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Minimal Coupling
In analytical mechanics and quantum field theory, minimal coupling refers to a coupling between field theory (physics), fields which involves only the electric charge, charge distribution and not higher multipole moments of the charge distribution. This minimal coupling is in contrast to, for example, Pauli equation, Pauli coupling, which includes the magnetic moment of an electron directly in the Lagrangian mechanics, Lagrangian. Electrodynamics In electrodynamics, minimal coupling is adequate to account for all electromagnetic interactions. Higher moments of particles are consequences of minimal coupling and non-zero spin (physics), spin. Non-relativistic charged particle in an electromagnetic field In Cartesian coordinates, the Lagrangian mechanics#Electromagnetism, Lagrangian of a non-relativistic classical particle in an electromagnetic field is (in SI Units): : \mathcal = \sum_i \tfrac m \dot_i^2 + \sum_i q \dot_i A_i - q \varphi where is the electric charge of the part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Analytical Mechanics
In theoretical physics and mathematical physics, analytical mechanics, or theoretical mechanics is a collection of closely related alternative formulations of classical mechanics. It was developed by many scientists and mathematicians during the 18th century and onward, after Newtonian mechanics. Since Newtonian mechanics considers vector quantities of motion, particularly accelerations, momenta, forces, of the constituents of the system, an alternative name for the mechanics governed by Newton's laws and Euler's laws is ''vectorial mechanics''. By contrast, analytical mechanics uses '' scalar'' properties of motion representing the system as a whole—usually its total kinetic energy and potential energy—not Newton's vectorial forces of individual particles. A scalar is a quantity, whereas a vector is represented by quantity and direction. The equations of motion are derived from the scalar quantity by some underlying principle about the scalar's variation. Analytical mec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gauge Fixing
In the physics of gauge theories, gauge fixing (also called choosing a gauge) denotes a mathematical procedure for coping with redundant degrees of freedom in field variables. By definition, a gauge theory represents each physically distinct configuration of the system as an equivalence class of detailed local field configurations. Any two detailed configurations in the same equivalence class are related by a gauge transformation, equivalent to a shear along unphysical axes in configuration space. Most of the quantitative physical predictions of a gauge theory can only be obtained under a coherent prescription for suppressing or ignoring these unphysical degrees of freedom. Although the unphysical axes in the space of detailed configurations are a fundamental property of the physical model, there is no special set of directions "perpendicular" to them. Hence there is an enormous amount of freedom involved in taking a "cross section" representing each physical configuration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vector Calculus Identities
The following are important identities involving derivatives and integrals in vector calculus. Operator notation Gradient For a function f(x, y, z) in three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate variables, the gradient is the vector field: \operatorname(f) = \nabla f = \begin \frac,\ \frac,\ \frac \end f = \frac \mathbf + \frac \mathbf + \frac \mathbf where i, j, k are the standard unit vectors for the ''x'', ''y'', ''z''-axes. More generally, for a function of ''n'' variables \psi(x_1, \ldots, x_n), also called a scalar field, the gradient is the vector field: \nabla\psi = \begin\frac, \ldots,\ \frac \end\psi = \frac \mathbf_1 + \dots + \frac\mathbf_n . where \mathbf_ are orthogonal unit vectors in arbitrary directions. As the name implies, the gradient is proportional to and points in the direction of the function's most rapid (positive) change. For a vector field \mathbf = \left(A_1, \ldots, A_n\right) written as a 1 × ''n'' row vector, also called a tenso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Charge
Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes charged matter to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative'' (commonly carried by protons and electrons respectively). Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. An object with an absence of net charge is referred to as neutral. Early knowledge of how charged substances interact is now called classical electrodynamics, and is still accurate for problems that do not require consideration of quantum effects. Electric charge is a conserved property; the net charge of an isolated system, the amount of positive charge minus the amount of negative charge, cannot change. Electric charge is carried by subatomic particles. In ordinary matter, negative charge is carried by electrons, and positive charge is carried by the protons in the nuclei of atoms. If there are more electrons than protons in a piece of matter, it will have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invariant Mass
The invariant mass, rest mass, intrinsic mass, proper mass, or in the case of bound systems simply mass, is the portion of the total mass of an object or system of objects that is independent of the overall motion of the system. More precisely, it is a characteristic of the system's total energy and momentum that is the same in all frames of reference related by Lorentz transformations.Lawrence S. LernerPhysics for Scientists and Engineers, Volume 2, page 1073 1997. If a center-of-momentum frame exists for the system, then the invariant mass of a system is equal to its total mass in that "rest frame". In other reference frames, where the system's momentum is nonzero, the total mass (a.k.a. relativistic mass) of the system is greater than the invariant mass, but the invariant mass remains unchanged. Because of mass–energy equivalence, the rest energy of the system is simply the invariant mass times the speed of light squared. Similarly, the total energy of the system is its tot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relativistic Lagrangian Mechanics
In theoretical physics, relativistic Lagrangian mechanics is Lagrangian mechanics applied in the context of special relativity and general relativity. Lagrangian formulation in special relativity Lagrangian mechanics can be formulated in special relativity as follows. Consider one particle (''N'' particles are considered later). Coordinate formulation If a system is described by a Lagrangian ''L'', the Euler–Lagrange equations :\frac\frac = \frac retain their form in special relativity, provided the Lagrangian generates equations of motion consistent with special relativity. Here r = (''x'', ''y'', ''z'') is the position vector of the particle as measured in some lab frame where Cartesian coordinates are used for simplicity, and :\mathbf = \dot = \frac = \left(\frac,\frac,\frac\right) is the coordinate velocity, the derivative of position r with respect to coordinate time ''t''. (Throughout this article, overdots are with respect to coordinate time, not proper time). I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
U(1)
In mathematics, the circle group, denoted by \mathbb T or \mathbb S^1, is the multiplicative group of all complex numbers with absolute value 1, that is, the unit circle in the complex plane or simply the unit complex numbers. \mathbb T = \. The circle group forms a subgroup of \mathbb C^\times, the multiplicative group of all nonzero complex numbers. Since \mathbb C^\times is abelian, it follows that \mathbb T is as well. A unit complex number in the circle group represents a rotation of the complex plane about the origin and can be parametrized by the angle measure \theta: \theta \mapsto z = e^ = \cos\theta + i\sin\theta. This is the exponential map for the circle group. The circle group plays a central role in Pontryagin duality and in the theory of Lie groups. The notation \mathbb T for the circle group stems from the fact that, with the standard topology (see below), the circle group is a 1-torus. More generally, \mathbb T^n (the direct product of \mathbb T with it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topological Group
In mathematics, topological groups are logically the combination of groups and topological spaces, i.e. they are groups and topological spaces at the same time, such that the continuity condition for the group operations connects these two structures together and consequently they are not independent from each other. Topological groups have been studied extensively in the period of 1925 to 1940. Haar and Weil (respectively in 1933 and 1940) showed that the integrals and Fourier series are special cases of a very wide class of topological groups. Topological groups, along with continuous group actions, are used to study continuous symmetries, which have many applications, for example, in physics. In functional analysis, every topological vector space is an additive topological group with the additional property that scalar multiplication is continuous; consequently, many results from the theory of topological groups can be applied to functional analysis. Formal definition ... [...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] |
Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale. Quantum mechanics differs from classical physics in that energy, momentum, angular momentum, and other quantities of a bound system are restricted to discrete values ( quantization); objects have characteristics of both particles and waves (wave–particle duality); and there are limits to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legendre Transformation
In mathematics, the Legendre transformation (or Legendre transform), named after Adrien-Marie Legendre, is an involutive transformation on real-valued convex functions of one real variable. In physical problems, it is used to convert functions of one quantity (such as velocity, pressure, or temperature) into functions of the conjugate quantity (momentum, volume, and entropy, respectively). In this way, it is commonly used in classical mechanics to derive the Hamiltonian formalism out of the Lagrangian formalism (or vice versa) and in thermodynamics to derive the thermodynamic potentials, as well as in the solution of differential equations of several variables. For sufficiently smooth functions on the real line, the Legendre transform f^* of a function f can be specified, up to an additive constant, by the condition that the functions' first derivatives are inverse functions of each other. This can be expressed in Euler's derivative notation as Df(\cdot) = \left( D f^* \right) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamiltonian Mechanics
Hamiltonian mechanics emerged in 1833 as a reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics. Introduced by Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Hamiltonian mechanics replaces (generalized) velocities \dot q^i used in Lagrangian mechanics with (generalized) ''momenta''. Both theories provide interpretations of classical mechanics and describe the same physical phenomena. Hamiltonian mechanics has a close relationship with geometry (notably, symplectic geometry and Poisson structures) and serves as a link between classical and quantum mechanics. Overview Phase space coordinates (p,q) and Hamiltonian H Let (M, \mathcal L) be a mechanical system with the configuration space M and the smooth Lagrangian \mathcal L. Select a standard coordinate system (\boldsymbol,\boldsymbol) on M. The quantities \textstyle p_i(\boldsymbol,\boldsymbol,t) ~\stackrel~ / are called ''momenta''. (Also ''generalized momenta'', ''conjugate momenta'', and ''canonical momenta''). For a time instant t, the Legendre transformat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
