Graduate Students, Program in Applied Mathematics
When
Where
Speaker: Tanner Reese, Mathematics
Title: Particles from Quantum Fields
Abstract: The development of QED and other field theories to describe the mechanics of elementary particles has produced the most precise predictions known to man. Despite this, a mathematically rigorous treatment of interacting quantum fields has remained illusive for the last half century. We will see how the concept of quantized particles is not an ad hoc assumption, but instead flows directly from the non-commutative nature of the underlying fields. This will be derived for the particular case of phonons and considered more broadly for any quantum field. Time permitting, we will also see the connection between particles and representations of fundamental symmetry groups.