Related Research Articles
In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type of quantum field theory called a non-abelian gauge theory, with symmetry group SU(3). The QCD analog of electric charge is a property called color. Gluons are the force carriers of the theory, just as photons are for the electromagnetic force in quantum electrodynamics. The theory is an important part of the Standard Model of particle physics. A large body of experimental evidence for QCD has been gathered over the years.
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and in condensed matter physics to construct models of quasiparticles.
In physics, Wick rotation, named after Italian physicist Gian Carlo Wick, is a method of finding a solution to a mathematical problem in Minkowski space from a solution to a related problem in Euclidean space by means of a transformation that substitutes an imaginary-number variable for a real-number variable. This transformation is also used to find solutions to problems in quantum mechanics and other areas.
An instanton is a notion appearing in theoretical and mathematical physics. An instanton is a classical solution to equations of motion with a finite, non-zero action, either in quantum mechanics or in quantum field theory. More precisely, it is a solution to the equations of motion of the classical field theory on a Euclidean spacetime.
In theoretical physics, a chiral anomaly is the anomalous nonconservation of a chiral current. In everyday terms, it is equivalent to a sealed box that contained equal numbers of left and right-handed bolts, but when opened was found to have more left than right, or vice versa.
The path integral formulation is a description in quantum mechanics that generalizes the action principle of classical mechanics. It replaces the classical notion of a single, unique classical trajectory for a system with a sum, or functional integral, over an infinity of quantum-mechanically possible trajectories to compute a quantum amplitude.
In physics, lattice gauge theory is the study of gauge theories on a spacetime that has been discretized into a lattice.
In theoretical physics, Euclidean quantum gravity is a version of quantum gravity. It seeks to use the Wick rotation to describe the force of gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics.
Hagen Kleinert is professor of theoretical physics at the Free University of Berlin, Germany , Honorary Doctor at the West University of Timișoara, and at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Bishkek. He is also Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Creative Endeavors. For his contributions to particle and solid state physics he was awarded the Max Born Prize 2008 with Medal. His contribution to the memorial volume celebrating the 100th birthday of Lev Davidovich Landau earned him the Majorana Prize 2008 with Medal. He is married to Dr. Annemarie Kleinert since 1974 with whom he has a son Michael Kleinert.
Alexander Markovich Polyakov is a Russian theoretical physicist, formerly at the Landau Institute in Moscow and, since 1990, at Princeton University, where he is the Joseph Henry Professor of Physics.
In quantum field theory, a nonlinear σ model describes a scalar field Σ which takes on values in a nonlinear manifold called the target manifold T. The non-linear σ-model was introduced by Gell-Mann & Lévy, who named it after a field corresponding to a spinless meson called σ in their model. This article deals primarily with the quantization of the non-linear sigma model; please refer to the base article on the sigma model for general definitions and classical (non-quantum) formulations and results.
The QCD vacuum is the vacuum state of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). It is an example of a non-perturbative vacuum state, characterized by non-vanishing condensates such as the gluon condensate and the quark condensate in the complete theory which includes quarks. The presence of these condensates characterizes the confined phase of quark matter.
Gary William Gibbons is a British theoretical physicist.
In mathematical physics and differential geometry, a gravitational instanton is a four-dimensional complete Riemannian manifold satisfying the vacuum Einstein equations. They are so named because they are analogues in quantum theories of gravity of instantons in Yang–Mills theory. In accordance with this analogy with self-dual Yang–Mills instantons, gravitational instantons are usually assumed to look like four dimensional Euclidean space at large distances, and to have a self-dual Riemann tensor. Mathematically, this means that they are asymptotically locally Euclidean hyperkähler 4-manifolds, and in this sense, they are special examples of Einstein manifolds. From a physical point of view, a gravitational instanton is a non-singular solution of the vacuum Einstein equations with positive-definite, as opposed to Lorentzian, metric.
In theoretical physics, the BPST instanton is the instanton with winding number 1 found by Alexander Belavin, Alexander Polyakov, Albert Schwarz and Yu. S. Tyupkin. It is a classical solution to the equations of motion of SU(2) Yang–Mills theory in Euclidean space-time, meaning it describes a transition between two different topological vacua of the theory. It was originally hoped to open the path to solving the problem of confinement, especially since Polyakov had proven in 1987 that instantons are the cause of confinement in three-dimensional compact-QED. This hope was not realized, however.
This page is a glossary of terms in string theory, including related areas such as supergravity, supersymmetry, and high energy physics.
In theoretical physics, stochastic quantization is a method for modelling quantum mechanics, introduced by Edward Nelson in 1966, and streamlined by Parisi and Wu.
The so-called double-well potential is one of a number of quartic potentials of considerable interest in quantum mechanics, in quantum field theory and elsewhere for the exploration of various physical phenomena or mathematical properties since it permits in many cases explicit calculation without over-simplification.
Periodic instantons are finite energy solutions of Euclidean-time field equations which communicate between two turning points in the barrier of a potential and are therefore also known as bounces. Vacuum instantons, normally simply called instantons, are the corresponding zero energy configurations in the limit of infinite Euclidean time. For completeness we add that ``sphalerons´´ are the field configurations at the very top of a potential barrier. Vacuum instantons carry a winding number, the other configurations do not. Periodic instantons werde discovered with the explicit solution of Euclidean-time field equations for double-well potentials and the cosine potential with non-vanishing energy and are explicitly expressible in terms of Jacobian elliptic functions. Periodic instantons describe the oscillations between two endpoints of a potential barrier between two potential wells. The frequency of these oscillations or the tunneling between the two wells is related to the bifurcation or level splitting of the energies of states or wave functions related to the wells on either side of the barrier, i.e. . One can also interpret this energy change as the energy contribution to the well energy on either side originating from the integral describing the overlap of the wave functions on either side in the domain of the barrier.
References
- Schafer, T.; Shuryak, E. V. (1998), "Instantons in QCD", Reviews of Modern Physics , 70 (2): 323–426, arXiv: hep-ph/9610451 , Bibcode:1998RvMP...70..323S, doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.70.323, S2CID 119513652
 | This quantum mechanics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |