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advanced_notions:quantum_field_theory:vacuum_expectation_value

Vacuum Expectation Value

Why is it interesting?

Vacuum expectation values are important to describe the Higgs mechanism and symmetry breaking in general.

In classical field theory, we are interested in the solutions of the Yang-Mills equations and these correspond to critical points of the action.

In contrast, in quantum field theory, we use the action to compute "vacuum expectation values" of observables. A vacuum expectation value is the average measured value in the vacuum state. The thing is that many physically interesting quantities can be expressed as vacuum expectation values through various tricks.

Layman

Explanations in this section should contain no formulas, but instead colloquial things like you would hear them during a coffee break or at a cocktail party.

Student

In this section things should be explained by analogy and with pictures and, if necessary, some formulas.

Researcher

The motto in this section is: the higher the level of abstraction, the better.

Examples

Example1
Example2:

FAQ

History

advanced_notions/quantum_field_theory/vacuum_expectation_value.txt · Last modified: 2018/04/08 16:15 by jakobadmin