Comment by Veliladon
3 years ago
This should be required reading for this article:
https://profmattstrassler.com/2022/09/09/protons-and-charm-q...
Virtual particles do not necessarily have an invariant mass. That's why you can find examples of typically huge particles inside protons. That's why a beta decay of a neutron can involve the production of a virtual W- boson that has an invariant mass that's 86 times more massive than the neutron.
And also https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph...
“A virtual particle is not a particle at all. It refers precisely to a disturbance in a field that is not a particle.”
Also virtual particles don't make sense in a non-perturbative regime like room-temp protons, since they are an aid to understanding terms in the perturbation series expansion.
Not sure how they even apply in the case where Feynman diagrams aren't applicable. Hell, the calculations likely use lattice QCD which eschews them entirely!
Protons are non-perturbative, indeed, but this does not mean that there are no virtual particles exchanged inside a proton. It seems like your comment implies that, sorry if I misunderstood.
On the contrary, this means that there are too many virtual particles (gluons) being exchanged inside a proton, so many that perturbation theory is not applicable.
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this is the most important TIL article I've read in years. Thanks!
Basically, it's like a playing around virtual machine on a physical PC.
There are also tons of articles that state the opposite; that virtual particles are in fact actual particles. I don't see how either interpretation is particularly relevant. Physics uses math to model reality. Every part of that model is virtual and has some correspondence with what we experience and observe and that's all that matters at the end of the day.
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Be sure to click through to the "What's a Proton" article, which contains the delightful line:
> In short, atoms are to protons as a pas de deux in a delicate ballet is to a dance floor crowded with drunk twenty-somethings bouncing and flailing to a DJ.
This is the direct link https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/largehadron...
Also check out the comments and comment answers there. Very interesting too!
Thank you for this.
Science communication, even between scientists, is filled with lies and half truths that shroud the truth in mystery.
Virtual particles are a good example.
Quarks are fundamental is another example.
A proton is made of three quarks is yet another.
But there are countless others I've come across in studying quantum mechanics and relativity.
> But there are countless others I've come across in studying quantum mechanics and relativity.
Could you share a bit more on this?
Noob question: doesn't that imply particles with negative mass to cancel out to the "expected" mass? Is that allowed?
Thank you for this link! This site is amazing!