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Get the thought that all tiny particles in our universe are shaped like little round balls out of your head!

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We don’t always make jokes about Quantum Physics, but when we do, we don’t

Scientists have worked for a very long time trying to figure out a theory called quantum field theory. Quantum field theory is a body of laws that describes how the tiny little particles all around us interact – particles tinier than atoms, protons, electrons, and neutrons. We’re talking about super tiny particles with names like baryons, quarks, muons, and likely many more that we don’t know about yet. Whatever the particle, we tend to think of these objects as little dots, spheres, or tiny circles. Even the models in books illustrate these particles as tiny little balls. Turns out that scientists thought of them that way too – and when they looked at these in a different perspective, suddenly their work in quantum field theory became much, much easier.

What if the tiny particles were shaped like a…

In 2013, scientists wondered how the math they used in quantum field theory would change if these tiny particles were not round, but rather jewel-like shaped. When thinking of particles in terms of tiny balls, the calculations they needed to do spanned many pages and required huge computers to calculate. However, when they described the particle interactions in their mathematical formulas with jewel-like “amplituhedron” shapes – Wow! According to one scientist at Harvard University:

“The degree of efficiency is mind-boggling. You can easily do, on paper, computations that were infeasible even with a computer before.”

These new geometric shapes make lots of theories much clearer to scientists. The amplituhedron shape makes it easier to search for a theory of quantum gravity that would seamlessly connect the large-picture of our universe with the small-picture (drawn with all those tiny particles). These new shapes also make it easier for a particle to “touch” another particle without being right next to it (think of the weird shaped particle as wrapping around another one to reach a distant neighbor). All of these are very important for scientists to be able to describe how our universe works and with little round balls in the mix – the theories just wouldn’t work.

Wondering what an amplituhedron looks like? The amplituhedron looks like an intricate, multifaceted jewel in higher dimensions. It might look like this:

Amplituhedron shape

Or maybe this:

Amplituhedron shape

But definitely not like this:

Smiley circle shape

More about quantum field theory

Quantum field theory is a theoretical framework for describing the behavior of subatomic particles. It combines the principles of quantum mechanics and special relativity to explain the behavior of particles in terms of fields that exist throughout all of space.

In quantum field theory, particles are viewed as excitations of underlying fields. These fields are described by mathematical objects known as quantum fields, which are defined at every point in space and time. The behavior of these fields is governed by a set of equations known as the quantum field equations.

One of the key features of quantum field theory is its ability to describe the interactions between particles. In this framework, particles interact by exchanging other particles known as force carriers. For example, the electromagnetic force is mediated by the exchange of photons, while the strong force is mediated by the exchange of gluons.

Quantum field theory has been remarkably successful in explaining a wide range of phenomena, from the behavior of subatomic particles to the properties of materials. It is a cornerstone of modern physics and has played a central role in the development of the standard model of particle physics.

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