Particles Definition and 1000 Threads

I was watching this terrific lecture by David Tong and there was a section at the end from around 50:12 - 54:00 that I found particularly fascinating. I am very much a layman when it comes to these topics and my question may be silly, but what sort of ideas are there that state that all the...

What is the relationship between the wavelength produced by a laser and the concentration of particles in the air? Does the wavelength get larger if the concentration of particles the beam hits increase?

Suppose we have a system of particles being acted upon by a single external force ##\mathbf{F}^{e}##. Each individual particle feels a force of ##\mathbf{f}_i = \mathbf{f}_{i}^{int} + \mathbf{f}_{i}^{e}## such that ##\sum_i \mathbf{f}_{i}^{e} = \mathbf{F}^{e}##, and ##\mathbf{f}_{i}^{int}## are...

My thoughts are: a) it should just be N^2 b) just N since they're identical c) due to Pauli exclusion would it be N^2 - N since they have to be different states?

I am wondering if two polymer particles, of same kind, heated above Tg can be mixed, over time, if they are squeezed together. By mixing I mean that the surfaces of the two particles will mix into one after they are squeezed together. For simplicity let's assume that the polymer particles are...

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Hello, I'm trying to make sense of some of the group theoretic discussion found in Griffith's Introduction to Elementary Particles. I have had a fair amount of exposure to elementary group theory, but no representation theory, and have some specific questions related to this which refer to the...

We know that the energy levels for electrons surrounding nucleus are quantized , only coming in discrete levels. When I see the standard model of elementary particles table I notice specific masses for each of the particles whether they be quarks or leptons or bosons like the higgs. I know that...

Velocity of B wrt C = (v +v*cos 60) i^ - vsin60 j^ = (3v/2)i^-((3)^(1/2)/2v)j^ But since C is also moving this initial velocity would vary. So how to find a function which defines its path and hence I can find time at which the particles meet. I was told to take rotating frame of reference that...

Hi all, - an initial apology - there are a large number of threads on virtual particles on the site, and I apologize for adding another one. I had two questions - on a related note, the guidance provided by @A. Neumaier's FAW on virtual particles has been highly valuable for a novice . 1) Upon...

Lets say we have a system of two point particles (1. and 2.) which are rotating around an axis. What is written next in my physics course book is: The torque of a 2.body on the 1. body is M21=r1xF21 and the torque of the 1.body on the 2.body is M12=r2xF12. Understandable. But how? There is no...

Hi, I just need someone to check over my work. I am having trouble with the next part of this question and I just wanted to check that this part was correct first. I have two particles in an infinite square well (walls at x=0 and x=L). I need write an expression for the spatial wave...

I've learned that for a particle having 3 degrees of freedom, its average energy is 3/2 kT. So for a particle having 'x' degrees of freedom, its energy should be xkT/2. So what is the use of given E = ax6 here? Please help!

Regarding the first part, I proceeded as: nx ny nz 4 0 0 => E1 = 16C 0 4 0 => E2 = 16C 0 0 4 => E3 = 16C 3 1 0 => E4 = 10C 3 0 1 => E5 = 10C 0 3 1 => E6 = 10C 1 3 0 => E7 = 10C 0 1 3 => E8 = 10C 1...

Hello everyone, We conducted an experiment with a strontium-90 source and some different thicknesses of lead. With 2.1mm of lead the count rate (corrected for the background) was 0.69 counts per second, 3.0mm 19.7cps 6.8mm 15.4cps 13.8mm 10.0 cps This would...

I watched a Youtube! video on black holes, and it said that black holes evaporate via Hawking radiation. If I understood the video correctly a virtual particle can pop into existence just outside the event horizon, and that one of the resulting pair can subsequently fall back into the black hole...

Resources I have looked at distinguish between the three basic states of matter in terms of how closely particles are held together; i.e. in solids they are bound most closely, in liquids less so and in gases they're much freer. Would it not be more correct to refer to how closely atoms or...

Would it be correct to represent the energy of massless particles before electroweak symmetry breaking as ##E = cp##, just as we do with photons post-symmetry breaking?

I was seeing a video about molecular orbital theory..at t=3:56 he counted the forces but I don't why he didn't considered repulsions between electrons. Please can you tell me why he didn't considered repulsions?

Hi all, Just a clarification question as I'm learning. It's possible to have Feynman diagrams where the internal lines (virtual particles) are in fact on shell. 'On shell' would imply 'observable,' (maybe?) but as noted in @A. Neumaier's great FAQ, only sets of Feynman diagrams have predictive...

I try solving it but the answer didn’t match

$$<p_1 p_2|p_A p_B> = \sqrt{2E_1 2E_2 2E_A 2E_B}<0|a_1 a_2 a_{A}^{\dagger} a_{B}^{\dagger} |0>$$ $$=2E_A2E_B(2\pi)^6(\delta^{(3)}(p_A-p_1)\delta{(3)}(p_B-p_2) + \delta^{(3)}(p_A-p_2)\delta^{(3)}(p_B-p_1))$$ The identity above seemed easy, until I tried to prove it. I figured I could work this...

Right, so I thought I'd done this correctly but clearly not because my velocity is greater than the speed of light, where have I gone wrong? P = (M, 0, 0, 0) p1 = (E1, p1x, p1y, p1z) p2 = (E2, p2x, p2y, p2z) P = p1 + p2 p2 = P - p1 square each side to get (p2)2 = P2 - 2Pp1 + p12 therefore (m2)2...

In A.P. French's Special Relativity, the author said the following, As I understand, photons are massless, so I don't think the last equation above applies to photons, but then, when deriving it, he used an equation proper to photons (##E=pc##). So in which context is ##m=p/c## valid?

I've been reading about Quantum Field Theory and what it says about subatomic particles. I've read that QFT regards particles as excited states of underlying quantum fields. If this is the case, how can particles be regarded as objective? It seems to me that this also removes some of the...

Lets do it for the left (the right will be similar): ##r_{left}=[(L-a\sin\theta)\sin\phi,(L+a\cos\theta)\cos\phi]## so ##v_{left}=[-a\dot{\theta}\cos\theta\sin\phi+(L-a\sin\theta)\dot{\phi}\cos\phi,-a\dot{\theta}\sin\theta\cos\phi-(L+a\cos\theta)\dot{\phi}\sin\phi]##. Is this right?

Two identical point-sized particles with the same Y-coordinate were traveling along the X and Z axes respectively. Given that gravity is acting parallel to the Y-axis, will the particles when they eventually collide, continue traveling along the same linear path due to work done by either being 0?

mass = 37.2 g AICI3 (given) number of ions = AI3+ Ions (unknown) number of ions = CI- Ions (unknown) mass = g/formula unit AICI3 (unknown) The ratio of AI3+ Ions to CI- Ions is 1:3 Molar Mass AICI3 (1 x 26.98 g/mol AI) + (3 x 35.45 g/mol CI) = 133.33 g/mol AICI3 molar mass = 133.33 g/mol...

Hi, I'm reading the book "Quantum theory of many-particle system" by Fetter and Walecka. I can not understand the following quote from the book: Ok so the first thing I don't quite get is the part about the correlation function. I've tried to Google it a bit but didn't find anything which I...

I can solve the two particle system easily enough: Using ##j_1 = 1## and ##j_2 = 1##, the possible total angular momentum values are ##j = 2, 1, 0##. With ## m = -j , -j+1, ..., j ##, ##j = 2: m = 2, 1, 0, -1, -2 ## (5 states) ##j = 1: m = 1, 0, -1## (3 states) ## j = 0: m = 0 ## (1 state) I...

In all books about QFT I have seen I can not find anything about what a localized particle concept is. Suddenly I found this note in Zee's 'QFT in nutshell' page 4: "As usual, we can form wave packets by superposing eigenmodes. When we quantize the theory, these wave packets behave like...

So I am making the assumption that the resulting particle Z is emitted at rest. For part a I believe that since the two positron beams are symmetric they would each provide half of the energy to create the Z particle so the KE of each positron would be 91.187GeV/2, I am ignoring the rest energy...

I've looked for a while and can't find an answer to this, hence the post. Ultimately this is a question about how the first pieces of "classical" matter formed from quantum matter. My study of self-organizing systems shows that you need a hierarchical build-up of structures to allow a complex...

For a system of interacting particles, is it possible to define single-particle phase spaces? If not, why?

Does anyone know a simple implementation in FORTRAN 90 of collisions of particles?

In BEC, why do we separate the number of particles of ground state(E=0) from the integral(total number of particles) when temperature below critical temperature. Why is the overall integral wrong while the index of sum of number of particle can be considered as continuous? Is it correct that...

I'm working on E fields and particles in E fields, and I was wondering if particles are ever truly accelerated from rest. I did some reading on how accelerators work and cathode tubes, but it seems that particles are always in some type of motion. Is this just a thing for introductory level...

My book tells me that, for both infinite and finite particle in boxes, that: Even solutions are for n = 2, 4, 6, etc and have a sin function form, while odd solutions are for n = 1, 3, 5 etc and have a cos function form. I'm very confused though, because sin functions are odd and cosine...

Before electroweak symmetry breaking, there were massless particles. Can these massless particles be seen in terms of energy momentum relation ##E = ##c##p##?

For a tetrahedron with four spin (1/2) particles, I know there are three separate energy levels at $$l=2,l=1,and l=0$$. My question is how I would go about finding the degeneracy of each level. I know that the number of states must be $$2^4$$. Any clues on where to start would be appreciated...

I have a copy of Griffiths Introduction to Elementary Particles (1st Edition) and was thinking of beginning to work through it. I was curious if anyone knows if this text is sufficiently up to date or if there have been any major developments in particle physics that would make it worth getting...

Higgs bosons are very heavy particles (probably 1000 times heavier than a protons) and very unstable. Now we can create them in particle accelerators like LHC, like countless of other particles. But wait. This one can give mass to particles without mass, does this violate the conservation of...

Hello, my name is Jack and I'm a year 11 student in Australia. After listening to, and reading some information regarding quantum entanglement, I'm still a little unsure about the solution to a thought experiment: Let's say that I create a situation in which multiple pairs of particles are...

How fast are protons and electrons moving within a star?

Can two particles ever be said to occupy exactly the same space at the same time while remaining distinct objects?

Neil Comins in The Hazards of Space Travel states a 40-inch thick wall of lead would be needed to shield interplanetary travelers from the solar wind, coronal mass ejections, and cosmic rays. When lead is constantly bombarded with high energy charged particles, what changes occur to the lead?

The Quantum Mechanical solution for a particle on a sphere is well known. I'm looking for a treatment of two particles on a sphere where both particles are electrons. I assume it's analytically solvable. Of course, I am not expecting someone to actually solve it from scratch (unless you want to)...

Summary: In QFT, if we add a gauge breaking term to the Lagrangian, do we still need to introduce Faddeev-Popov ghost particles? Ghosts seems to be introduced to maintain gauge invariance. But suppose we have eliminated the gauge invariance, from the start, by explicitly introducing a gauge...

Do virtual particles travel at the speed of light, or do they have 'virtual rest mass'?

Why do photons only interact with charged particles?