very different mental picture of how particles are emitted and absorbed at the quantum level. For example, it is common for one subatomic particle to emit another, say, an electron emitting a photon. If subatomic particles are wave packets (localized vibrations of specific fields), then when an electron emits a photon, vibrations in the electron field are transferred to the photon field.
In a way, it’s like putting two identical tuning forks near one another and hitting one of them. The vibrations from that fork will transfer to the other, and soon both will be vibrating. In the quantum world, some of the vibrations of the electron field will transfer to the photon field, effectively creating a photon.
There is no question that modern physics theories can be difficult to envision. However, once you have embraced the idea that particles are little more than localized vibrations in several interacting fields, you have a reasonably accurate vision of how the quantum world works... (MORE - missing details)
Quantum Field Theory ... https://youtu.be/FBeALt3rxEA
What is neutral naturalness?
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article...entity=und
INTRO: The Higgs field is famous for its role bestowing mass on other particles. But it isn’t a one-way relationship: The Higgs field’s interactions also influence its own particle, the Higgs boson. Due to this give-and-take, some physicists think the Higgs boson should be approximately as heavy as the biggest mass scale with which it interacts, the Planck scale.
But this isn’t the case. The Planck scale sits at the enormous energies at which it is thought that gravity becomes as strong as the other three fundamental forces, around 10^19 gigaelectronvolts. This is many orders of magnitude bigger than the actual Higgs mass of 125 GeV.
How can the gap between expectation and reality be so huge? Is something protecting the Higgs from Planck-scale physics? The large, unexpected difference in these two scales is known as the hierarchy problem.
Over the last several decades, physicists have presented many theories to resolve the hierarchy problem, from supersymmetry to warped extra dimensions to imagining the Higgs as a composite particle. However, at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, where the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012, attempts to find evidence in support of these theories have come up short.
During the ongoing planning process for the US high-energy physics community, physicists have discussed another way to explain the mass of the Higgs: with a class of theories known as “neutral naturalness.”
When it comes to solving the hierarchy problem, neutral naturalness is “one of the few ideas out there that is still viable,” says Zackaria Chacko, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and one of the inventors of this framework.
Some scientists say neutral naturalness could be the missing piece that accounts for the deficiencies of the supersymmetry or composite-Higgs theories. Importantly to forward-looking physicists, experiments at the LHC and other planned future experiments all have the capability to put the theory to the test... (MORE - details)