Imagining particles, fields and interactions

[quantumfireball]

Imagine that you never heard about particle before.
For you the all the forces in nature are described by scalar,vector etc fields.
now you calculate the hamilton of the field and the momentum of the field
and you ill replace the the field say phi and its momentum by operators which satisfy the usual commutation relation {phi,p}=i which is equal to zero for space like seperations etc etc
Now do you see particle like behaviour coming out of this framework?
Be frank.
Just imagine
Mathematically it does make a lot of sense like you have experienced with the 1 dimensional harmonic oscillator but to treat particles as very real entities within the framework of QFT?
it makes sense now since we have read things,but what if you were an 18th century clasical field theorist and just randomely thought about this idea of field quantization
?
do you think he would recognize particles coming out of the framework?

 

[Zorg]

I don't understand all of the above, but perhaps therein lies a hint that 'particle' is not a label for a point entity existing at a particular point in spacetime but a label for a process which encompasses the entire lifetime of said entity.

 

[denian]

I would say that the concept of particles, fields, and interactions is a fundamental aspect of our understanding of the universe. While it may seem strange to imagine a world without prior knowledge of particles, it is important to remember that scientific understanding and theories evolve over time.

In this scenario, where I have no prior knowledge of particles, I would approach the idea of fields and their interactions as a way to describe and understand the forces in nature. The concept of quantizing fields, while mathematically sound, may seem like a strange idea at first. However, as we have seen with the 1-dimensional harmonic oscillator, it can be a powerful tool for understanding physical phenomena.

If I were an 18th-century classical field theorist, I may not have recognized the idea of particles emerging from the quantization of fields. However, I would still be able to appreciate the mathematical elegance and consistency of this framework. It would have been a groundbreaking and revolutionary idea at the time, and I would have been excited to explore its implications.

Ultimately, as scientists, we must remain open-minded and constantly question our understanding of the universe. The idea of particles emerging from the quantization of fields may seem strange at first, but with further exploration and experimentation, we can gain a deeper understanding of the nature of particles and their interactions.