All Questions
Tagged with terminology theoretical-physics
7
questions
3
votes
1
answer
255
views
On early US patriotism to choose quark color charge labels
Sean Carroll has a video about gauge theory (2020) in his series about Greatest Ideas of the Universe, where he claims that early in the development of quantum chromodynamics, some physicists tried to ...
- 3,967
2
votes
1
answer
608
views
History of group theory character tables (as used in physics and chemistry)
Does anyone know who started using the symbols A, B, E, T (First column, left) for showing irreducible representations of symmetry groups? In older maths books I see capital gamma. Herein A= totally ...
- 4,184
10
votes
1
answer
753
views
What is the origin of the "virtual particle pair" metaphor for vacuum fluctuations?
In any layman level description of vacuum fluctuations in quantum field theory the fluctuations are described as a pair of virtual particles spontaneously appearing then disappearing within some short ...
- 309
7
votes
1
answer
322
views
What is the origin of the term recombination?
During the introductory lecture to a cosmology course I'm currently taking, there was a brief discussion of some of the "highlights" of the Big Bang model. One of these is, of course, recombination. ...
Danu♦
- 3,891
7
votes
1
answer
3k
views
How did the term "Michel electron" come about?
The Michel electron is what we call the electron produced from muon decay, and it's named after Louis Michel. I mention this in a paper I'm writing, and I was told that I need to cite it. I can't find ...
- 71
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How did the 'Poincaré patches' get their name?
De Sitter space and Anti de Sitter space are two of the most important solutions to the Einstein field equations. One famous method to obtain these spacetimes is to consider a $N$-dimensional ...
Danu♦
- 3,891
9
votes
1
answer
156
views
What is the reason for the 'electromagnetism terminology' when discussing the conserved quantities found through Noether's theorem?
In (theoretical) physics, it is customary to describe the system under consideration in terms of the Lagrangian. One of the major advantages of this approach is that it allows us to analyze the ...
Danu♦
- 3,891