Abstract
The elementary particles of relativistic quantum field theory are not simple field quanta, as has long been assumed. Rather, they supplement quantum fields, on which they depend on but to which they are not reducible, as shown here with particles defined instead as a unified collection of properties that appear in both physical symmetry group representations and field propagators. This notion of particle provides consistency between the practice of particle physics and its basis in quantum field theory.
Highlights
The traditional notion of the elementary particle as a simple free-field excitation of a quantum field fails to be valid in any physical situation in which interactions are taking place; due to the omnipresence of interactions between particles, a harmonic-wave description of field propagation can only approximately apply to what are very nearly free fields
Field behavior for its part is only well described generally by less orderly distributions, for example, the field propagators appearing in the probability amplitudes of the perturbation-theoretical method of predicting the particle-state transitions of scattering processes
The set of properties corresponding to allowed irreducible Poincaré group representations, which has far been considered only as a means of distinguishing particle classes, is sufficient to provide the means to indicate the properties of a particle, which is seen to propagate according to such a description and supervene on its corresponding field: Because the mass appearing in the field propagator underlying the particle can vary, particles are only dependent on, not reducible to, their associated fields and definable as a unified collection of its mass, spin, consistently possessing other associated, conserved properties as well
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The existence of elementary particles has come into question even though they are basic referents of particle physics, one of the most prominent fields of contemporary science, and though they are part of its most successful grand model of fundamental physics, the Standard Model This is primarily because such particles have been considered simple quanta, that is, freely propagating excitations of quantum fields, which they are not when in the presence of interactions, which are omnipresent (cf., e.g., [1]). Particles, properly defined, have unique predictive value It has been understood since the discovery of the photoelectric effect that accounting for microphysical properties requires fields that differ fundamentally in character from classical fields; one of the physical novelties of quantum fields is their non-reductive support for at least some empirically confirmed particle-like behavior.
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