- #1
Green dwarf
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My very amateur knowledge of the nature of matter is that particles like electrons are local disturbances in a universe-wide field, like the electron field and that a field is a set of values for some quantity, one for each position in space.
What I'm wondering is: What is that quantity in the case of the electron field? Is it nothing more than electron-ness?
Is the quantity a scalar? Is its value everywhere greater than zero or can it be negative or imaginary?
On a 3-d plot with 'electron-ness' on the vertical axis and position in space on the horizontal axes, I imagine an electron as being an isolated round hill or spike. Or is it a wave shape.
If it's a hill, in what sense is the electron a wave?
If it's a wave shape, are the waves moving when the electron is standing still?
What I'm wondering is: What is that quantity in the case of the electron field? Is it nothing more than electron-ness?
Is the quantity a scalar? Is its value everywhere greater than zero or can it be negative or imaginary?
On a 3-d plot with 'electron-ness' on the vertical axis and position in space on the horizontal axes, I imagine an electron as being an isolated round hill or spike. Or is it a wave shape.
If it's a hill, in what sense is the electron a wave?
If it's a wave shape, are the waves moving when the electron is standing still?