Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,047 questions , 2,200 unanswered
5,345 answers , 22,709 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
816 active unimported users
More ...

  Mistakes in the Wikipedia figure on elementary particle interactions

+ 0 like - 0 dislike
735 views

There are some mistakes I think in the figure of Wikipedia on particle interactions in standard model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_formulation_of_the_Standard_Model#Alternative_presentations_of_the_fields

It is more precise if we represent the particles in terms of left-handed doublet or right-handed singlet --- question --- are there such cartoon figures available that correctly reflect the elementary particle interactions?

enter image description here

Some Mistakes:

  1. The $Z$ boson does interact with the photon $\gamma$ through the tree level with two $W$ bosons -- but this figure shows no such interactions.

  2. The $Z$ boson does interact with the $Z$ boson through the tree level with two $W$ bosons -- but this figure shows no such interactions.

  3. The photon $\gamma$ does interact with the photon $\gamma$ through the tree level with two $W$ bosons -- but this figure shows no such interactions.

e.g. To justify the mistakes 1 and 2 and 3, we can take X and Y to be $Z$ and or the photon $\gamma$, the tree level interaction shows img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/9W7NL.png" alt="For mistakes 1 and 2 and 3, we can take X and Y to be $\gamma$ " />

  1. Moreover, I am not sure how The charged leptons electrons interact with neutrinos -- it only occurs when we have the leptons in the doublet of weak SU(2)? In that case, it is more precise if we represent the particles in terms of left-handed doublet or right-handed singlet (so we can see what left-handed or right-handed particles interacting with --- are there such cartoon figures available that correctly reflect the elementary particle interactions?
This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-30 15:27 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart
asked Jul 16, 2020 in Astronomy by annie marie heart (1,205 points) [ no revision ]
Cf. this. Basically it is tricky to represent quartic couplings, but the closed loop off W does represent 1. Sticking a loop on Z and γ would create more misconceptions than it would resolve. When it comes to fermion chiralities, extra baroque complications again would not explain anything that the reader does not already know. This is a crib-sheet summary, not a textbook, but I agree it takes a special warped mind avoidant of QFT to make / read, such.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-30 15:27 (UTC), posted by SE-user Cosmas Zachos
thanks - i probe more -- It is more precise if we represent the particles in terms of left-handed doublet or right-handed singlet --- question --- are there such cartoon figures available that correctly reflect the elementary particle interactions? --- it will be nice such figures are available...

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-30 15:27 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart
Never seen such, and I indicated that you then have to split the full quarks coupling to the gluons and their left-chiral components coupling to the W, and as for the Z... a disaster. Such pictures are made and enjoyed only by crowds prizing complication. Recall "flavor basis" neutrinos are doubly misleading as well... Hard to see how to save such stunts...

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-30 15:27 (UTC), posted by SE-user Cosmas Zachos
Photons don't interact. Higher order processes would involve a photon decay that is prohibited for massless particles by Special Relativity, because they don't experience time. This is exactly how the neutrino oscillation has proved that neutrinos are massive.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-30 15:27 (UTC), posted by SE-user safesphere
@safesphere, there is a tree level with four gauge bosons, photon-photon-W+-W- check Feynman rule.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-30 15:27 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart
You are missing my point. The rule you are referring to is forbidden for photons by Special Relativity. I know this is commonly misunderstood, but the "photon-photon physics" is a misconception. Photons cannot decay or be absorbed by non-existing "virtual particles".

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-30 15:27 (UTC), posted by SE-user safesphere

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysicsOve$\varnothing$flow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...