Thanks for reminding me of what I read, actually skimmed through, a coupla days ago. Unfortunately, I'm unable to recall the source. The "shut up and calculate" remark, made by David Mermin, was meant to discourage people from trying to make sense of or comprehend quantum physics in the same way as one sussed out Newtonian mechanics for example. It was simply not possible for reasons which include the difficulty/impossibility of visualizing what the equations of QM were saying.

I guess this is the point where you say, like Wolfgang Pauli did after he went through a paper of a young physicist, "it is not even wrong!"

It was simply not possible for reasons which include the difficulty/impossibility of visualizing what the equations of QM were saying. — TheMadFool

What are these reasons? Why writing difficulty/impossibility? Is it both? If it's difficult it's not impossible. Difficult but possible. Giving two possibilities always makes it right. Possible or not...Of course! I'm not asking about QM, I'm asking about QFT. QM can be induced from QFT. Which means QFT is the base.

quantum field theory — Thunderballs

And more, even the answer to Existence:

On the One and Only Existence
Prolog

In this lost haunt on the Orion arm
Of the galaxy, safe from the core’s harm,
The philosophers meet in the forum,
As sleuth-hounds unweaving the Cosmic yarn.

We search for the Start of the Universe,
The End, the Before, the After, the Kinds,
The Measures, and All That Lies Between:
The Music of the Spheres’ Magnificat.

We follow every single avenue,
Whether it’s brightly lit or a dark alley,
Exploring one-ways, no-ways, and dead-ends,
Until cornered where the Truth is hiding.

Since we all became of this universe,
Should we not ask who we are, whence we came?
Insight clefts night’s skirt with its radiance—
The Theory of Everything shines through!

We are ever in touch with the unknown,
For that’s ever the reach of science shown.
Reality is grasped by focusing
On what interacts with what and the means.

There is a realm of happenings, not things,
For ‘things’ don’t remain the same on time’s wings.
What remains through time are processes—
Relations between different systems.

An Eternal Basis has to be so,
For a lack of anything cannot sow,
Forcing there to be something permanent,
As partless, from which the particles grow.

Consider quantum fields of waves atop
One another: waves are continuous,
And so qualify as Fundamental;
Quantized lumps are particles, then more.

Note that there is no other absolute:
Newton’s fixed space and time got Einstein’s boot;
Particle spigots making fields are mute;
Classic fields have no fundamental loot.

There’s a lightness of elemental being
Since any more would have to be of parts,
And thus go beyond the fundamental arts.
The puffs of vacuum energy are small.


On the Forced Defaults for the Only Existence

There can only be the one Existence,
Forced, with no option for it not to be,
Which is no mystery because the ‘Nil’
Cannot be, even as spacers within.

There is neither ‘Full’ nor ‘Null’,
But a lightness of being near ‘Zero’,
As that’s what the universe amounts to,
Nor ‘Nil’s kin as ‘Still’, since there’s constant change.

This must-be partless Existence Eterne
Can’t end, so it must remain as itself,
Transmuting into multiplicity
Of the temporary as ‘elementaries’.

Since Existence has to be, of not ‘null’,
‘Supernatural Magic’ isn’t required;
So, there’s only the natural as the base;
One degree of freedom is its forced default.

Motion is a must, or naught could happen;
It can’t have parts, so it’s continuous;
Since no end, it can return to itself.
There can’t be anything else but it.

It is everywhere, with no gaps of ‘zilch’,
Waving, as that’s ubiquitous in nature;
Rearranging to the elementary
Particles at stable rungs of quanta.

Only quantum fields fit the criteria;
‘Particles as spigots’ failed to flow,
Newton’s ‘Space’ and ‘Time’ disappeared via
Einstein’s relativity special and general.

Quantum field points that just spring up and down
Form the field’s waves by dragging on others.
These sums of harmonic oscillations
Force the fixed quanta energy levels.

So the wave estimate proved to be right;
An electron/photon goes through both slits
Because it is a spread out field quantum.
Quantum jumps are due no wave fractionals.

The universe is a large quantum field,
For the 24 quantum fields interact,
This containing the whole of physics.
There’s no ‘God’s’ eye view; anything happens.

The anything in the massive universe
Is a lot of needed ‘extravagant’ stuff,
Since on Earth the right conditions obtained,
Our planet being where and what it has to be.

Cosmic and biological evolution were forced,
Stars collecting the elementaries,
Producing all the atomic elements
That went on to molecules, cells, and more.

All this took 13.75 billion years,
Since, again, there were no hoodoo shortcuts.
Life and consciousness emerged, no ‘Mojo’—
Since before that time on Earth there was none!

We, too, are forced to exist.

‘Magic’ has fallen by the wayside, it
As trancendence an intangible writ,
Unable to be distinct from matter,
Having to talk/walk the talk/walk of it.

An extra distinct realm isn’t needed,
As ‘intangible’, ‘ineffable’, etc.,
For it only begs the question—a shock!—
And as separate couldn’t have effect.

The ‘nonmaterial’ and ‘nonphysical’
Haven’t shown anything at all to date,
Plus, all the more they’d have to be explained;
The ‘metaphysical’ search has to fail.

The ‘God’ idea has fallen from its throne;
Forever quantum fields’ excitations’
Elementary quanta roll on those fields
That are everywhere and remain themselves.


Epilog

The quantum fields’ unity is the Whole,
Being ever, exhausting Reality,
Unbreakable and Unmakeable,
As partless and continuous monads.

All that emerges is still the fields at heart,
Though secondary and temporary,
Arising and at some time returning;
The quantum fields are Indivisible.

Quantum fields are the fundamental strokes
Whose excitations at harmonics cloak
The quanta with the stability
To persist and thus obtain mobility.

The elementary particles beget,
As letters of the Cosmic alphabet,
And combine in words to write the story
Of the stars, atoms, cells, and life’s glory.

Why Something?

Quantum states melt via uncertainty,
And this means that no quantum property
Can e’er be zero—a precise amount,
And so it is that motion can ne’er cease.

The Something

The quantum field is the bridge between ‘Nil’
And basic matter, and can ne’er be still;
Thus the ‘vacuum’ is the quietest field—
The closest approach to ‘Nothing’ that can be.

No ‘Null’ nor Matter Full

‘Nothing’ had no chance to be the hero,
Plus QM scrubs the idea of zero
Out of the physical world of being;
‘Zilch’ ne’er sleeps, but is e’er up to something.

A Mere Blip

But for the small quantum uncertainty,
The Cosmos sums to naught, its lunch being free:
No net electric charge; a weightless brick;
Minus-potential = plus-kinetic.

Oh, those imaginings of what can’t be!
Such as Nought, Stillness, and the Block’s decree,
As well as Apart, Beginning, and End,
The Unfixed Will, Blame, Fame, and Theity.

The Music of the Spheres — PoeticUniverse

You got a higher power (Coldplay). Nice poem!

Jesus! You had an epiphany? Wow!

Ah yes! The poetic universe!

Jesus! You had an epiphany? Wow! — Thunderballs

Quantum Field Theory is the most accurate and succcesful in the history of science. The model of the sums of harmonic oscillators and its math matches the experimental results and gives rise to the standard model from which all kind of devices can be made that work.

I don't know why QFT doesn't get explored all that much on this forum.

I don't know why QFT doesn't get explored all that much on this forum. — PoeticUniverse

I do. It's considered difficukt while in fact there ain't nothing to it. Maybe we should start a lecture! For starters. The math terrifies a lot of people. Challenging their intelligence.

I do. It's considered difficukt while in fact there ain't nothing to it. — Thunderballs

We always knew the TOE had to be simple and thus almost boring technically but still very exciting as the answer to the most often asked question.

the answer to the most often asked question. — PoeticUniverse

What question?

What question? — Thunderballs

Of those like "Why anything?" or "What's it's all about?"

Of those like "Why anything?" or "What's it's all about?" — PoeticUniverse

Only God(s) knows that.

Only God(s) knows that. — Thunderballs

Well, He's not needed any more since Existence has no alternative. No need to move up a level.

Well, He's not needed any more since Existence has no alternative. No need to move up a level. — PoeticUniverse

It's not moving up a level. You can of course ask "but where did gids came frim". But that's a different question. I can't imagine the universe to be there without a creation by god(s). Even when it's eternal. There has to be someone behind it.

It's not moving up a level. You can of course ask "but where did gids came frim". But that's a different question. I can't imagine the universe to be there without a creation by god(s). Even when it's eternal. There has to be someone behind it. — Thunderballs

Can't have a complexity as First and Fundamental, not even a proton, much less some ultimate System of Mind.

Quantum Fields are the Ground of Determination (G.O.D.).

The "shut up and calculate" remark, made by David Mermin, was meant to discourage people from . . . — TheMadFool

Like others, I attributed this wonderful line to Feynman. Mistakenly it would appear. Thanks.

I don't know why QFT doesn't get explored all that much on this forum. — PoeticUniverse

Oh oh. Awakening a slumbering giant! :gasp:

Quantum Fields are the Ground of Determination — PoeticUniverse

But from where came the quantum fields, these simultananeity of all paths in phasespace (or Markov chains)? These fields in a spacetime. From where came spacetime in its eternity?

But from where came the quantum fields, these simultananeity of all paths in phasespace (or Markov chains)? These fields in a spacetime. From where came spacetime in its eternity? — Thunderballs

The quantum fields exhaust Reality. There's no "coming from" for the Eternal Fundamental that has no beginning or end.

The quantum fields exhaust Reality. There's no "coming from" for the Eternal Fundamental that has no beginning or end. — PoeticUniverse

That' s the question!

That' s the question! — Thunderballs

There's no question about the ever and always of the Fundamental.

There's no question about the ever and always of the Fundamental. — PoeticUniverse

That's the question! Why shouldnt there be a question? Is the question. Because it is like you think?

That's the question! — Thunderballs

Existence is the mandatory default, given that 'Nothing' cannot be, much less be productive.

Do you want 'Nothing' to have some capability to 'it'? Then it's not a 'Nothing' but a something.

What is the math of the whole field of QFT describing? — Thunderballs

The first step is to visualize a vector field:

The first step is to visualize a vector field: — jgill

Visual poetry! Tthanks for your contribution. Now it's going somewhere! Do you think we can speak of fields of particle trajectories? I know that a quantum field is formally, mathematically, a distribution of operators. Of creation or destruction operators (what expressions...). These create particles (or states in Fock space, excuse the language).

Check out this article https://aurocafe.substack.com/p/the-shapes-of-things?r=l7mv0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy

Mornhoff is a qualified physicist and educator. (Incidentally the Greek word given in the opening paragraph is, I presume, ‘atomos’, although I don’t read Greek.)

I know this article! Nice. In it:

"Why formless? According to the current (so-called) standard model of particles and forces, certain quantum objects, such as electrons and quarks, are fundamental in the sense that they are not composed of other quantum objects. While such objects are often described as pointlike (and many physicists take this to be the literal truth), this can only mean that they lack internal structure, which is another way of saying that they lack component parts and therefore are formless."

Points have no form indeed. Their relation wrt each other does though. Quarks and leptons might be composed and thus have a very small fuzzy form. The fuzziness relates to the strange property of particles (the image of a particle moving in spacetime is a popular view) that everypossible classical path is present, each one with its own probability amplitude. Particles can even be created. In the popular view, a gauge particle, like a photon, emerges (or is absorbed) from a a particle that's electrically charged. Pairs of particles can be excited from the fluctuating vacuum fields.

The first step is to visualize a vector field: — jgill

What's the purple line in your picture above? What's the green dot? A particle? Is it a trajectory (purple) of a particle (green) in a vector field? What do the vectors represent? What creates them?

I know this article! — Thunderballs

So you must be on Ulrich’s mailing list. It was only published yesterday.

So you must be on Ulrich’s mailing list. It was only published yesterday. — Wayfarer

I know what he thinks. He is a "well-known" figurre!

He says:

"A quantum object has no way of being something in itself, independently of the experimental context in which it is observed"

Here I disagree.

The first step is to visualize a vector field: — jgill

:up: and over time ?

"A quantum object has no way of being something in itself, independently of the experimental context in which it is observed"

Here I disagree. — Thunderballs

Then you're lost