Advanced particle physics today:
Based on readers’ requests, I have started the process of explaining the “triplet model,” a classic variation on the Standard Model of particle physics, in which the W boson mass can be raised slightly relative to Standard Model predictions without affecting other current experiments.
The math required is pre-university level, so it should be broadly accessible to those who are interested.
My guess is that I’ll structure the explanation as four or five webpages, and will put up about one a week. The first one, describing what the vacuum of a field theory is and how to find it in simple examples, is here. Please send your comments and suggestions, as I will continue to revise the pages in order to improve their clarity.
6 Responses
from a retired physicist (lasers, fluids, plasmas). Dear Prof. Strassler, I thank you for your effort to reach out to non-experts, and you do it very well indeed. Please continue, so that non-elementary particle physicists and students, can better understand. Thank you!
/not when it is tied to coordinates, but to actual physical material.
models that focus on so much math and coordinates while minimizing materialism./
Materialism in “Schleicher’s fable” is “manus patis varnām” (Varṇa, वर्ण) (color or frequency), “svabhjam gharmam” (Karma, कर्म) (‘being is correlated quantum systems’ or ‘almost non-repeating pattern’). It was better pronounced by “Mullah Nasreddin Hooja’s satire”, what was later expressed by Schrödinger’s cat.
But ‘வர்ணம்’ and ‘கர்மம்’ are Diffeomorphism (almost non-repeating pattern or fine-tuned or choreographed) at “lowest energy (frequency or Fat) level”.
In Newton’s “F = ma” the ‘m’ is rather ‘Momentum’ than the ‘Mass’. “Added mass will increase the momentum (what we call DarkMatter in galaxy rotation)”. In space that is manifested at large scales.
We feel Phenomenologically (like the hands on tethered Ship) the Mass (added frequency or consumption of Fat) at “Unbroken phase“ (‘mirror image is digitally you’ or holographic Supersymmetry duplicating the StandardModel).
At “Broken phase“ (‘mirror image is not you’ or Radio-activity) “the Hands touch (படுதல்) on the Ship not there” (it’s H that’s driving everything, with T just following along),
where rather the “Time dilation (length contraction of coordinates)” become reality than the Rest-mass.?
Randomness (Chaos theory) in Vacuum (ground state) is “almost non-repeating pattern”. We tend to construct fractals by using repeating patterns, since this is the only way we can do this as humans. The result (experiments) seems random (Bose–Einstein statistics) unless you look at it a certain way (the local SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) gauge symmetry).
Diamond and graphite are the only crystalline forms present in nature, adopt different space-group symmetry, different hybridization patterns, different localization.
Light has no rest-mass and discrete momenta (frequencies). This ‘flips’ or discretions are due to ‘Mass factor’ from ‘H’ field at “Unbroken phase (holographic)“,.. resembles the connection (consciousness?) in the ‘Penrose stairs’.
Schroedinger’s cat is alive.
Repeating pattern and non-repeating pattern are normal but ‘almost non-repeating pattern’ is the “impossible connection in “PenroseStairs”.
At “Broken phase (local maximum)” the “connection” is achieved and “w” boson become massive, ‘T’ field lose Mass-factor and ‘H’ field conspicuous.
But like “entropy” only observable (manifest) at large scales.
Schroedinger’s cat is dead?
Hi Matt, I’ll have to say that I don’t find this explanation very satisfying.
The subject of vacuum is interesting, not when it is tied to coordinates, but to actual physical material. As I understand things, light is a wave of the electromagnetic field. Electrons are massive particles. Light therefore depends on massive things to propagate.
As you have written before there is a whole lot of energy (to me, that means matter-in-motion) in space that is normally not manifested (at our large scales) except as quantum jitter.
I just don’t see the point of quantum models that focus on so much math and coordinates while minimizing materialism, or so it seems to me.
It is true that electrons have mass, but it is not true that light depends on massive objects to propagate. (1) In a world with only gravity and electromagnetism and no electrically charged particles at all, black holes would still radiate light, and propagation of that light would work just as it does in our world. (2) If electrons were massless, then although it would be more difficult for them to radiate light, they still would in the right circumstances, and meanwhile the propagation of light would be almost the same as it is in our world.
The reason for the focus on math, in these webpages, is that readers have requested that I show them the math. There is a place for more discussion of the underlying physics, but this isn’t really it.
Matt, I’ll respect your desire to focus on the math for those who have requested that, but if you wish to open up a discussion of the fundamentals of the necessity of materialistic, mass-based explanations for all phenomenon then count me as someone who wants to have that conversation. I have critiques of what you wrote, but won’t offer that here as it could be seen as derailing your current focus.