Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-L] Re: quantum of action



Seth T Miller wrote:

Is it true that we can think of the vacuum energy as giving rise to _any_
particle recognized by the standard model, including the force carrier
bosons such as the photon and gluon?

That doesn't sound like a physics question.
-- The verb "gives rise" is too vague and too broad.
-- The noun "energy" is too narrow; there's a lot more
involved than just the energy.

What is the relationship between the
force carrier particles and the vacuum energy? I guess my question has to
do with how to think about _energy_...

That's not the right question.

One does not start with "the vacuum energy" and deduce the laws
of physics. One starts with the laws of physics and then learns
from them something about the vacuum and something about energy.

is it right to think that energy can
take the 'form' of particles; particles with mass like quarks, or particles
without mass like photons and gluons? And that it is the energy (or the
uncertainty of it!) that is primary, and what we call particles (everything
listed on the standard model) are more like particular forms of 'condensed'
or 'constrained' energy?

No, that's not right.

And that in this sense of the primacy of energy,
we can imagine that the most fundamental 'thing' in the universe is actually
the quantum of action, energy x time, which follows the uncertainty relation
energy x time > h/2pi? In other words, is it possible to think of the
quantum of action as primary, and all manifest particles, including photons
and gluons, as expressions of this relation?

No.

Please help alleviate my confusion!

Please note: this is a physics list, not a metaphysics list.

If you want to learn physics, do it the way everybody else does.
Learn the basics before worrying about abstruse things like the
physics of the vacuum. Sign up for a physics course at a level
you can handle, and work you way up to the point where you can
understand quantum mechanics at the level of Cohen-Tannoudji or
Baym. Then you will be in a position to ask questions that make
sense, and to make sense of the answers.
_______________________________________________
Phys-L mailing list
Phys-L@electron.physics.buffalo.edu
https://www.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l