|
Pseudoscalar
In linear algebra, a pseudoscalar is a quantity that behaves like a scalar, except that it changes sign under a parity inversion while a true scalar does not. Any scalar product between a pseudovector and an ordinary vector is a pseudoscalar. The prototypical example of a pseudoscalar is the scalar triple product, which can be written as the scalar product between one of the vectors in the triple product and the cross product between the two other vectors, where the latter is a pseudovector. A pseudoscalar, when multiplied by an ordinary vector, becomes a pseudovector (axial vector); a similar construction creates the pseudotensor. Mathematically, a pseudoscalar is an element of the top exterior power of a vector space, or the top power of a Clifford algebra; see pseudoscalar (Clifford algebra). More generally, it is an element of the canonical bundle of a differentiable manifold. In physics In physics, a pseudoscalar denotes a physical quantity analogous to a scalar. Both ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudoscalar Meson
In high-energy physics, a pseudoscalar meson is a meson with total spin 0 and odd parity (usually notated as Pseudoscalar mesons are commonly seen in proton-proton scattering and proton-antiproton annihilation, and include the pion (), kaon (), eta (), and eta prime () particles, whose masses are known with great precision. Among all of the mesons known to exist, in some sense, the pseudoscalars are the most well studied and understood. History The pion () was first proposed to exist by Yukawa in the 1930s as the primary force carrying boson of the Yukawa potential in nuclear interactions, and was later observed at nearly the same mass that he originally predicted for it. In the 1950s and 1960s, the pseudoscalar mesons began to proliferate, and were eventually organized into a multiplet according to Murray Gell-Mann's so-called " Eightfold Way". Gell-Mann further predicted the existence of a ninth resonance in the pseudoscalar multiplet, which he originally called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scalar (physics)
In physics, scalars (or scalar quantities) are physical quantities that are unaffected by changes to a vector space basis (i.e., a coordinate system transformation). Scalars are often accompanied by units of measurement, as in "10 cm". Examples of scalar quantities are mass, distance, charge, volume, time, speed, and the magnitude of physical vectors in general (such as velocity). A change of a vector space basis changes the description of a vector in terms of the basis used but does not change the vector itself, while a scalar has nothing to do with this change. In classical physics, like Newtonian mechanics, rotations and reflections preserve scalars, while in relativity, Lorentz transformations or space-time translations preserve scalars. The term "scalar" has origin in the multiplication of vectors by a unitless scalar, which is a ''uniform scaling'' transformation. Relationship with the mathematical concept A scalar in physics is also a scalar in mathematics, as an eleme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hodge Dual
In mathematics, the Hodge star operator or Hodge star is a linear map defined on the exterior algebra of a finite-dimensional oriented vector space endowed with a nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form. Applying the operator to an element of the algebra produces the Hodge dual of the element. This map was introduced by W. V. D. Hodge. For example, in an oriented 3-dimensional Euclidean space, an oriented plane can be represented by the exterior product of two basis vectors, and its Hodge dual is the normal vector given by their cross product; conversely, any vector is dual to the oriented plane perpendicular to it, endowed with a suitable bivector. Generalizing this to an -dimensional vector space, the Hodge star is a one-to-one mapping of -vectors to -vectors; the dimensions of these spaces are the binomial coefficients \tbinom nk = \tbinom. The naturalness of the star operator means it can play a role in differential geometry, when applied to the cotangent bundle of a pseudo-R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudovector
In physics and mathematics, a pseudovector (or axial vector) is a quantity that is defined as a function of some vectors or other geometric shapes, that resembles a vector, and behaves like a vector in many situations, but is changed into its opposite if the orientation of the space is changed, or an improper rigid transformation such as a reflection is applied to the whole figure. Geometrically, the direction of a reflected pseudovector is opposite to its mirror image, but with equal magnitude. In contrast, the reflection of a ''true'' (or polar) vector is exactly the same as its mirror image. In three dimensions, the curl of a polar vector field at a point and the cross product of two polar vectors are pseudovectors. One example of a pseudovector is the normal to an oriented plane. An oriented plane can be defined by two non-parallel vectors, a and b, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudoscalar (Clifford Algebra)
In abstract algebra, in particular in the theory of nondegenerate quadratic forms on vector spaces, the structures of finite-dimensional real and complex Clifford algebras for a nondegenerate quadratic form have been completely classified. In each case, the Clifford algebra is algebra isomorphic to a full matrix ring over R, C, or H (the quaternions), or to a direct sum of two copies of such an algebra, though not in a canonical way. Below it is shown that distinct Clifford algebras may be algebra-isomorphic, as is the case of Cl2,0(R) and Cl1,1(R), which are both isomorphic to the ring of two-by-two matrices over the real numbers. Notation and conventions The Clifford product is the manifest ring product for the Clifford algebra, and all algebra homomorphisms in this article are with respect to this ring product. Other products defined within Clifford algebras, such as the exterior product, are not used here. This article uses the (+) sign convention for Clifford multiplicati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wave Function
A wave function in quantum physics is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The wave function is a complex-valued probability amplitude, and the probabilities for the possible results of measurements made on the system can be derived from it. The most common symbols for a wave function are the Greek letters and (lower-case and capital psi, respectively). The wave function is a function of the degrees of freedom corresponding to some maximal set of commuting observables. Once such a representation is chosen, the wave function can be derived from the quantum state. For a given system, the choice of which commuting degrees of freedom to use is not unique, and correspondingly the domain of the wave function is also not unique. For instance, it may be taken to be a function of all the position coordinates of the particles over position space, or the momenta of all the particles over momentum space; the two are related by a Fourier tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass and is its velocity (also a vector quantity), then the object's momentum is : \mathbf = m \mathbf. In the International System of Units (SI), the unit of measurement of momentum is the kilogram metre per second (kg⋅m/s), which is equivalent to the newton-second. Newton's second law of motion states that the rate of change of a body's momentum is equal to the net force acting on it. Momentum depends on the frame of reference, but in any inertial frame it is a ''conserved'' quantity, meaning that if a closed system is not affected by external forces, its total linear momentum does not change. Momentum is also conserved in special relativity (with a modified formula) and, in a modified form, in electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, quan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spin (physics)
Spin is a conserved quantity carried by elementary particles, and thus by composite particles (hadrons) and atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei. Spin is one of two types of angular momentum in quantum mechanics, the other being ''orbital angular momentum''. The orbital angular momentum operator is the quantum-mechanical counterpart to the classical angular momentum of orbital revolution and appears when there is periodic structure to its wavefunction as the angle varies. For photons, spin is the quantum-mechanical counterpart of the Polarization (waves), polarization of light; for electrons, the spin has no classical counterpart. The existence of electron spin angular momentum is inferred from experiments, such as the Stern–Gerlach experiment, in which silver atoms were observed to possess two possible discrete angular momenta despite having no orbital angular momentum. The existence of the electron spin can also be inferred theoretically from the spin–statistics theorem and from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helicity (particle Physics)
In physics, helicity is the projection of the spin onto the direction of momentum. Overview The angular momentum J is the sum of an orbital angular momentum L and a spin S. The relationship between orbital angular momentum L, the position operator r and the linear momentum (orbit part) p is :\mathbf = \mathbf\times\mathbf so L's component in the direction of p is zero. Thus, helicity is just the projection of the spin onto the direction of linear momentum. The helicity of a particle is positive (" right-handed") if the direction of its spin is the same as the direction of its motion and negative ("left-handed") if opposite. Helicity is conserved. That is, the helicity commutes with the Hamiltonian, and thus, in the absence of external forces, is time-invariant. It is also rotationally invariant, in that a rotation applied to the system leaves the helicity unchanged. Helicity, however, is not Lorentz invariant; under the action of a Lorentz boost, the helicity may chang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetic Field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to the magnetic field. A permanent magnet's magnetic field pulls on ferromagnetic materials such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets. In addition, a nonuniform magnetic field exerts minuscule forces on "nonmagnetic" materials by three other magnetic effects: paramagnetism, diamagnetism, and antiferromagnetism, although these forces are usually so small they can only be detected by laboratory equipment. Magnetic fields surround magnetized materials, and are created by electric currents such as those used in electromagnets, and by electric fields varying in time. Since both strength and direction of a magnetic field may vary with location, it is described mathematically by a function assigning a vector to each point of space, cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dot Product
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar productThe term ''scalar product'' means literally "product with a scalar as a result". It is also used sometimes for other symmetric bilinear forms, for example in a pseudo-Euclidean space. is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers (usually coordinate vectors), and returns a single number. In Euclidean geometry, the dot product of the Cartesian coordinates of two vectors is widely used. It is often called the inner product (or rarely projection product) of Euclidean space, even though it is not the only inner product that can be defined on Euclidean space (see Inner product space for more). Algebraically, the dot product is the sum of the products of the corresponding entries of the two sequences of numbers. Geometrically, it is the product of the Euclidean magnitudes of the two vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. These definitions are equivalent when using Cartesian coordinates. In mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetic Flux
In physics, specifically electromagnetism, the magnetic flux through a surface is the surface integral of the normal component of the magnetic field B over that surface. It is usually denoted or . The SI unit of magnetic flux is the weber (Wb; in derived units, volt–seconds), and the CGS unit is the maxwell. Magnetic flux is usually measured with a fluxmeter, which contains measuring coils and electronics, that evaluates the change of voltage in the measuring coils to calculate the measurement of magnetic flux. Description The magnetic interaction is described in terms of a vector field, where each point in space is associated with a vector that determines what force a moving charge would experience at that point (see Lorentz force). Since a vector field is quite difficult to visualize at first, in elementary physics one may instead visualize this field with field lines. The magnetic flux through some surface, in this simplified picture, is proportional to the num ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
