Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Fine-structure constant
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Quotes == {{blockquote| For historical reasons, {{mvar|α}} is known as the fine structure constant. Unfortunately, this name conveys a false impression. We have seen that the charge of an electron is not strictly constant but varies with distance because of quantum effects; hence {{mvar|α}} must be regarded as a variable, too. The value 1/137 is the asymptotic value of {{mvar|α}} shown in Fig. 1.5a.<ref>The asymptotic value of {{mvar|α}} ''for larger observation distances'', is intended here. Caption: Fig 1.5. Screening of the (a) electric charge and (b) the color charge in quantum field theory. Graph of Electron charge versus Distance from the bare e<sup>−</sup> charge. From: Halzen, F.; Martin, A.D. (1984). ''Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics''. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-88741-6, p. 13.</ref> | Francis Halzen and Alan Martin (1984)<ref> {{cite book |last1=Halzen |first1=F. |author-link1=Francis Halzen |last2=Martin |first2=A.D. |author-link2=Alan Martin (physicist) |year=1984 |title=Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page=13 |isbn=978-0-471-88741-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/quarksleptonsint0000halz }}</ref> }} {{blockquote| The mystery about {{mvar|α}} is actually a double mystery: The first mystery – the origin of its numerical value {{mvar|α}} ≈ 1/137 – has been recognized and discussed for decades. The second mystery – the range of its domain – is generally unrecognized. | M.H. MacGregor (2007)<ref> {{cite book |author = MacGregor, M.H. |year = 2007 |title = The Power of Alpha |page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=jdloDQAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA69 69] |publisher = [[World Scientific]] |isbn = 978-981-256-961-5 }}</ref> }} {{blockquote| When I die my first question to the Devil will be: What is the meaning of the fine structure constant?|Wolfgang Pauli <ref>{{Cite web |title=137 {{!}} The Fine Structure Constant, Physics - ArsMagine.com |url=https://arsmagine.com/others/fine-structure-constant/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=Ars Magine - Umetnost promišljanja i uobrazilje {{!}} אהיה |language=sr-rs}}</ref>|source=}}
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)