Arnold Neumaier
Apr7-04, 09:26 AM
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no, location=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no ,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>Gavin wrote:\n\n> Virtual particles are a constant source of speculation and headache. I\n> used to find them quite mysterious, until I found them in my breakfast\n> cereal. The depth of milk in my cereal bowl is a field. Ripples are\n> the classical excitations. The field can be quantized, giving the\n> ripple quanta (I\'d love to know what they are called).\n\nThey are called \'cerealons\' if they are real particles, and\n\'cevirtualons\' if not.\n\n\n> When I put a\n> Cheerio in the milk it creates a bump in the milk surface. In terms of\n> the quantum field, this bumps is a coherent state of ripple quanta\n> localized around the Cheerio. This is sometimes referred to as a cloud\n> of virtual particles.\n\nHere, the coherent state is the real thing, and the virtual particles\nappear if you try to expand the cherent state into bare multiparticle\nstates. The virtual particles have as much existence as the coeeficients\nof a Taylor series of cos(omega*t) in a harmonic oscillator.\n\n\n> Hi Pat! Thank you Patrick for suggesting that I visit this news group.\n> I hope my first post is interesting to you. My only disagreement with\n> Pat is that I prefer not to take my virtual particles with a grain of\n> salt, but with a spoon of sugar.\n\nBut remember that you eat the coherent states, and not the\nvirtual particles.\n\n\nHappy breakfast!\n\nArnold Neumaier\n\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form"> View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>Gavin wrote:
> Virtual particles are a constant source of speculation and headache. I
> used to find them quite mysterious, until I found them in my breakfast
> cereal. The depth of milk in my cereal bowl is a field. Ripples are
> the classical excitations. The field can be quantized, giving the
> ripple quanta (I'd love to know what they are called).
They are called 'cerealons' if they are real particles, and
'cevirtualons' if not.
> When I put a
> Cheerio in the milk it creates a bump in the milk surface. In terms of
> the quantum field, this bumps is a coherent state of ripple quanta
> localized around the Cheerio. This is sometimes referred to as a cloud
> of virtual particles.
Here, the coherent state is the real thing, and the virtual particles
appear if you try to expand the cherent state into bare multiparticle
states. The virtual particles have as much existence as the coeeficients
of a Taylor series of cos(\omega*t) in a harmonic oscillator.
> Hi Pat! Thank you Patrick for suggesting that I visit this news group.
> I hope my first post is interesting to you. My only disagreement with
> Pat is that I prefer not to take my virtual particles with a grain of
> salt, but with a spoon of sugar.
But remember that you eat the coherent states, and not the
virtual particles.
Happy breakfast!
Arnold Neumaier
> Virtual particles are a constant source of speculation and headache. I
> used to find them quite mysterious, until I found them in my breakfast
> cereal. The depth of milk in my cereal bowl is a field. Ripples are
> the classical excitations. The field can be quantized, giving the
> ripple quanta (I'd love to know what they are called).
They are called 'cerealons' if they are real particles, and
'cevirtualons' if not.
> When I put a
> Cheerio in the milk it creates a bump in the milk surface. In terms of
> the quantum field, this bumps is a coherent state of ripple quanta
> localized around the Cheerio. This is sometimes referred to as a cloud
> of virtual particles.
Here, the coherent state is the real thing, and the virtual particles
appear if you try to expand the cherent state into bare multiparticle
states. The virtual particles have as much existence as the coeeficients
of a Taylor series of cos(\omega*t) in a harmonic oscillator.
> Hi Pat! Thank you Patrick for suggesting that I visit this news group.
> I hope my first post is interesting to you. My only disagreement with
> Pat is that I prefer not to take my virtual particles with a grain of
> salt, but with a spoon of sugar.
But remember that you eat the coherent states, and not the
virtual particles.
Happy breakfast!
Arnold Neumaier