Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Hence, the actual value of the coupling constant is only defined at a given energy scale. In QCD, the Z boson mass scale is typically chosen, providing a value of the strong coupling constant of α s (M Z 2) = 0.1179 ± 0.0010. [7] In 2023 Atlas measured α s (M Z 2) = 0.1183 ± 0.0009 the most precise so far.
Richard Feynman, one of the originators and early developers of the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED), referred to the fine-structure constant in these terms: There is a most profound and beautiful question associated with the observed coupling constant, e – the amplitude for a real electron to emit or absorb a real photon. It is a ...
written in terms of the fine structure constant in natural units, α = e 2 /4π. [2] This beta function tells us that the coupling increases with increasing energy scale, and QED becomes strongly coupled at high energy. In fact, the coupling apparently becomes infinite at some finite energy, resulting in a Landau pole. However, one cannot ...
Infinitesimal RG transformations map actions to nearby ones, thus giving rise to a vector field on theory space. The scale dependence of an action is encoded in a "running" of the coupling constants parametrizing this action, {} {()}, with the RG scale . This gives rise to a trajectory in theory space (RG trajectory), describing the evolution ...
The scale anomaly, which gives rise to a running coupling constant. In QED this gives rise to the phenomenon of the Landau pole. In quantum chromodynamics (QCD) this leads to asymptotic freedom. The chiral anomaly in either chiral or vector field theories with fermions. This has close connection with topology through the notion of instantons.
Because the theory is "sick" for any negative value of the coupling constant, the series does not converge but is at best an asymptotic series. From a modern perspective, we say that QED is not well defined as a quantum field theory to arbitrarily high energy. [30] The coupling constant runs to infinity at finite energy, signalling a Landau pole.
However, upon quantization, logarithmic divergences in one-loop diagrams of perturbation theory imply that this "constant" actually depends on the typical energy scale of the processes under considerations, called the renormalization group (RG) scale. This "running" of the coupling is specified by the beta function of the renormalization group.
One example of such a coupling constant is the electric charge. In approximate calculations in several quantum field theories, notably quantum electrodynamics and theories of the Higgs particle , the running coupling appears to become infinite at a finite momentum scale.