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Philipsmett
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According to the QFT, each electron creates an electromagnetic field around itself. Is this field real or is it just a virtual mathematical field?
I'm asking youVanadium 50 said:How do you distinguish real fields from mathematical fields?
Philipsmett said:I'm asking you
I ask whether the electromagnetic field of an electron in QFT is a real physical field, or this is an imaginary field for computation as a virtual photons.PeterDonis said:If you can't give a way to distinguish "real fields" from "virtual mathematical fields", then your question is meaningless and we can't answer it. You need to explain what you mean by those two terms for us to be able to answer your question.
Philipsmett said:I ask whether the electromagnetic field of an electron in QFT is a real physical field, or this is an imaginary field for computation as a virtual photons.
In the usual textbook presentations of QED, one starts with free electron fields and free photon fields. The electron and photon fields commute, which essentially means they're independent of each other. Then one adds an interaction term in the Hamiltonian (essentially a product of the photon field and the electron current field). In standard perturbative scattering theory, you'll see diagrams with "virtual photons", etc, which are just mathematical abstractions denoting terms in a perturbation series.Philipsmett said:According to the QFT, each electron creates an electromagnetic field around itself. Is this field real or is it just a virtual mathematical field?
As soon as somebody tells you to think about what's real in physical theories, be very careful not to be confused. The notion of "reality" is a philosophical notion and thus doomed to be so unclearly defined that one can say it's not defined at all.Philipsmett said:I ask whether the electromagnetic field of an electron in QFT is a real physical field, or this is an imaginary field for computation as a virtual photons.
The electron EM field in QFT (Quantum Field Theory) is a mathematical framework used to describe the behavior of electrons and their interactions with the electromagnetic field. It is a fundamental concept in modern physics and is essential for understanding the behavior of particles at a subatomic level.
The electron EM field in QFT is described using a quantum field, which is a mathematical object that assigns a value to every point in space and time. This field represents the probability of finding an electron at a particular location and time, and it also describes the electron's interactions with the electromagnetic field.
The electron EM field in QFT plays a crucial role in understanding the behavior of electrons and their interactions with other particles. It is used to calculate the probabilities of different particle interactions, such as electron-positron annihilation or electron-photon scattering, and it is also used in the development of new theories and models in particle physics.
The electron EM field interacts with the electromagnetic field through the exchange of virtual particles, such as photons. These virtual particles mediate the interactions between the electron and the electromagnetic field, and their exchange is described by mathematical equations in QFT.
Understanding the electron EM field in QFT has many practical applications, such as in the development of new technologies like transistors and lasers. It also has implications for our understanding of the universe, as the behavior of electrons and their interactions with the electromagnetic field play a significant role in the formation of matter and the structure of the universe.