Richard Feynman was an American theoretical physicist known for his work in quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics (QED), and particle physics. He was born on May 11, 1918, and passed away on February 15, 1988. Feynman made significant contributions to the understanding of the interaction between light and matter, earning him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, which he shared with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga.
"Postsingular" is a term associated with the science fiction novel "Postsingular" written by Rudy Rucker, published in 2007. The novel explores themes of technology, consciousness, and the future, focusing on a world in which advanced technologies, such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, lead to profound changes in society and human experience.
In physics, anomalies refer to situations where a system displays behaviors or characteristics that deviate from what is expected based on established theories or principles. Anomalies can arise in various contexts, including particle physics, condensed matter physics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology.
Quantum gravity is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to understand how the principles of quantum mechanics and general relativity can be reconciled into a single coherent framework. While general relativity describes gravity as the curvature of spacetime caused by mass and energy, quantum mechanics governs the behavior of the very small, such as atoms and subatomic particles. The challenge arises from the incompatibility between these two foundational theories.
The Bethe–Salpeter equation (BSE) is an important integral equation in quantum field theory and many-body physics that describes the behavior of two-particle bound states, particularly within the context of quantum electrodynamics (QED) and other field theories. It provides a framework for studying the interactions of pairs of particles, such as electrons and positrons, and can be applied to various systems including excitons in semiconductors, mesons in particle physics, and more.
The Bogoliubov transformation is a mathematical technique frequently used in condensed matter physics and quantum field theory, primarily to describe systems of interacting particles, such as bosons or fermions. It is especially useful in the context of many-body quantum systems, where it helps in treating interactions and in studying phenomena like Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity. The essence of a Bogoliubov transformation lies in how it mixes the creation and annihilation operators of particles.
The term "boson" refers to a category of subatomic particles that obey Bose-Einstein statistics, which means they can occupy the same quantum state as other bosons. This characteristic distinguishes them from fermions, which follow the Pauli exclusion principle and cannot occupy the same state. Bosons include force carrier particles and have integer values of spin (0, 1, 2, etc.).
Bosonization is a theoretical technique in quantum field theory and statistical mechanics that relates fermionic systems to bosonic systems. It is particularly useful in one-dimensional systems, where it can simplify the analysis of interacting fermions by transforming them into an equivalent model of non-interacting bosons.
C parity, or even parity, is a method of error detection used in data communications and data storage systems. In parity checking, a binary digit (bit) is added to a group of bits to ensure that the total number of bits with the value of one (1) is either even or odd.
Cluster decomposition is a concept often used in various fields, including mathematics, physics, and computer science. While it can have specific definitions depending on the context, the general idea revolves around breaking down a complex structure or system into simpler, smaller parts or clusters that are more manageable for analysis and understanding.
The Higgs boson is a subatomic particle associated with the Higgs field, which is a fundamental field believed to give mass to other elementary particles through the Higgs mechanism. It was first predicted by physicist Peter Higgs and others in the 1960s as part of the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions.
Infrared divergence refers to a type of divergence that occurs in quantum field theory (QFT) and certain fields of theoretical physics when dealing with low-energy (or long-wavelength) phenomena. Specifically, it manifests when evaluating Feynman integrals or loop diagrams that include virtual particles with very low momenta (approaching zero). In such scenarios, the contributions from these low-energy states can lead to integrals that diverge, meaning they yield infinite values.
The LSZ reduction formula, named after Lüders, Steinweg, and Ziman, is a fundamental result in quantum field theory (QFT) that relates S-matrix elements to time-ordered correlation functions (or Green's functions). It provides a method for calculating the S-matrix (which describes the scattering processes) from the theoretical correlation functions computed in a given quantum field theory.
Infrared safety in particle physics is a concept that addresses the behavior of certain types of divergences (infinities) that can arise in quantum field theory calculations, particularly in the context of high-energy collisions and the production of particles. In particle collisions, particularly those occurring at high energies, one can encounter divergent contributions from virtual photons (or other massless particles) due to soft emissions—where particles are produced with very low energies.
The term "multiplicative quantum number" does not refer to a standard concept in quantum mechanics or quantum chemistry. However, it may be a conflation or misunderstanding of related terms that involve quantum numbers. In quantum mechanics, quantum numbers are used to describe the quantized states of a system, such as an electron in an atom. The primary quantum numbers usually include: 1. **Principal quantum number (n)**: Indicates the energy level of the electron.
In quantum field theory (QFT), the partition function is a central concept that plays a role analogous to that in statistical mechanics. It encapsulates the statistical properties of a quantum system and is crucial for deriving various physical observables. ### Definition The partition function in QFT, often denoted as \( Z \), is defined as the functional integral over all possible field configurations of a given theory.
Path-ordering is a concept used primarily in the context of quantum field theory and the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics. It is particularly relevant in the computation of correlation functions and in the development of techniques like perturbation theory. In quantum field theory, when dealing with time-dependent operators, the need arises to define the order in which these operators act because the non-commutativity of operators can lead to different results depending on their order. Path-ordering provides a systematic way to handle this issue.
Ultraviolet (UV) divergence is a concept in quantum field theory and quantum mechanics that refers to the phenomenon where certain integrals, especially those that arise in the calculation of particle interactions and vacuum fluctuations, yield infinite results when evaluated at high energy (or short distance) scales. This is particularly relevant in theories like quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD), where loop diagrams (representing virtual particles) can produce divergences.
In physics, a "tadpole" typically refers to a specific kind of diagram used in quantum field theory, especially in the context of perturbation theory in quantum electrodynamics and other quantum field theories. The term is most often associated with Feynman diagrams. In this context, a tadpole diagram represents a one-point function or a loop diagram that has one external vertex and a loop.
The quantum vacuum, often referred to simply as the "vacuum" in the context of quantum field theory, is a fundamental concept in modern physics. Contrary to the classical notion of a vacuum as an empty space devoid of matter, the quantum vacuum is a dynamic state filled with fluctuating energy and virtual particles that constantly pop in and out of existence.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 2.
    You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either https://OurBigBook.com or as a static website
    .
    Figure 3.
    Visual Studio Code extension installation
    .
    Figure 4.
    Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation
    .
    Figure 5.
    Web editor
    . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
    Video 4.
    OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo
    . Source.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact