Are All Electrons Created Equal? The Implications of Quantum Field Theory

[Jilang]

Except... It might change the momentum?

 

[craigi]

Except... It might change the momentum?

Except it must be conserved.

 

[Jilang]

Except it must be conserved.

Mmmm, doesn't the uncertainty in the momentum increase with time or am I getting that bit wrong?

 

[craigi]

Mmmm, doesn't the uncertainty in the momentum increase with time or am I getting that bit wrong?

Are you talking about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?

 

[Jilang]

I'm talking about the diffusion type process described by the Schroedinger equation.

 

[Naty1]

doesn't the uncertainty in the momentum increase with time or am I getting that bit wrong?

Measurements always show a statistical distribution.

 

[A. Neumaier]

Do we know if the electron that is emitted is the same one that is detected?

This is a meaningless question for identical particles such as electrons.

 

[ddd123]

If they were not identical, this anti-symmetrization would not be required. This anti-symmetrization leads to things like the Pauli exclusion principle which has experimental consequences.

What do you think are the most striking experimental consequences?

 

[Nugatory]

What do you think are the most striking experimental consequences?

Now that's an open-ended question :)
The Pauli exclusion principle is responsible for the behavior of electrons around the nucleus, and this in turn is responsible for just about all the behavior of matter: chemistry, solidity, density, ... Without the exclusion principle, EVERYTHING would be unimaginably different.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Are all electrons equal?

Yes, but some are more equal than others.

Quarks of England, quarks of Ireland,
Quarks of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings
Of the Golden future time.

 

[Khashishi]

The idea of particles as these individual entities is superseded by quantum field theory, in the second quantization. It doesn't really make sense to think of two electrons as separate things, since they are both excitations of an underlying electron field. The only way for two electrons to have different properties is for there to be multiple different electron fields. In which case, we would not call them both electrons. For example, we call an electron-like object with higher mass a muon.

Bad analogy time: if I have two cents in my bank account, I can transfer them one at a time, but there's no way to distinguish one cent from the other cent since they are just numbers in a computer, not physical pennies.