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Effective Action
In quantum field theory, the quantum effective action is a modified expression for the classical action taking into account quantum corrections while ensuring that the principle of least action applies, meaning that extremizing the effective action yields the equations of motion for the vacuum expectation values of the quantum fields. The effective action also acts as a generating functional for one-particle irreducible correlation functions. The potential component of the effective action is called the effective potential, with the expectation value of the true vacuum being the minimum of this potential rather than the classical potential, making it important for studying spontaneous symmetry breaking. It was first defined perturbatively by Jeffrey Goldstone and Steven Weinberg in 1962, while the non-perturbative definition was introduced by Bryce DeWitt in 1963 and independently by Giovanni Jona-Lasinio in 1964. The article describes the effective action for a single sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Field Theory
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and in condensed matter physics to construct models of quasiparticles. The current standard model of particle physics is based on QFT. History Quantum field theory emerged from the work of generations of theoretical physicists spanning much of the 20th century. Its development began in the 1920s with the description of interactions between light and electrons, culminating in the first quantum field theory—quantum electrodynamics. A major theoretical obstacle soon followed with the appearance and persistence of various infinities in perturbative calculations, a problem only resolved in the 1950s with the invention of the renormalization procedure. A second major barrier came with QFT's apparent inabili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Information Theory
Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, though early contributions were made in the 1920s through the works of Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley. It is at the intersection of electronic engineering, mathematics, statistics, computer science, Neuroscience, neurobiology, physics, and electrical engineering. A key measure in information theory is information entropy, entropy. Entropy quantifies the amount of uncertainty involved in the value of a random variable or the outcome of a random process. For example, identifying the outcome of a Fair coin, fair coin flip (which has two equally likely outcomes) provides less information (lower entropy, less uncertainty) than identifying the outcome from a roll of a dice, die (which has six equally likely outcomes). Some other important measu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continuous Symmetry
In mathematics, continuous symmetry is an intuitive idea corresponding to the concept of viewing some Symmetry in mathematics, symmetries as Motion (physics), motions, as opposed to discrete symmetry, e.g. reflection symmetry, which is invariant under a kind of flip from one state to another. However, a discrete symmetry can always be reinterpreted as a subset of some higher-dimensional continuous symmetry, e.g. reflection of a 2-dimensional object in 3-dimensional space can be achieved by continuously rotating that object 180 degrees across a non-parallel plane. Formalization The notion of continuous symmetry has largely and successfully been formalised in the mathematical notions of a topological group, Lie group and Group action (mathematics), group action. For most practical purposes, continuous symmetry is modelled by a ''group action'' of a topological group that preserves some structure. Particularly, let f:X\to Y be a function, and G is a group that acts on X; then a subgro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symmetries In Quantum Mechanics
Symmetries in quantum mechanics describe features of spacetime and particles which are unchanged under some transformation, in the context of quantum mechanics, relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, and with applications in the mathematical formulation of the standard model and condensed matter physics. In general, symmetry in physics, invariance, and conservation laws, are fundamentally important constraints for formulating physical theories and models. In practice, they are powerful methods for solving problems and predicting what can happen. While conservation laws do not always give the answer to the problem directly, they form the correct constraints and the first steps to solving a multitude of problems. In application, understanding symmetries can also provide insights on the eigenstates that can be expected. For example, the existence of degenerate states can be inferred by the presence of non commuting symmetry operators or that the non degenerate sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One-loop Feynman Diagram
In physics, a one-loop Feynman diagram is a connected Feynman diagram with only one cycle ( unicyclic). Such a diagram can be obtained from a connected tree diagram by taking two external lines of the same type and joining them together into an edge. Diagrams with loops (in graph theory, these kinds of loops are called cycles, while the word loop is an edge connecting a vertex with itself) correspond to the quantum corrections to the classical field theory. Because one-loop diagrams only contain one cycle, they express the next-to-classical contributions called the '' semiclassical contributions''. One-loop diagrams are usually computed as the integral over one independent momentum that can "run in the cycle". The Casimir effect, Hawking radiation and Lamb shift are examples of phenomena whose existence can be implied using one-loop Feynman diagrams, especially the well-known "triangle diagram": :: The evaluation of one-loop Feynman diagrams usually leads to divergent expre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Background Field Method
In theoretical physics, background field method is a useful procedure to calculate the effective action of a quantum field theory by expanding a quantum field around a classical "background" value ''B'': : \phi(x) = B(x) + \eta (x). After this is done, the Green's functions are evaluated as a function of the background. This approach has the advantage that the gauge invariance is manifestly preserved if the approach is applied to gauge theory. Method We typically want to calculate expressions like : Z = \int \mathcal D \phi \exp\left(\mathrm \int \mathrm^d x (\mathcal L phi(x)+ J(x) \phi(x))\right) where ''J''(''x'') is a source, \mathcal L(x) is the Lagrangian density of the system, ''d'' is the number of dimensions and \phi(x) is a field. In the background field method, one starts by splitting this field into a classical background field ''B''(''x'') and a field η(''x'') containing additional quantum fluctuations: : \phi(x) = B(x) + \eta(x) \,. Typically, ''B''(''x'') will be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propagator
In quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, the propagator is a function that specifies the probability amplitude for a particle to travel from one place to another in a given period of time, or to travel with a certain energy and momentum. In Feynman diagrams, which serve to calculate the rate of collisions in quantum field theory, virtual particles contribute their propagator to the rate of the scattering event described by the respective diagram. Propagators may also be viewed as the inverse of the wave operator appropriate to the particle, and are, therefore, often called ''(causal) Green's functions'' (called "''causal''" to distinguish it from the elliptic Laplacian Green's function). Non-relativistic propagators In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, the propagator gives the probability amplitude for a particle to travel from one spatial point (x') at one time (t') to another spatial point (x) at a later time (t). The Green's function G for the Schrödinger equat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Functional Derivative
In the calculus of variations, a field of mathematical analysis, the functional derivative (or variational derivative) relates a change in a functional (a functional in this sense is a function that acts on functions) to a change in a function on which the functional depends. In the calculus of variations, functionals are usually expressed in terms of an integral of functions, their arguments, and their derivatives. In an integrand of a functional, if a function is varied by adding to it another function that is arbitrarily small, and the resulting integrand is expanded in powers of , the coefficient of in the first order term is called the functional derivative. For example, consider the functional J = \int_a^b L( \, x, f(x), f' \, ) \, dx \, , where . If is varied by adding to it a function , and the resulting integrand is expanded in powers of , then the change in the value of to first order in can be expressed as follows:According to , this notation is customary in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Source Field
In theoretical physics, a source is an abstract concept, developed by Julian Schwinger, motivated by the physical effects of surrounding particles involved in creating or destroying another particle. So, one can perceive sources as the origin of the physical properties carried by the created or destroyed particle, and thus one can use this concept to study all quantum processes including the spacetime localized properties and the energy forms, i.e., mass and momentum, of the phenomena. The probability amplitude of the created or the decaying particle is defined by the effect of the source on a localized spacetime region such that the affected particle captures its physics depending on the tensorial and spinorial nature of the source. An example that Julian Schwinger referred to is the creation of \eta^* meson due to the mass correlations among five \pi mesons. Same idea can be used to define source fields. Mathematically, a source field is a ''background'' field J coupled to the or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legendre Transformation
In mathematics, the Legendre transformation (or Legendre transform), first introduced by Adrien-Marie Legendre in 1787 when studying the minimal surface problem, is an involutive transformation on real-valued functions that are convex on a real variable. Specifically, if a real-valued multivariable function is convex on one of its independent real variables, then the Legendre transform with respect to this variable is applicable to the function. In physical problems, the Legendre transform is used to convert functions of one quantity (such as position, pressure, or temperature) into functions of the conjugate quantity (momentum, volume, and entropy, respectively). In this way, it is commonly used in classical mechanics to derive the Hamiltonian formalism out of the Lagrangian formalism (or vice versa) and in thermodynamics to derive the thermodynamic potentials, as well as in the solution of differential equations of several variables. For sufficiently smooth functions on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cluster Decomposition
In physics, the cluster decomposition property states that experiments carried out far from each other cannot influence each other. Usually applied to quantum field theory, it requires that vacuum expectation values of operators localized in bounded regions factorize whenever these regions becomes sufficiently distant from each other. First formulated by Eyvind Wichmann and James H. Crichton in 1963 in the context of the ''S''-matrix, it was conjectured by Steven Weinberg that in the low energy limit the cluster decomposition property, together with Lorentz invariance and quantum mechanics, inevitably lead to quantum field theory. String theory satisfies all three of the conditions and so provides a counter-example against this being true at all energy scales. Formulation The ''S''-matrix S_ describes the amplitude for a process with an initial state \alpha evolving into a final state \beta. If the initial and final states consist of two clusters, with \alpha_1 and \beta_1 cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
