- #1
Sophrosyne
- 128
- 21
I was recently reading about annihilation and creation operators in particle physics using the model of an harmonic oscillator, and then quantizing it. This is fine. I can understand it.
But how does this quantization of the energy of the harmonic oscillator manifest physically? Is it that only the masses of the particles created are quantized, or is it that the combination of the mass and velocity of the resulting particle created are quantized (ie, the total energy)? In other words, given the same oscillator energy level, you could create a very light particle moving away very fast, or you could have a heavier particle moving away very slowly?
Have the observed masses and velocities of elementary particles formed in particle accelerators been seen to follow this rigid quantization? It seems the masses of many of these particles are so much heavier than the quantization of the quantized harmonic oscillator model that it would be very difficult to verify that, especially if the differential velocities are also taken into account.
Thanks in advance.
But how does this quantization of the energy of the harmonic oscillator manifest physically? Is it that only the masses of the particles created are quantized, or is it that the combination of the mass and velocity of the resulting particle created are quantized (ie, the total energy)? In other words, given the same oscillator energy level, you could create a very light particle moving away very fast, or you could have a heavier particle moving away very slowly?
Have the observed masses and velocities of elementary particles formed in particle accelerators been seen to follow this rigid quantization? It seems the masses of many of these particles are so much heavier than the quantization of the quantized harmonic oscillator model that it would be very difficult to verify that, especially if the differential velocities are also taken into account.
Thanks in advance.