Unraveling the Mysteries of Virtual Particles and the Higgs Mechanism

In summary, virtual particles are particles that come and go of existence, and they are responsible for renormalization and the hierarchy problem.
  • #1
Duhoc
56
0
Perhaps someone can explain virtual particles. My intuitive notion of them is that particles come in and out of existence to communicate to other particles how to behave and if you try to observe them they disappear. How is the Higgs mechanism responsible for particle masses? What is a Higgs field? What is the hierarchy problem and has new evidence been obtained to resolve it?

Duhoc
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #2
I have a different question: Where did you first heard about virtual particles? I was amazed to know that it was a typical topic from newbies in the physics newsgroups, and I can only think that it is a cultural issue, perhaps from some pupular book in English-speaking countries.
 
  • #3
Yes

From a survey type book. I had difficulty understanding the concept. I first posted it on the cosmology board and it was moved. I would like to understand it as it leads into the other concepts I mentioned.

Duhoc
 
  • #4
What title? I'd like to know if there is some common book to blame.

Of course if *doesn't* leads in a straighforward way to the other concepts you mentioned, but every can be convolved in a survey book. For instance I can tell that virtual particles are respoinsible of renormalisation and that renormalisation is responsible of the hierachy. But I could also say that virtual particles drive to techicolor condensation and then to models without higgs and without hierarchy.
 
  • #5
patronizing

Strange how you answer a question with a question. Anyway, what does pupular mean? Semicolons are not used at the end of sentences. What do you mean a cultural issue? Also what did you mean by "if "doesn't leads" "Respoinsible" is spelled r-e-s-p-o-n-s-i-b-l-e. Just in case you are interested. When you start a sentence with "for instance" or "for example" you use a comma. And really, I thought I might get a response from someone who is an illiterate. So thanks for nothing.

Duhoc
 
  • #7
A functional illiterate then. Anyway, I will not post here again.

Duhoc
 
  • #8
One should keep in mind that all particles are in fact virtual. They are distributed randomly in a gaussian distribution around their mass-shell, so the probability of them being exactly on-shell is precisely zero. We only regard 'real' particles as on-shell because they have to be very close to mass-shell to live any appreciable time.

On a sidenote, may I ask Alejandro why these papers have not been published?
 
  • #9
Severian said:
One should keep in mind that all particles are in fact virtual.

I've been working on rewriting QM to the density marix formalism and one of the things that comes out of this is that all particles have to be treated as if they were virtual. That is, one ends up rewriting Feyman diagram amplitudes so that the initial and final states are treated the same as the intermediate states.

A short way of stating this is that in the usual state vector formalism an amplitude looks like:
[tex]\langle I | M | F\rangle[/tex]

where I and F are the initial and final state vectors and M is some complicated thing. In rewriting this in density operator form, M is easy to convert as it is already in operator form. And the conversion for I and F is to turn them into density operators and rewrite the above amplitude into operator form:
[tex]|I \rangle \langle I | M | F\rangle\langle F|[/tex]

But the internal (virtual) propagators already were in density matrix [tex]|\psi\rangle\langle \psi|[/tex] form, so written in density matrix form, everything looks to be in virtual form.

What happens in the above is that a complex number gets replaced with what turns out to be a complex multiple of an operator. You can then get the squared magnitude (i.e. a real number) by the usual technique, but it ends up coming out multiplied by a density operator (which, unlike the state vectors, do not have arbitrary complex phases).

Carl
 
Last edited:
  • #10
arevero,
Firstly; allow me to apologize on behalf of English-speaking people everywhere. I find it highly ironic when someone who speaks only one language (as is the case for nearly all Anglophones) refers to a multilingual individual as "illiterate". However, you may take some complement from his remarks. I believe that Duhoc has mistaken you for one of the millions of people for whom English is a first language (indeed, their only language) yet their speaking and writing is filled with the same kind of little mistakes for which you were being criticized.

Secondly; yes, virtual particles have become a part of common culture in most English-speaking countries in recent years. I believe that most laypeople were first introduced to the idea of virtual particles when popular publications started talking about Hawking Radiation. Since Duhoc has stated that his first post was originally submitted to the Astronomy Forum, this would certainly seem likely in his case.
 
  • #11
LURCH said:
arevero, .
Thanks. :!) Intentional or not, it does an incredible apology (meaning, defense)


And interesting also your observation/conjecture.
 

1. What are virtual particles?

Virtual particles are particles that temporarily come into existence due to fluctuations in energy levels in a vacuum. They are called "virtual" because they cannot be directly observed and have a very short lifespan.

2. How are virtual particles created?

Virtual particles can be created through a process called particle pair production, where a particle and its corresponding antiparticle are spontaneously created from the energy of a vacuum. They can also be created through interactions between particles and fields.

3. Do virtual particles violate the law of conservation of energy?

No, virtual particles do not violate the law of conservation of energy. They exist for a very short period of time and their energy is borrowed from the vacuum, eventually returning to it. Therefore, the total energy of the system remains constant.

4. Can virtual particles be observed?

No, virtual particles cannot be directly observed as they have a very short lifespan. However, their effects can be observed through various experiments and calculations in quantum mechanics.

5. What is the significance of virtual particles?

Virtual particles play a crucial role in the fundamental interactions of particles, such as the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. They also have important implications in the study of quantum mechanics and the behavior of particles at a subatomic level.

Similar threads

  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
11
Views
1K
  • Quantum Physics
Replies
15
Views
801
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
1
Views
1K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
13
Views
2K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
2
Views
1K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
12
Views
3K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
15
Views
2K
  • Quantum Physics
Replies
6
Views
2K
  • High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Replies
7
Views
3K
Back
Top