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Wick Contraction
Wick's theorem is a method of reducing high-order derivatives to a combinatorics problem. It is named after Italian physicist Gian Carlo Wick. It is used extensively in quantum field theory to reduce arbitrary products of creation and annihilation operators to sums of products of pairs of these operators. This allows for the use of Green's function methods, and consequently the use of Feynman diagrams in the field under study. A more general idea in probability theory is Isserlis' theorem. In perturbative quantum field theory, Wick's theorem is used to quickly rewrite each time ordered summand in the Dyson series as a sum of normal ordered terms. In the limit of asymptotically free ingoing and outgoing states, these terms correspond to Feynman diagrams. Definition of contraction For two operators \hat and \hat we define their contraction to be :\hat^\bullet\, \hat^\bullet \equiv \hat\,\hat\, - \mathopen \hat\,\hat \mathclose where \mathopen \hat \mathclose denotes the nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bosonic
In particle physics, a boson ( ) is a subatomic particle whose spin quantum number has an integer value (0, 1, 2, ...). Bosons form one of the two fundamental classes of subatomic particle, the other being fermions, which have half odd-integer spin (1/2, 3/2, 5/2, ...). Every observed subatomic particle is either a boson or a fermion. Paul Dirac coined the name ''boson'' to commemorate the contribution of Satyendra Nath Bose, an Indian physicist. Some bosons are elementary particles occupying a special role in particle physics, distinct from the role of fermions (which are sometimes described as the constituents of "ordinary matter"). Certain elementary bosons (e.g. gluons) act as force carriers, which give rise to forces between other particles, while one (the Higgs boson) contributes to the phenomenon of mass. Other bosons, such as mesons, are composite particles made up of smaller constituents. Outside the realm of particle physics, multiple identical composite bosons behav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eponymous Theorems Of Physics
An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovations, biological nomenclature, astronomical objects, works of art and media, and tribal names. Various orthographic conventions are used for eponyms. Usage of the word The term ''eponym'' functions in multiple related ways, all based on an explicit relationship between two named things. ''Eponym'' may refer to a person or, less commonly, a place or thing for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. ''Eponym'' may also refer to someone or something named after, or believed to be named after, a person or, less commonly, a place or thing. A person, place, or thing named after a particular person share an eponymous relationship. In this way, Elizabeth I of England is the eponym of the Elizabethan era, but the Elizabethan e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normal Ordering
Normal(s) or The Normal(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''Normal'' (2003 film), starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson * ''Normal'' (2007 film), starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers, Callum Keith Rennie, and Andrew Airlie * ''Normal'' (2009 film), an adaptation of Anthony Neilson's 1991 play ''Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper'' * '' Normal!'', a 2011 Algerian film * ''The Normals'' (film), a 2012 American comedy film * "Normal" (''New Girl''), an episode of the TV series Mathematics * Normal (geometry), an object such as a line or vector that is perpendicular to a given object * Normal basis (of a Galois extension), used heavily in cryptography * Normal bundle * Normal cone, of a subscheme in algebraic geometry * Normal coordinates, in differential geometry, local coordinates obtained from the exponential map (Riemannian geometry) * Normal distribution, the Gaussian continuous probability distribution * Normal equations, describing the solution of the linear least s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermal Quantum Field Theory
In theoretical physics, thermal quantum field theory (thermal field theory for short) or finite temperature field theory is a set of methods to calculate expectation values of physical observables of a quantum field theory at finite temperature. In the Matsubara formalism, the basic idea (due to Felix Bloch) is that the expectation values of operators in a canonical ensemble : \langle A\rangle=\frac may be written as expectation values in ordinary quantum field theory where the configuration is evolved by an imaginary time \tau = i t(0\leq\tau\leq\beta). One can therefore switch to a spacetime with Euclidean signature, where the above trace (Tr) leads to the requirement that all bosonic and fermionic fields be periodic and antiperiodic, respectively, with respect to the Euclidean time direction with periodicity \beta = 1/(kT) (we are assuming natural units \hbar = 1). This allows one to perform calculations with the same tools as in ordinary quantum field theory, such as func ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vacuum Expectation Value
In quantum field theory, the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of an operator is its average or expectation value in the vacuum. The vacuum expectation value of an operator O is usually denoted by \langle O\rangle. One of the most widely used examples of an observable physical effect that results from the vacuum expectation value of an operator is the Casimir effect. This concept is important for working with correlation functions in quantum field theory. In the context of spontaneous symmetry breaking, an operator that has a vanishing expectation value due to symmetry can acquire a nonzero vacuum expectation value during a phase transition. Examples are: *The Higgs field has a vacuum expectation value of 246 GeV. This nonzero value underlies the Higgs mechanism of the Standard Model. This value is given by v = 1/\sqrt = 2M_W/g \approx 246.22\, \rm, where ''MW'' is the mass of the W Boson, G_F^0 the reduced Fermi constant, and the weak isospin coupling, in natural units. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaussian Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real number, real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is f(x) = \frac e^\,. The parameter is the Mean#Mean of a probability distribution, mean or expected value, expectation of the distribution (and also its median and mode (statistics), mode), while the parameter \sigma^2 is the variance. The standard deviation of the distribution is (sigma). A random variable with a Gaussian distribution is said to be normally distributed, and is called a normal deviate. Normal distributions are important in statistics and are often used in the natural science, natural and social sciences to represent real-valued random variables whose distributions are not known. Their importance is partly due to the central limit theorem. It states that, under some conditions, the average of many samples (observations) of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moment (mathematics)
In mathematics, the moments of a function are certain quantitative measures related to the shape of the function's graph. If the function represents mass density, then the zeroth moment is the total mass, the first moment (normalized by total mass) is the center of mass, and the second moment is the moment of inertia. If the function is a probability distribution, then the first moment is the expected value, the second central moment is the variance, the third standardized moment is the skewness, and the fourth standardized moment is the kurtosis. For a distribution of mass or probability on a bounded interval, the collection of all the moments (of all orders, from to ) uniquely determines the distribution ( Hausdorff moment problem). The same is not true on unbounded intervals ( Hamburger moment problem). In the mid-nineteenth century, Pafnuty Chebyshev became the first person to think systematically in terms of the moments of random variables. Significance of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vacuum State
In quantum field theory, the quantum vacuum state (also called the quantum vacuum or vacuum state) is the quantum state with the lowest possible energy. Generally, it contains no physical particles. However, the quantum vacuum is not a simple empty space, but instead contains fleeting electromagnetic waves and particles that pop into and out of the quantum field. The QED vacuum of quantum electrodynamics (or QED) was the first vacuum of quantum field theory to be developed. QED originated in the 1930s, and in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it was reformulated by Feynman, Tomonaga, and Schwinger, who jointly received the Nobel prize for this work in 1965. For a historical discussion, see for example For the Nobel prize details and the Nobel lectures by these authors, see Today, the electromagnetic interactions and the weak interactions are unified (at very high energies only) in the theory of the electroweak interaction. The Standard Model is a generalization ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
S Matrix
In physics, the ''S''-matrix or scattering matrix is a matrix that relates the initial state and the final state of a physical system undergoing a scattering process. It is used in quantum mechanics, scattering theory and quantum field theory (QFT). More formally, in the context of QFT, the ''S''-matrix is defined as the unitary matrix connecting sets of asymptotically free particle states (the ''in-states'' and the ''out-states'') in the Hilbert space of physical states: a multi-particle state is said to be ''free'' (or non-interacting) if it transforms under Lorentz transformations as a tensor product, or ''direct product'' in physics parlance, of ''one-particle states'' as prescribed by equation below. ''Asymptotically free'' then means that the state has this appearance in either the distant past or the distant future. While the ''S''-matrix may be defined for any background (spacetime) that is asymptotically solvable and has no event horizons, it has a simple form in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
C-number
The term c-number (classical number) is an old nomenclature introduced by Paul Dirac which refers to real and complex numbers. It is used to distinguish from operators (q-numbers or quantum numbers) in quantum mechanics. Although c-numbers are commuting, the term ''anti-commuting c-number'' is also used to refer to a type of anti-commuting numbers that are mathematically described by Grassmann number In mathematical physics, a Grassmann number, named after Hermann Grassmann (also called an anticommuting number or supernumber), is an element of the exterior algebra of a complex vector space. The special case of a 1-dimensional algebra is known a ...s. The term is also used to refer solely to "commuting numbers" in at least one major textbook. References External links ''WordWeb Online '' {{quantum-stub Numbers Quantum mechanics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commutator
In mathematics, the commutator gives an indication of the extent to which a certain binary operation fails to be commutative. There are different definitions used in group theory and ring theory. Group theory The commutator of two elements, and , of a group , is the element : . This element is equal to the group's identity if and only if and commute (that is, if and only if ). The set of all commutators of a group is not in general closed under the group operation, but the subgroup of ''G'' generated by all commutators is closed and is called the ''derived group'' or the '' commutator subgroup'' of ''G''. Commutators are used to define nilpotent and solvable groups and the largest abelian quotient group. The definition of the commutator above is used throughout this article, but many group theorists define the commutator as : . Using the first definition, this can be expressed as . Identities (group theory) Commutator identities are an important tool in group th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
