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1 vote

When is the Lagrangian a Lorentz scalar?

An obvious, kind of dumb, answer is that the Lagrangian corresponding to a given Hamiltonian will be a Lorentz scalar if the Hamiltonian has the form, $$ \mathcal{H} = \pi^a \frac{\partial}{\partial t}...
Josh Newey's user avatar
1 vote

When is the Lagrangian a Lorentz scalar?

As far as I know, there are no good ways of stating what conditions on the Hamiltonian will cause the Lagrangian to be a Lorentz scalar other than to just say the Hamiltonian must be derived from a ...
Travis's user avatar
  • 2,167
3 votes
Accepted

$ \pi^0\to \gamma\gamma$ parity conservation

As @Cosmas Zachos said in his comment, the Levi-Civita pseudotensor $\epsilon$ has negative parity. But why? This is the case because $\epsilon_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma} := \sqrt{-g}\ \varepsilon_{\mu\nu\rho\...
Gabriel Ybarra Marcaida's user avatar
0 votes

Parity transformation of the $\pi^{0}\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$ process

... how do I apply P? Spacelike components of a vector/tensor reverse their components. But the Levi-Civita symbol is a pseudotensor, so its three space like reversals amount to changing the ...
Cosmas Zachos's user avatar
1 vote

What force or field is associated with the weak hypercharge?

A clip from wikipedia: Weak hypercharge is the generator of the U(1) component of the electroweak gauge group, SU(2)×U(1) and its associated quantum field B mixes with the W3 electroweak quantum field ...
JEB's user avatar
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0 votes

What is the associated charge for the weak neutral current?

In the standard model of particle physis, the weak neutral current Lagrangean has the general form $$-\mathcal{L}_{\rm nc}=\frac{g}{\cos \theta_{\rm W}}\sum\limits_\psi \bar{\psi} \gamma^\mu (T_3-\sin^...
Hyperon's user avatar
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0 votes

Charge conjugation and Transition form factors

Perhaps the conceptual confusion here regards the difference between gauge symmetries and global symmetries. Gauge 'symmetries' are really just redundancies---different descriptions of entirely the ...
SethK's user avatar
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5 votes

Have all the symmetries of the standard model of particle physics been found?

My answer is also ‘No’ but by direct construction: over the past few years, various research groups have understood new symmetries of the Standard Model. Over the past decade, field theorists have ...
SethK's user avatar
  • 589
0 votes

Checks of anomaly cancellation

A lot of the information you gave me is beyond my knowledge, not being a science professional myself or even a student. But I like reading physics textbooks from time to time and the chapter on ...
Fern's user avatar
  • 51
0 votes

Why is the $\theta$ term of QCD violating charge and parity (CP) symmetries?

Old post, but I just heard of the following analogy recently so I thought I'd share. In the comments and elsewhere on this site, people have given a good answer about the mathematical answer to why ...
11zaq's user avatar
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0 votes

Checks of anomaly cancellation

... if 𝐺 is a global symmetry of the classical Lagrangian, then one has to check 𝐺×𝐻² anomalies, where 𝐻 is one of the SM gauge groups. On may check them for academic purposes, not consistency, ...
Cosmas Zachos's user avatar
2 votes
Accepted

Does electroweak theory have mass gap (not just Higgs mechanism)?

A Higgsed non-Abelian gauge theory has two would-be scales, a spontaneous symmetry breaking scale, and a confinement scale determined by the running of the coupling, analogous to $\Lambda_{QCD}$. ...
octonion's user avatar
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2 votes

How can a virtual $W$ boson turn into an electron and electron antineutrino?

Your question is a result of "just winging it" with quantum field theory. The idea that a $W$ boson with mass $M_W$ is created for a short period of time by borrowing energy via the HUP is ...
JEB's user avatar
  • 35.4k
0 votes

How can a virtual $W$ boson turn into an electron and electron antineutrino?

Yes, the W boson in beta decay is virtual (off-shell). It is not necessary for the W boson to "last enough" for it to decay. It can decay into an electron and an antineutrino because the ...
vin92's user avatar
  • 413
2 votes
Accepted

Could there be states of matter that could avoid "matter decay"?

Baryon decay can be avoided if you build something out of stable non-baryonic matter. Given our currently known particles that leaves electrons/positrons, and neutrinos. Stable electron clouds are ...
Anders Sandberg's user avatar
1 vote

What will happen if we keep bringing two protons closer and closer to each other, starting from a large distance?

Proton-proton collision induces parton (constituents of proton) scattering. From here1: Protons consist of three valence quarks, two up-quarks and one down-quark, held together by gluons and a sea of ...
Nilay Ghosh's user avatar
  • 1,273
1 vote

What will happen if we keep bringing two protons closer and closer to each other, starting from a large distance?

The protons distract each other by the coulomb force. As you coerce them more and more close, you invest energy into the system. At a point, beta decay of one of the protons becomes energetically ...
peterh's user avatar
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2 votes
Accepted

Why does the up and anti-up quark combine into a pion and not a photon?

Particle annihilation occurs when a particle meets its corresponding antiparticle, converting their mass-energy into two photons. This is a useful oversimplification. Even electron-positron pairs, ...
rob's user avatar
  • 91.5k
10 votes

What will happen if we keep bringing two protons closer and closer to each other, starting from a large distance?

If you did it slowly enough, you could create a very short-lived particle called a diproton, the 2He nucleus (Helium without any neutrons). Wikipedia says its half time is 10-9 seconds because the ...
Peter - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
0 votes

Why does the up and anti-up quark combine into a pion and not a photon?

For a first-generation quark-antiquark pair (up-antiup or down-antidown) to have a high probability to form a neutral π meson ($π^0$) these conditions must be satisfied : Color charges should be such ...
Robin's user avatar
  • 69
17 votes

What will happen if we keep bringing two protons closer and closer to each other, starting from a large distance?

This really depends on the energy scale at which you bring them together. At CERN they do proton-proton collisions, where the protons move at speeds close to the speed of light. At those energy scales,...
Jesse's user avatar
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