To understand quantum, it is necessary to know its basis. By the way, quantum mechanics is so different that it is impossible to give examples of it from our daily life, so it is also difficult to understand.
"Whoever says I understand quantum mechanics doesn't actually understand quantum mechanics." Richard Feynman American theoretical physics
There has also been considerable disagreement between Bohr and Einstein regarding quantum particles and Schondinger who derived equations to calculate probabilities related to the wave function, later began to disagree with this, for which he also clarified a Thought Experiment called the Schrodinger cat experiment and the disagreement was so great that he left physics and began research in biology.
But the prediction made from quantum physics has proved to be true in every age. In just a hundred years, the use of quantum as much as we have understood has helped us to improve many everyday things.
This was a light introduction to quantum Physics. To understand quantum physics it is necessary to understand some basic things that will help us to understand quantum Physics a little better.
- Standard model of elementary particles
- Quantum field theory
Standard Model of Elementary Particles
There was a time when it was believed that the unit of matter is atoms. Every element has its own atom. Then we learned that every atom is made up of smaller particles which are electrons, protons, and neutrons. When new particles were discovered, they had to be divided into separate categories based on their properties such as spin, charge, mass, half-life ..! We created a model in which we separated all these particles based on their properties .. so that we can understand how matter and all kinds of forces work.
This model has been called the standard model of particle physics. Just as the periodic table is important in chemistry, this model is very important in quantum mechanics. In this table all the particles that makeup matter are separated based on their own characteristics.
Everything that exists in this universe in the form of matter or force is divided into particles in two ways.
- Fermions
- Bosons
The matter that exists in this universe consists of fermions while the four fundamental forces in this universe work due to bosons.
There are two types of particles in the family of fermions
- Quarks
- Leptons
There are six types of quarks
- Up Quarks
- Down Quarks
- Charm Quarks
- Strange Quarks
- Top Quarks
- Bottom Quarks
Quarks are not stable so they react with each other to form other particles known as hadrons which are further divided into two parts.
- Baryons
- Mesons
Baryons are made up of three quarks, such as a proton consisting of two up quarks and a down quark, and a neutron with two down and one up quark
Meson quarks and antiquarks are particles formed by combining. They are not stable, they decompose in less than a second.
If they are charged, electrons and neutrinos have decay. If they are not charged, photons have decay.
Elementary particle leptons are called half-spins. These string forces that do not interact with them are further divided into charged and neutral leptons.
- Electron
- muon
- Tau
- Neutrino electron
- muon Neutrino
- tau neutrino
All four forces in the universe work with the help of bosons
There are four types of bosons
- Photon (Electromagnetic Force)
- W / Z boson (Weak Nuclear Force)
- Gluons (Strong Nuclear Force)
- Graviton (Gravitational Force)
What is Quantum Field Theory?
In classical physics, objects are either particles or waves, so we can predict the past and present of any object by looking at its working patterns, such as a planet that knows its orbit and revolution period. We can tell where this planet was twenty years ago and where it will be a few years later. In quantum physics, objects are a combination of particles and waves. Unless we observe them, their behavior differs, but upon observation. They take the form of waves or particles. That is why with the help of quantum mechanics we can calculate only probabilities by looking at the past and cannot form a definitive opinion about the future. It is said that quantum physics behaves strangely in this regard, but the physicist believes that reality always exists in the wave function. Quantum physics shows us that the world is not what we see it to be ..!
Now let's turn to the field theory. We believe that the universe is made of all matter. Where there is no matter, space is empty, but in reality, no space is completely empty.
Like two magnets that try to bring the same poles closer to each other, they repel each other when there is a complete space between them, but how does this force work because the space we see has nothing but, it is not empty, there is a magnetic field, it shows us that nothing in the universe is empty ..! Fields exist where nothing exists. When we combine quantum physics and field theory, we get "quantum field theory".
According to quantum field theory, the whole universe consists of fields. Everywhere there is a network of fields that we cannot see, such as magnetic fields, gravitational fields, electric fields, quantum fields. Each elementary particle has its own field, Higgs Field, Quarks Field, Golon Field Physicist represents all these fields by numbers. Each point in space has one or more numbers. They are divided according to how many numbers a field needs. The Higgs field is a scalar field, so it needs a number to describe it. Electric and magnetic fields are considered vector fields because they need numbers at every point in space along with the direction. Gravity according to Newton's gravitational field is also a vector field, while according to Einstein it is a denser field
When a field receives energy, it moves to a higher energy state and the way ripples are formed in water, the ripples are formed in fields and these ripples are called particles. The way we form ripples in an electron field, we get electrons. When a ripple is formed in a quarks field, we get quarks. As soon as the ripples disappear, the particles also disappear. As it spreads in that field, we think the particle is moving. It takes different energy to generate a particle in different fields. The more mass the particle has, the more energy it will need to generate.
As the Higgs boson requires much more energy than electrons to generate, we needed a Large Hadron Collider in which the Higgs field was given a lot of energy and we got the Higgs Boson!
In space and time, all the fields exist in the same place, so some of the particles change into each other, and so do all the forces.
This shows us that all the particles in the universe are composed of fields instead of particles. These fields become particles only when they receive energy ..! And that is the basis of matter