Feynman diagrams: black magic calculus

March ?, 2020. Stuff

Contents

  1. Introduction
    1. Energy and mass
    2. Quantum mechanics lite

1. Introduction

Quantum mechanics: real black magic calculus.

Albert Einstein, 1925

A giant particle accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is not so different from a magician’s hat. We throw in some particles, tap our wand, and produce a rabbit. But at the LHC, it is not the magician performing the magic, but rather Nature herself.

Particles go in, quantum black magic happens, and particles come out.

In this tutorial, we are going to peek inside the hat, and learn about the “black magic calculus” called Feynman diagrams which explain how Nature makes the rabbit. And once we understand the magic, we can study the rabbits to learn about the universe!

1.1. Energy and mass

1.2. Quantum mechanics lite