Comment by rawgabbit
3 years ago
>Many quarks and antiquarks seethe in a roiling particle “sea.”
What do physicists mean when they "antiquark"? I had it explained to me that it spins the opposite way. Which confused me more, what does it matter that it spins the opposite way? You means it has constructive or destructive interference? If it has destructive interference, why don't particles explode?
In a similar vein, chemistry says that chemistry bonds and antibonds [1]. I can kind get it. But not really.
[1] https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/SUNY_Potsdam/Book%3A_Org...
The equations governing quarks admit negative energy solutions, which we interpret as antiquarks. Chemistry typically uses non-relativistic quantum mechanics which only have positive energy solutions (like classical mechanics).
The solutions in chemistry are wavefunctions. Wavefunctions give a complex number to each point in space so they may interfere constructively or destructively to give complex numbers of greater and smaller magnitude respectively. The Schrödinger equation can be solved for each atom independently to get one electron wavefunctions named atomic orbitals, and, in molecular orbital theory, these atomic combined to give molecular orbitals which are one electron wavefunctions for the molecule. When the atomic orbitals add up constructively to give a molecular orbital with a higher electron density between the atoms it's a bonding molecular orbital, otherwise it's anti-bonding.
Both quarks and anti-quarks can spin in two ways (even though this spin is not a conventional spin but something special to quantum). When a quark and an antiquark are produced, spin must be conserved, so in pair production each must have opposite spin so the total is zero.
Antiparticles are the conjugates of the negative energy solutions for normal matter. The negative energy solutions themselves are still not physical.
I can see the negative energy solutions not actually having negative energy but I don't see how they're any less physical.