What gives a proton it's charge?

andrien

Quote by Naty1

I wouldn't treat it quite so lightly...extra dimensions have proven to provide a wealth of theoretical insights....as in string theory.

I was saying that with charges.you are misinterpreting it.With a degree of freedom you can associate a dimension type thing if you wish.

bhobba

Quote by DiracPool

but explaining fundamental forces and features of particulate matter such as electric charge using broken symmetries basically tells me nothing about the nature of these entities.

It's not the broken symmetries that explains anything - its the symmetries themselves. For example U(1) gauge symmetry explains EM when you work through the math - and in a very beautiful way. Broken symmetries unifies them - that's all.

Of course like all explanations it leaves questions unanswered - but that is in the nature of explanation itself.

Thanks
Bill

bhobba

Quote by haael

Yes, but the "machine" that produced the Maxwell equations was Einstein field equations and usual spacetime symmetries. What KK really proves is that any gauge theory can be formulated in fully geometric way by postulating new dimensions. The topology of the dimensions set the gauge group and the size of the dimensions set the theory constants.

This is actually something more than just pushing EM in and getting the same. It's the promising way of unifying any gauge theory with gravity.

Yes of course. This interplay between gauge theories and geometries is a powerful idea.

Thanks
Bill

Naty1

Ah, Diracpool...Hello.....good question:

I've often wondered what this return to perfect symmetry quest was actually supposed to tell us........it's interesting and important to know, but explaining fundamental forces and features of particulate matter such as electric charge using broken symmetries basically tells me nothing about the nature of these entities.

Seek and ye shall find!! Insights, not complete answers yet.....

Try just these two comments on for size: This refers to the new 'slow roll' inflation from 10^-36 to about 10[SUP]-32[SUP] seconds following the Big Bang, just before before the FLRW cosmological is 'glued on' so its a potentially interesting and insightful period. What caused all this?? a vacuum expectation value [vacuum energy] different than today!!

Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic inflationary region, magnified to cosmic size, become the seeds for the growth of structure in the universe (see galaxy formation and evolution and structure formation).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology)

Instead, effects of grand unification might be detected through indirect observations such as proton decay, electric dipole moments of elementary particles, or the properties of neutrinos.[

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_unification

And one additional connection with right now:

The initial cosmological inflation resulted in the creation of matter from energy......the appearance of a horizon produced particles!! So, too, does the horizon of a black hole [Hawking radiation, in a Schwarzschild geometry]] and the horizon associated with simple acceleration [the Unruh effect, in a deSitter space] also produce particles!!

Certain geometries with horizons appear to enable the creation of particles from the vacuum...from the quantum foam!!

dextercioby

Quote by haael

[...] What KK really proves is that any gauge theory can be formulated in fully geometric way by postulating new dimensions. [...]

There's no need for a proof of that. Any gauge theory is formulated in a fully geometric way right by definition.

strangerep

Quote by Mohamed Daw

The answers were "it's just like that"
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=172664

So did you at least understand my attempted answer in the final post of that thread?
If not, ask more questions.

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