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What does it mean that photons are force carriers for electromagnetism? by 
Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16TODO find/create decent answer.
I think the best answer is something along:
- local symmetries of the Lagrangian imply conserved currents. gives conserved charges.
- OK now. We want a local symmetry. And we also want:Given all of that, the most obvious and direct thing we reach a guess at the quantum electrodynamics Lagrangian is Video "Deriving the qED Lagrangian by Dietterich Labs (2018)"
- Dirac equation: quantum relativistic Newton's laws that specify what forces do to the fields
- electromagnetism: specifies what causes forces based on currents. But not what it does to masses.
A basic non-precise intuition is that a good model of reality is that electrons do not "interact with one another directly via the electromagnetic field".
A better model happens to be the quantum field theory view that the electromagnetic field interacts with the photon field but not directly with itself, and then the photon field interacts with parts of the electromagnetic field further away.
The more precise statement is that the photon field is a gauge field of the electromagnetic force under local U(1) symmetry, which is described by a Lie group. TODO understand.
This idea was first applied in general relativity, where Einstein understood that the "force of gravity" can be understood just in terms of symmetry and curvature of space. This was later applied o quantum electrodynamics and the entire Standard Model.
From Video "Lorenzo Sadun on the "Yang-Mills and Mass Gap" Millennium problem":
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCQ9GIqpGBI&t=1663s mentions this idea first came about from Hermann Weyl.
- youtu.be/pCQ9GIqpGBI?t=2827 mentions that in that case the curvature is given by the electromagnetic tensor.
Bibliography:
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtf6U3FfDNQ Symmetry and Quantum Electrodynamics (The Standard Model Part 1) by ZAP Physics (2021)
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQF7kkWjVWM The Symmetry and Simplicity of the Laws of Nature and the Higgs Boson by Juan Maldacena (2012). Meh, also too basic.
I think they are a tool to calculate the probability of different types of particle decays and particle collision outcomes. TODO Minimal example of that.
And they can be derived from a more complete quantum electrodynamics formulation via perturbation theory.
At Richard Feynman Quantum Electrodynamics Lecture at University of Auckland (1979), an intuitive explanation of them in termes of sum of products of propagators is given.
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG52mXN-uWI The Secrets of Feynman Diagrams | Space Time by PBS Space Time (2017)
What they presented on richard Feynman's first seminar in 1941. Does not include quantum mechanics it seems.
fafnir.phyast.pitt.edu/py3765/ Phys3765 Advanced Quantum Mechanics -- QFT-I Fall 2012 by E.S. Swanson mentions several milestone texts including:
TODO understand.
Trapping Ions for Quantum Computing by Diana Craik (2019)
Source. A basic introduction, but very concrete, with only a bit of math it might be amazing:Sounds complicated, several technologies need to work together for that to work! Videos of ions moving are from www.physics.ox.ac.uk/research/group/ion-trap-quantum-computing.
- youtu.be/j1SKprQIkyE?t=217 you need ultra-high vacuum
- youtu.be/j1SKprQIkyE?t=257 you put the Calcium on a "calcium oven", heat it up, and make it evaporates a little bit
- youtu.be/j1SKprQIkyE?t=289 you need lasers. You shine the laser on the calcium atom to eject one of the two valence electrons from it. Though e.g. Universal Quantum is trying to do away with them, because alignment for thousands or millions of particles would be difficult.
- youtu.be/j1SKprQIkyE?t=518 keeping all surrounding electrodes positive would be unstable. So they instead alternate electrode quickly between plus and minus
- youtu.be/j1SKprQIkyE?t=643 talks about the alternative, of doing it just with electrodes on a chip, which is easier to manufacture. They fly at about 100 microns above the trap. And you can have multiple ions per chip.
- youtu.be/j1SKprQIkyE?t=1165 using microwaves you can flip the spin of the electron, or put it into a superposition. From more reading, we understand that she is talking about a hyperfine transition, which often happen in the microwave area.
- youtu.be/j1SKprQIkyE?t=1210 talks about making quantum gates. You have to put the ions into a magnetic field at one of the two resonance frequencies of the system. Presumably what is meant is an inhomogenous magnetic field as in the Stern-Gerlach experiment.This is the hard and interesting part. It is not clear why the atoms become coupled in any way. Is it due to electric repulsion?She is presumably describing the Cirac–Zoller CNOT gate.
- youtu.be/lJOuPmI--5c?t=1601 Cirac–Zoller CNOT gate was the first 2 qubit gate. Explains it more or less.
Introduction to quantum optics by Peter Zoller (2018)
Source. THE Zoller from Cirac–Zoller CNOT gate talks about his gate.- www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3l0QPEnaq0&t=427s shows that the state is split between two options: center of mass mode (ions move in same direction), and strechmode (atoms move in opposite directions)
- youtu.be/W3l0QPEnaq0?t=658 shows a schematic of the experiment
The key experiment/phenomena that sets the basis for photonic quantum computing is the two photon interference experiment.
The physical representation of the information encoding is very easy to understand:
- input: we choose to put or not photons into certain wires or no
- interaction: two wires pass very nearby at some point, and photons travelling on either of them can jump to the other one and interact with the other photons
- output: the probabilities that photos photons will go out through one wire or another
Jeremy O'Brien: "Quantum Technologies" by GoogleTechTalks (2014)
Source. This is a good introduction to a photonic quantum computer. Highly recommended.- youtube.com/watch?v=7wCBkAQYBZA&t=1285 shows an experimental curve for a two photon interference experiment by Hong, Ou, Mandel (1987)
- youtube.com/watch?v=7wCBkAQYBZA&t=1440 shows a KLM CNOT gate
- youtube.com/watch?v=7wCBkAQYBZA&t=2831 discusses the quantum error correction scheme for photonic QC based on the idea of the "Raussendorf unit cell"
TODO experimental discovery.
Force carrier of quantum chromodynamics, like the photon is the force carrier of quantum electrodynamics.
One big difference is that it carrier itself color charge.
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