Difference between a particle and its field

[San K]

What is the difference between a field and a particle?
What is a field composed off?
Do weak and strong (nuclear) interactions have any fields associated with them?

Is the below correct (even if it does not answer the above questions):

A particle is an excitation of its field.

An electron is an excitation of the electronic field
A photon is an excitation of the EM field
A boson is an excitation of the Higg's field

 

[Mark M]

What is the difference between a field and a particle?

What do you mean? A particle is a localized excitation of a field, whereas a field is a continuous entity that represents something at every point (such as a force).

What is a field composed off?
Do weak and strong (nuclear) interactions have any fields associated with them?

Yes. The strong force is mediated by gluons, so the field that corresponds to it is the gluon field. The weak force is mediated by W and Z bosons. So, they are represented by a corresponding field. Since they are vector bosons, their field is a vector field.

A particle is an excitation of its field.

Yes.

An electron is an excitation of the electronic field

When talking about matter particles, the corresponding fields are called fermionic fields. An yes, there is one for every particle.

A photon is an excitation of the EM field

Yes.

A boson is an excitation of the Higg's field

No. A Higgs boson is an excitation of the Higgs field. Bosons are particles with integer spins, such as photons, gluons, etc.

 

[San K]

Thanks Mark M

A Higgs boson is an excitation of the Higgs field. Bosons are particles with integer spins, such as photons, gluons, etc.

Agreed.

Typographical error, sorry. I forgot to write Higgs in front.

I wonder why it has to be that - a half-integer spin particle (Gluon/Boson) holds together a full integer spin particle (Quark/Fermion).

Could it be that you need (many) Gluons to occupy the same quantum state in order to hold the Quarks together?

 

[Mark M]

Force carriers (gauge bosons) must be bosons so that they can appear to be continuous fields in the classical limit. For a simple example, think of the electromagnetic field. On a quantum level, we can think of a superposition of trillions of photons in the same state (the tensor product of their wavefunctions), but as we scale up to a macroscopic level, this appears to be a field in the classical sense. That's why you'll never come across a fermionic field - you can't have more than one fermion in the same state.