On Sunday, April 26, 2020 at 3:41:49 PM UTC-6, Philip Thrift wrote: > > > > On Sunday, April 26, 2020 at 4:18:14 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: >> >> >> >> On 4/26/2020 12:04 PM, John Clark wrote: >> >> On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 12:24 PM Alan Grayson <agrays...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >> *> As I understand the UP, it's a statistical statement * >> >> >> No. It says the more exactly you specify the position of a particle the >> less exactly you can specify the velocity of the particle; or stated in a >> alternativ form, the shorter the time duration the more energy a particle >> (or even empty space) can have without detecting any violation of the law >> of conservation of energy. >> >> *> The UP follows from the postulates of QM. So if one assume these >>> postulates, there is indeed a proof of the UP.* >> >> >> I repeat, this is physics not mathematics, if an experiment violates >> somebody's postulates then that's just too bad for the postulates because >> experiment and observation is the ultimate authority in science. And, given >> that it can make predictions to 12 significant digits, experiment and >> observation tells us that virtual particles exist as unequivocally as >> science can tell us anything. >> >> >> I think you are to readily reifying the mathematics. Virtual particles >> are just Feynman's invention to keep track of consistent expansions of the >> Green's function. There are other mathematical techniques for calculating >> the same number. So what it means for virtual particles to exist not >> really so unequivocal. >> >> Brent >> > > The Green's function is merely *a mathematical expression*. It has no > physical status except as a model. > > Virtual particles are at least hypothetical physical entities. Green's > function don't even have that status. > > @philipthrift >
Since they're names for terms in a perturbation expansion, and don't obey the energy relations of SR (aka "off shell"), they have no physical status, unless you can prove they can exist in violation of the principle of energy conservation. Can you do that? AG -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/92516fbf-2211-49b8-acb9-2d93a19e706b%40googlegroups.com.
