Aug 23, 2022 06:49 PM
https://www.cantorsparadise.com/quantum-...5b5592538e
EXCERPTS (Kasper Müller): . . . Much later in the 1970s, we found out that not even the neutrons and protons are fundamental. They too can be broken down even further into 3 other smaller particles called quarks. There are two different kinds of quarks inside a proton and a neutron.
For no good reason at all, physicists called these two new particles the up-quark and the down-quark.
The good news is that these three particles - the two quarks and the electron - are as far as we know, fundamental particles (sometimes called elementary particles) in the sense that they cannot be broken down into smaller units. Those three particles make up everything on the periodic table! From only three particles!… That is, everything you see in Nature, from stars and planets to animals and rocks is made from only three particles that arrange themselves in different ways to create chemistry. Pretty amazing stuff.
So now we are finished, right? I mean we have our fundamental model from these three particles making up everything. Well… No, actually. We teach the students from early on that the most fundamental building blocks of Nature are the fundamental particles because we can make nice analogies with small balls bouncing or whatever, but as far as we know, by the best and most accurate model we currently have, the most fundamental building blocks of Nature are not even particles!
[...] As far as we can tell, the most fundamental building blocks of Nature are what are known as fields. So what is a field? And what does it have to do with particles?
Okay… So what does that mean?
[...] In particular, energy is not continuous. It comes in small packages called quanta and there is a smallest amount of energy possible in the Universe. That is, it doesn’t make any sense to talk about a smaller amount because it doesn’t exist. The same is true for distance and other interesting things by the way.
The idea of trying to merge the discrete quantum world with Faraday's continuous fields is called quantum field theory.
For example, we know that waves or ripples in the electromagnetic field are what we call light. But when we zoom in, we see that it consists of small discrete packages of energy called photons. The big debate about light being a wave or a particle turns out to be fair because, in a sense, it is both. The electromagnetic field is waving and the excitements in the waving field are called photons.
The fantastic thing is, that this same principle of fields giving rise to particles applies to every other fundamental particle of the Universe. Throughout the room you are sitting in right now are fields spread out everywhere; electron fields, top-quark fields, etc., and the ripples of these fields get tied up into little bundles of energy by quantum mechanical laws, and these bundles of energy we call particles.
It is an amazing thought that all the electrons in my body and all the electrons in your body are waves in the same underlying field. We are connected through the electron field! The same is true for all other fundamental particles of course.
[...] even when all the particles are removed, the fields still exist and they have to obey the rules of quantum mechanics. In fact, because of their wavy nature, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle applies to the fields. This principle says that there is a limit to the knowledge of momentum and position at the same time. In particular, it means that such a field cannot stand still. It has no choice but to fluctuate giving rise to what we call quantum vacuum fluctuations and is basically small particles popping in and out of existence.
It is important to realize that these quantum fluctuations are real and we can actually create experiments that show how these virtual particles create a force between two metal plates and quantum field theory is able to explain this phenomenon very accurately mathematically speaking.
By the way, I boldly claimed that this theory is the most successful theory in science... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS (Kasper Müller): . . . Much later in the 1970s, we found out that not even the neutrons and protons are fundamental. They too can be broken down even further into 3 other smaller particles called quarks. There are two different kinds of quarks inside a proton and a neutron.
For no good reason at all, physicists called these two new particles the up-quark and the down-quark.
The good news is that these three particles - the two quarks and the electron - are as far as we know, fundamental particles (sometimes called elementary particles) in the sense that they cannot be broken down into smaller units. Those three particles make up everything on the periodic table! From only three particles!… That is, everything you see in Nature, from stars and planets to animals and rocks is made from only three particles that arrange themselves in different ways to create chemistry. Pretty amazing stuff.
So now we are finished, right? I mean we have our fundamental model from these three particles making up everything. Well… No, actually. We teach the students from early on that the most fundamental building blocks of Nature are the fundamental particles because we can make nice analogies with small balls bouncing or whatever, but as far as we know, by the best and most accurate model we currently have, the most fundamental building blocks of Nature are not even particles!
[...] As far as we can tell, the most fundamental building blocks of Nature are what are known as fields. So what is a field? And what does it have to do with particles?
Quote:A field is something that is spread out everywhere in the Universe and takes on a particular value at every point in space. Moreover, that value can change in time.
Okay… So what does that mean?
[...] In particular, energy is not continuous. It comes in small packages called quanta and there is a smallest amount of energy possible in the Universe. That is, it doesn’t make any sense to talk about a smaller amount because it doesn’t exist. The same is true for distance and other interesting things by the way.
The idea of trying to merge the discrete quantum world with Faraday's continuous fields is called quantum field theory.
For example, we know that waves or ripples in the electromagnetic field are what we call light. But when we zoom in, we see that it consists of small discrete packages of energy called photons. The big debate about light being a wave or a particle turns out to be fair because, in a sense, it is both. The electromagnetic field is waving and the excitements in the waving field are called photons.
The fantastic thing is, that this same principle of fields giving rise to particles applies to every other fundamental particle of the Universe. Throughout the room you are sitting in right now are fields spread out everywhere; electron fields, top-quark fields, etc., and the ripples of these fields get tied up into little bundles of energy by quantum mechanical laws, and these bundles of energy we call particles.
It is an amazing thought that all the electrons in my body and all the electrons in your body are waves in the same underlying field. We are connected through the electron field! The same is true for all other fundamental particles of course.
[...] even when all the particles are removed, the fields still exist and they have to obey the rules of quantum mechanics. In fact, because of their wavy nature, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle applies to the fields. This principle says that there is a limit to the knowledge of momentum and position at the same time. In particular, it means that such a field cannot stand still. It has no choice but to fluctuate giving rise to what we call quantum vacuum fluctuations and is basically small particles popping in and out of existence.
It is important to realize that these quantum fluctuations are real and we can actually create experiments that show how these virtual particles create a force between two metal plates and quantum field theory is able to explain this phenomenon very accurately mathematically speaking.
By the way, I boldly claimed that this theory is the most successful theory in science... (MORE - missing details)
