1
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:08,879
Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, you know how in science fictions are all

2
00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:13,239
Speaker 1: kinds of fields. You mean like big expansive lawns. No,

3
00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,480
Speaker 1: I mean like force fields or energy fields. Oh my god,

4
00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:21,040
Speaker 1: you know none of that is real, right? What the

5
00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:25,000
Speaker 1: force from Star Wars is not real? None of it. Absolutely,

6
00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:27,480
Speaker 1: none of that is real. Wait? Wait, what about like

7
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:31,000
Speaker 1: energy fields? Those are real? Right? Energy fields are not real.

8
00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:35,800
Speaker 1: But there's something that's even weird or even cooler that

9
00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,280
Speaker 1: is real. Wait, cooler than star wars. Cooler than star

10
00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:43,120
Speaker 1: Wars are quantum fields. And that's a thing that is

11
00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,360
Speaker 1: real and is everywhere in the universe. I don't believe it.

12
00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:48,919
Speaker 1: I think you just made it up. We physicists did,

13
00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:51,560
Speaker 1: in fact, invent quantum fields. But it turns out because

14
00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,200
Speaker 1: it accurately predicts what happens in the universe, it might

15
00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:56,520
Speaker 1: just be real. Is that like field of dream Like

16
00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,000
Speaker 1: if you think of it, people will believe it. That's right,

17
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,480
Speaker 1: quantum fields of quantum dreams. That's basically what being a

18
00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,640
Speaker 1: physicist is all about, having quantum dreams. And you're the

19
00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:27,039
Speaker 1: Kevin Costner in the situation him and I'm Daniel, and

20
00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,200
Speaker 1: welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge explain the universe.

21
00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:33,759
Speaker 1: This is Daniel and Jorge. This is the podcast you're

22
00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:39,240
Speaker 1: looking for exactly um. Yeah. On this podcast, we try

23
00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:41,520
Speaker 1: to talk to you about everything in the universe. Things

24
00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:43,520
Speaker 1: that are big, things that are small, things that are

25
00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:48,560
Speaker 1: invisible but fill the entire universe, things that are everywhere,

26
00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:52,960
Speaker 1: things you had no idea existed, but determine everything about

27
00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:55,600
Speaker 1: your existence that's right. Today on the podcast, we'll talk

28
00:01:55,640 --> 00:02:04,360
Speaker 1: about quantum fields. What are they? Where are they? Who

29
00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,600
Speaker 1: are they? What are they good for? Absolutely nothing? Say

30
00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,040
Speaker 1: it again. Is it's just a family whose last name

31
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:15,959
Speaker 1: is field, or it's a bunch of discrete playing fields

32
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,200
Speaker 1: somewhere quantum fields, you're gonna have one field, you can

33
00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:20,280
Speaker 1: have two fields. You can't have two and a half fields.

34
00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,640
Speaker 1: They're quantized, but once you enter, you don't really know

35
00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:27,079
Speaker 1: where you're going or where you are now. A quantum

36
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,680
Speaker 1: field theory is something you hear about, you might have heard.

37
00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:33,720
Speaker 1: It's part of modern physics. It's a theory that people

38
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:37,080
Speaker 1: use to do calculations. It's really awesome, it's impressive. But

39
00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:40,079
Speaker 1: what isn't What is a quantum field? What is the

40
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:42,880
Speaker 1: theory of quantum fields? What relationship does that have to

41
00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,240
Speaker 1: you or the rest of your life or anything at all. Well,

42
00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,440
Speaker 1: it's more than just a part of modern physics. It's

43
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:52,280
Speaker 1: kind of like the foundation of our theory about the universe. Right,

44
00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:55,000
Speaker 1: that's right. It's kind of like the language of physics currently.

45
00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,200
Speaker 1: You know, it's quantum field theory is to modern physics

46
00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:01,000
Speaker 1: the way like English is to Shakespeare. You know. We

47
00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,200
Speaker 1: use the tools of quantum field theory to try to

48
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 1: talk about what's going on in the universe, and it's

49
00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,919
Speaker 1: remarkably successful. It's incredibly successful. When you guys want to

50
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:12,119
Speaker 1: use pig latin, I thought that was the We only

51
00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:13,840
Speaker 1: do that when you come by, Jorge to try to

52
00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:18,080
Speaker 1: confuse you. Um. But it's like the foundation of modern physics.

53
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:22,200
Speaker 1: And it's also super duper accurate. Like you guys are

54
00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:27,040
Speaker 1: pretty sure is it the right way to describe the universe? Yeah, Well,

55
00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:29,519
Speaker 1: on one hand, it's super duper accurate. Like we can

56
00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:33,240
Speaker 1: predict the way particles interact with fields, and we can

57
00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,080
Speaker 1: make predictions out to lots of decimal places, and then

58
00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:38,480
Speaker 1: we can go out and measure how those particles interact

59
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:40,760
Speaker 1: with the fields, and it turns out those predictions are

60
00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 1: correct to like one in millions and millions. So you know,

61
00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,360
Speaker 1: you have, on one hand, like a theoretical calculation that

62
00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:50,800
Speaker 1: you've written downs is like an idea that predicts an experiment,

63
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:52,240
Speaker 1: and then you go out and you check it with

64
00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,000
Speaker 1: a super precise experiment and get the same answer, and uh,

65
00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:58,520
Speaker 1: you know it's so accurate that you think maybe this

66
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,000
Speaker 1: is the true story of the universe. It's not just

67
00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,960
Speaker 1: like human ideas. This is like revealing the source code

68
00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,640
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So you're pretty close to saying quantum

69
00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:12,400
Speaker 1: fields are true. They're they're like the truth of the universe. Yes,

70
00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,320
Speaker 1: that's except that we also know they can't be the

71
00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:20,080
Speaker 1: final answer. Oh yeah, well well we'll get into it.

72
00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:22,760
Speaker 1: But I will admit I don't have a clear idea

73
00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,480
Speaker 1: of what a quantum field is um and we were

74
00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,400
Speaker 1: wondering how many of you out there had some ideas

75
00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:30,640
Speaker 1: about what it would be. So, as usual, I walked

76
00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:32,320
Speaker 1: around the u C Irvine campus and I asked a

77
00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,880
Speaker 1: bunch of very friendly, very accommentating, very willing to answer

78
00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:39,480
Speaker 1: random questions you see, Irvine undergrads, and I asked them

79
00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:43,479
Speaker 1: what is quantum field theory? Here's what people had to say.

80
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:45,560
Speaker 1: I have no idea, but I have heard of before.

81
00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:52,719
Speaker 1: All right, Um, it's probably really to quantum mechanics UM.

82
00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:56,920
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I think

83
00:04:56,960 --> 00:05:00,440
Speaker 1: it describes the different factor of fields that you use

84
00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:06,680
Speaker 1: in quantum mechanics. UM. Maybe the way cell atomic particles

85
00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:12,560
Speaker 1: instracted with one another cool um, similar to quantum mechanics chemistry.

86
00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:14,800
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but I've heard of it.

87
00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,679
Speaker 1: It's something to do with general relativity. Is it trying

88
00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:22,000
Speaker 1: to marry that together with quantum theory? Are the waves

89
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:29,040
Speaker 1: involved and residents of particles? Something like that? Maybe? All right,

90
00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:32,440
Speaker 1: some pretty pretty good answers. I feel like, though the

91
00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:36,520
Speaker 1: word quantum just give it away, you know, asked what

92
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:38,880
Speaker 1: is the quantum Google book, you can just say, oh,

93
00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,160
Speaker 1: I think it's related to quantum particles, right, and you

94
00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:43,279
Speaker 1: would be sort of right, yeah, but that's not really

95
00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:47,719
Speaker 1: an answer, right, you know. Um? And and we know

96
00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:49,640
Speaker 1: one of those answers is actually not from a UC

97
00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:53,000
Speaker 1: Irvine undergraduate. That's from a fellow who wrote in and

98
00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:56,320
Speaker 1: said that he was disappointed with the quality of the

99
00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,719
Speaker 1: answers that the undergrads were giving. He thought he could

100
00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:03,040
Speaker 1: do better. So I said, all right, here's the next

101
00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,039
Speaker 1: question from the next podcast. Don't do any research and

102
00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:09,440
Speaker 1: record your answer. And he wrote back a very humbled

103
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,480
Speaker 1: email and he said, Okay, you're right. It's harder than

104
00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,159
Speaker 1: I thought it was, but he was still willing to

105
00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:16,040
Speaker 1: do it, so I thought that was totally awesome. So

106
00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:18,880
Speaker 1: he sent us. He sent us his description of quantum

107
00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,640
Speaker 1: field theory. Do you think that we think in society

108
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:23,719
Speaker 1: today we think for smarter than we are because we

109
00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,200
Speaker 1: have Google at our fingertips. You know, I feel like

110
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:29,160
Speaker 1: you know everything because we kind of do. If we

111
00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:30,960
Speaker 1: just give us a second to tap it on our phones,

112
00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,680
Speaker 1: it's easier to access information. But sometimes that makes me

113
00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:36,160
Speaker 1: feel less smart because I feel like I have less

114
00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:39,000
Speaker 1: information actually in my head and I'm relying more and

115
00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 1: more on these facilities that are outside my brain. You

116
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,919
Speaker 1: know this, Even though the cognitive connection between me and

117
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:47,440
Speaker 1: Google keeps increasing, I don't feel like that makes me smarter.

118
00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:51,960
Speaker 1: It just makes me plus Google smarter. What what about

119
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,320
Speaker 1: the day that you get you connect your phone through

120
00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,760
Speaker 1: your brain or something, then you're sort of technically as

121
00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:02,120
Speaker 1: smart as Google. The day that I become Google. That's

122
00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:05,640
Speaker 1: the singularity, the Google's singularity. Yeah, we all connect our brains,

123
00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:08,520
Speaker 1: we all become one mega consciousness. The Google were smoking

124
00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:10,880
Speaker 1: over there today, Jorge, I want some pass that over.

125
00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,880
Speaker 1: It's the googlarity, the Google larity. I look forward to that.

126
00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:20,000
Speaker 1: But well, we know they're related to quantum theory, quantum

127
00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,440
Speaker 1: field um. So let's let's let's break it down. First

128
00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:26,480
Speaker 1: of all, what is a field to a physicist? Right? So,

129
00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,760
Speaker 1: a field is just it's like a fluid that feels

130
00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,960
Speaker 1: all of space. It's like it's something that's everywhere and

131
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,320
Speaker 1: everywhere in space. You have a number, right, And it

132
00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:39,920
Speaker 1: comes from things like the electromagnetic field. People were puzzling

133
00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:42,600
Speaker 1: a hundred years or so ago, like how do to

134
00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:46,040
Speaker 1: magnets push each other apart without touching? Right? There was

135
00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,600
Speaker 1: this action at a distance mystery like that's sort of spooky,

136
00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:52,920
Speaker 1: like a yeah, right are they? How are they actually

137
00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,280
Speaker 1: pushing each other apart? You know? And this really puzzled

138
00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:56,960
Speaker 1: physicists for a while, and they came up with this

139
00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,720
Speaker 1: idea of a field, the idea that each magnet has

140
00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,160
Speaker 1: a magnetic field. It's this invisible thing that surrounds it,

141
00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:06,120
Speaker 1: which will push on any other magnet that enters that

142
00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,840
Speaker 1: magnetic field. Right, and the magnetic field is strongest near

143
00:08:09,880 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: the source of the magnet and then it drops off

144
00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:14,120
Speaker 1: just as you would expect because the magnet super far

145
00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:17,240
Speaker 1: away won't feel anything. And just came because they noticed

146
00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:21,600
Speaker 1: that how one magnet pulls or pushes on another sort

147
00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:25,160
Speaker 1: of depends on where you put them relative to each other, right,

148
00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:27,400
Speaker 1: Like where you put it around the other other one,

149
00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:29,840
Speaker 1: that's right. And so they came up they said, well, wait,

150
00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:34,040
Speaker 1: maybe every magnet generates in space this invisible thing. We'll

151
00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,680
Speaker 1: call it a magnetic field, and that's the thing that

152
00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:40,120
Speaker 1: does the pushing. And sort of a mystery that came

153
00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,160
Speaker 1: up immediately was like is the field a real thing?

154
00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,160
Speaker 1: Is it actually they're a physical thing that's that exists

155
00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:49,040
Speaker 1: in the universe, Like does it have substance and can

156
00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:51,560
Speaker 1: you play baseball on it? Or is it just a

157
00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:53,880
Speaker 1: way that we calculate things, you know, just like a

158
00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:58,120
Speaker 1: tool in our minds to help us understand things, Like

159
00:08:58,280 --> 00:08:59,840
Speaker 1: is it a thing like you said, it could be

160
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,960
Speaker 1: like a fluid, or it could just be like a

161
00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,640
Speaker 1: mathematical construct exactly exactly. And that's the questions people are

162
00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:10,760
Speaker 1: still grappling with, right. One philosophical problem was how can

163
00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:12,800
Speaker 1: things that are not touching push and pull on each other?

164
00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:15,200
Speaker 1: And they answer that with okay, we just invent fields

165
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:17,520
Speaker 1: all right? Now the question is our fields a real

166
00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:19,920
Speaker 1: thing or are they something else? You know, that's the

167
00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,280
Speaker 1: joy of philosophies that every time you answer a question,

168
00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:25,000
Speaker 1: it just creates another question which is just as deep.

169
00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:28,080
Speaker 1: But what do you mean by a field is like

170
00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,920
Speaker 1: a number? Because the way I learned about it in

171
00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:34,960
Speaker 1: engineering is that a field is basically something that gives

172
00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,760
Speaker 1: you a number depending on where you stand or where

173
00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:40,480
Speaker 1: you are in space. That's right, Every point in space

174
00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:43,800
Speaker 1: has a number associated with it with each field. So

175
00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,559
Speaker 1: for example, the magnetic field from a magnet, there's a

176
00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,440
Speaker 1: strength of that field. There's a field strength and every location.

177
00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:51,480
Speaker 1: So as you're saying, you can ask what is the

178
00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:53,599
Speaker 1: field strength here right next to the magnet and you

179
00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:56,480
Speaker 1: get a number. What is the field strength way over there,

180
00:09:56,559 --> 00:09:58,720
Speaker 1: far away from the magnet, and you get a smaller number.

181
00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:01,800
Speaker 1: So the magnetic fiel field has a number at every

182
00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:03,640
Speaker 1: point in space. And you can have different kinds of

183
00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:05,559
Speaker 1: fields you can feel that just have a number. Those

184
00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:07,640
Speaker 1: are called scale or fields. That's just a fancy way

185
00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:10,600
Speaker 1: of saying a number, or you can have vector fields.

186
00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:12,360
Speaker 1: You can have a field where at every point you

187
00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:15,400
Speaker 1: have an arrow that points in a certain direction. It's

188
00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:17,360
Speaker 1: like kind of like, are you saying it's a field

189
00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,600
Speaker 1: that's kind of like a map, like it tells you

190
00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:22,440
Speaker 1: what is it every position in space? Yeah? Or a

191
00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:27,000
Speaker 1: map is kind of like a field actually, um, yeah, exactly.

192
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:28,440
Speaker 1: So you can think of for like a map is

193
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:31,120
Speaker 1: how much magnetic field is there here? How much magnetic

194
00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,160
Speaker 1: field is there there? And you know everywhere in space

195
00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:37,400
Speaker 1: there is magnetic field and easither you're strong or it's weak. Right,

196
00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:39,840
Speaker 1: it can be if you're talking about like ordinary classical

197
00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:41,920
Speaker 1: fields like from a hundred and fifty years ago, then

198
00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:44,720
Speaker 1: they can be zero. Right, No magnets means there's a

199
00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,120
Speaker 1: field there, but the field value is zero. So the

200
00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:51,200
Speaker 1: question is is a field just like a map that

201
00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:53,440
Speaker 1: we hold in our hands it tells these things? Or

202
00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:56,760
Speaker 1: are we actually living on a map? Right? Like is

203
00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:59,719
Speaker 1: a field a real thing of substance? Yeah? And the

204
00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:02,240
Speaker 1: answer that question is we have no idea. And it's

205
00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:05,280
Speaker 1: sort of a philosophical question more than a scientific one. Right.

206
00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:09,480
Speaker 1: If you have a calculational tool a field that lets

207
00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:12,360
Speaker 1: you predict the outcome of experiments and that works really

208
00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:16,000
Speaker 1: really well. Doesn't matter if it's really physically true the

209
00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:19,440
Speaker 1: thing that's happening, um or just or just a the

210
00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:23,800
Speaker 1: way do you do these calculations? What's the difference? Right? Um?

211
00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,280
Speaker 1: You know, if we weren't here with those fields exist, right, well,

212
00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:29,199
Speaker 1: that's not really a question you can answer because if

213
00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:31,439
Speaker 1: we weren't here, there'd be nobody to answer the question

214
00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:35,400
Speaker 1: or do the experiment, right. So they're really tricky little

215
00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:39,319
Speaker 1: philosophical puzzles. And that's a whole area of philosophical exploration

216
00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:42,720
Speaker 1: that I'm totally not qualified to talk about, but I

217
00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:46,719
Speaker 1: often do anyway that do. That's the basis of our

218
00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:49,520
Speaker 1: entire podcast. That's the field of our podcast. Now, you know,

219
00:11:49,559 --> 00:11:54,800
Speaker 1: there's a huge conflict between philosophers of science and physicists

220
00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:59,079
Speaker 1: who think there's philosophers of science and spout off glibly

221
00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:03,520
Speaker 1: sometimes um an uninformed way in front of mass audiences

222
00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:06,600
Speaker 1: and then get taken down by actual philosophers of science.

223
00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,640
Speaker 1: So that's a common mistake to make, which is why

224
00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:12,680
Speaker 1: I wanted to put that qualifier out there. In the

225
00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:18,800
Speaker 1: world economic war kind of between the pilosophers and physicists

226
00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:23,079
Speaker 1: who venture into philosophy. Yes, exactly, exactly right. And there

227
00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:25,440
Speaker 1: are some physicists who really have learned about philosophy and

228
00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:27,320
Speaker 1: can speak knowledgeably about it. And then there are others

229
00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:29,520
Speaker 1: who think they can speak knowledge of me about it

230
00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,880
Speaker 1: but don't actually know anything. It sounds like an exciting fight,

231
00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:40,720
Speaker 1: ironically speaking. All right, so, um, so that's a field.

232
00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:41,920
Speaker 1: That's kind of what it is. It's kind of like

233
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:46,040
Speaker 1: a map of space that tells you something. Um, And

234
00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:49,320
Speaker 1: then you can have particles in these fields, right, Like

235
00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:51,920
Speaker 1: a particle is part of the field, or something can

236
00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:53,920
Speaker 1: be on the field. Yes. One of the most interesting

237
00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,240
Speaker 1: thing about field theories or theories of fields is it

238
00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:59,679
Speaker 1: tells you that particles are not the most basic thing

239
00:12:59,679 --> 00:13:03,000
Speaker 1: in the universe. The particles are, in fact, just vibrations

240
00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,960
Speaker 1: of the field. Like particles are a real thing. Right,

241
00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:08,560
Speaker 1: We feel them, we see them, we are them. But

242
00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:10,840
Speaker 1: this tells us what they where they come from? Right

243
00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:12,560
Speaker 1: the rules. It tells us that if you want to

244
00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:16,360
Speaker 1: understand how particles move, you really have to understand these fields,

245
00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,560
Speaker 1: because the particles are just vibrations in those fields, but

246
00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:25,360
Speaker 1: vibrations of what of the fields? Right, Like the fields

247
00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,480
Speaker 1: are you know, a thing and they vibrate, which means

248
00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:33,040
Speaker 1: they have energy, right, and localized excitations of these fields. Right.

249
00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:36,120
Speaker 1: Imagine for example, a big rubber sheet that fills the

250
00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:40,160
Speaker 1: universe right, totally flat, but you could um poke it

251
00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:43,160
Speaker 1: and send a wave through it, right, and that wave

252
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,560
Speaker 1: can travel. It's energy that's traveling by oscillating this field.

253
00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:50,079
Speaker 1: And that's what particles are. There are oscillations in fields.

254
00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:53,080
Speaker 1: But if I poke a sheet, it'll sort of dissipate,

255
00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:56,960
Speaker 1: It'll go outwards and dissipate. A particle kind of likes

256
00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:58,840
Speaker 1: to stay in one place. Well, I don't know what

257
00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:01,680
Speaker 1: particles like. You've done any interviews with particles, and you

258
00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:07,680
Speaker 1: can um, there's lots of waste of vibrated sheet, right,

259
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:10,000
Speaker 1: you can vibrted sheet, so you get a localized packet

260
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,520
Speaker 1: that's traveling. Right. It's easier to think about, for example,

261
00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:14,680
Speaker 1: in one dimension, like instead of a sheet, think of

262
00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:16,920
Speaker 1: a rope. Like if I'm holding a rope and you're

263
00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:18,960
Speaker 1: holding a rope, I can wiggle it to send you

264
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:21,240
Speaker 1: like a little wiggle along the rope, so you can

265
00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,200
Speaker 1: get a message. Right, And you're saying a particle is

266
00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:27,960
Speaker 1: one of these wiggles. A particle is a localized excitation

267
00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:31,280
Speaker 1: of the quantum field exactly. And the crazy thing is

268
00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:35,280
Speaker 1: every particle has its own field. So like in the universe,

269
00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:39,240
Speaker 1: everywhere there's an electron field, and everywhere there's an electron

270
00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,640
Speaker 1: that's the electron field wiggling, wiggling, And there's also a

271
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,240
Speaker 1: um cork field, right, an upcork field. Everywhere there's an

272
00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:49,760
Speaker 1: upcork The upcork field is wiggling. Like a particle is

273
00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:52,520
Speaker 1: something that's causing the field to vibrate or it's like

274
00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:55,080
Speaker 1: it is the vibration of the field. It is the

275
00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:59,720
Speaker 1: vibration exactly, That's what it is. Yeah, And so that's

276
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:01,800
Speaker 1: what we're all made out of. Like you and I

277
00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:04,440
Speaker 1: are made out of protons and quirks and electrons, and

278
00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:08,360
Speaker 1: so we're all just like massive collections of little vibrations.

279
00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:11,840
Speaker 1: That's right. It's all actually vibrations. Man, those dudes, that's

280
00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:17,560
Speaker 1: not a vibrations were everything they were right in exactly.

281
00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:19,200
Speaker 1: And so for if you like to think of yourself

282
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,280
Speaker 1: as made of particles, and you wonder like, well, what

283
00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:23,440
Speaker 1: are the particles made out of? Right, I mean, they

284
00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:25,200
Speaker 1: might be made out of smaller and smaller particles. But

285
00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:26,960
Speaker 1: at some point you get down to the smallest particle

286
00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:29,480
Speaker 1: and what's that particle made out of? And you think, oh,

287
00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:32,360
Speaker 1: universe stuff. Well, it turns out the universe stuff might

288
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:35,360
Speaker 1: be quantum fields, right, that it's the quantum fields that

289
00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,120
Speaker 1: are oscillating that make a particle. Okay, So that's a

290
00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:41,160
Speaker 1: definition of a quantum field. It's it's the stuff of

291
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,160
Speaker 1: the universe. We're done. Yeah, So a field is just

292
00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,360
Speaker 1: like a fluid field space. It could doesn't have to

293
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,840
Speaker 1: become quantum. It could be like electromagnetic or in any

294
00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,720
Speaker 1: kind of field. But a quantum field is a field

295
00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:55,400
Speaker 1: that describes the motion of a quantum object, like a particle.

296
00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:58,080
Speaker 1: And so since we're dealing with particles and they move

297
00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:01,440
Speaker 1: really fast and they have quantum entical properties, we deal

298
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:06,280
Speaker 1: with quantum fields. Okay, So a quantum field is what

299
00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:09,080
Speaker 1: describes the things that we're made out of, right, because

300
00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:12,080
Speaker 1: we're all made out of quantum particles, that's right, And

301
00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:14,680
Speaker 1: every particle that makes us up is actually just a

302
00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:17,480
Speaker 1: vibration of one of those fields, you know. And it's

303
00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:19,560
Speaker 1: a really different way to look at the universe. Like

304
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,440
Speaker 1: when physicists started and they were thinking about quantum mechanics.

305
00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:24,960
Speaker 1: They were thinking about, like what happens to a particle?

306
00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:28,720
Speaker 1: You know what, what is this electron story? It starts

307
00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:30,600
Speaker 1: off over here and then it goes off over there.

308
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:32,720
Speaker 1: And that's the way we're used to do in physics, right,

309
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,080
Speaker 1: Like you think about a ball, what happens to this

310
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:37,440
Speaker 1: ball as it rolls down the hill. It's very natural

311
00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:40,040
Speaker 1: to sort of follow the story of the ball. So

312
00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:41,680
Speaker 1: we tried to do that with us, follow the story.

313
00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:45,360
Speaker 1: The electron problem is quantum particles don't behave like that,

314
00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:47,440
Speaker 1: Like they don't have a path, right, It's not like

315
00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:50,040
Speaker 1: you're here and then you're here and then you're here.

316
00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,240
Speaker 1: Is all this uncertainty, But more than that, they're being

317
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:56,760
Speaker 1: destroyed and created all the time. Like an electron doesn't

318
00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:59,480
Speaker 1: just fly through space. It flies through space, it turns

319
00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:01,520
Speaker 1: into aton and something else, then it turns back into

320
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:03,560
Speaker 1: an electron, and then it creates this other thing which

321
00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:05,520
Speaker 1: exists for a bill of second and then comes back.

322
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,760
Speaker 1: This is like frothing mass of stuff that's happening. And

323
00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:12,399
Speaker 1: the quantum mechanics we first developed couldn't describe that at

324
00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:14,800
Speaker 1: all because it was very difficult to describe the creation

325
00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:18,280
Speaker 1: or destruction of particles. So you sort of like reboot

326
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,679
Speaker 1: your thinking completely and say, let's ignore the story of

327
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:25,000
Speaker 1: one particle and just think about like the particles in general. Right,

328
00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:28,040
Speaker 1: let's think about all the particles. It's just like vibrations

329
00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:30,119
Speaker 1: of this sheet that fills the universe. And then we

330
00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:32,080
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about the story of particle A

331
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:35,639
Speaker 1: and the story of particle B. Because, um, you're saying

332
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:38,720
Speaker 1: an electron. If you think of it as a thing,

333
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:42,200
Speaker 1: and that thing disappears and turns into something else, then

334
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:44,679
Speaker 1: you're left wondering what happened to that thing? Yeah, Like

335
00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:47,680
Speaker 1: Kevin the electron, what is his story? He disappeared and

336
00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:50,320
Speaker 1: he came back. Is it's still Kevin? Right, Like in

337
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,080
Speaker 1: the quantum field theory version, Like all the electrons are

338
00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:55,440
Speaker 1: Kevin because all the electrons are the same, right, Every

339
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:58,760
Speaker 1: electron is identical. Right, there's no difference between this electron

340
00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:02,040
Speaker 1: and that electron. Where all Kevin, we're all made out

341
00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:04,440
Speaker 1: of Kevin. Turns out that's the answer to the life,

342
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:07,600
Speaker 1: the universe and everything. Kevin. There's like twelve Kevin's listening

343
00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:10,919
Speaker 1: to this, going, I knew it. I hope we have

344
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,360
Speaker 1: more than twelve Kevin's listening to this. Well, let's get

345
00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:16,560
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper into it. But first let's take

346
00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:31,520
Speaker 1: a quick break. Okay, so you're saying that the universe

347
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:36,440
Speaker 1: is not empty. It's like it's filled with these quantum

348
00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,040
Speaker 1: fields that just kind of permeate everything. And they might

349
00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,680
Speaker 1: be imaginary or they might be real things, but they

350
00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:47,080
Speaker 1: premiate the entire universe. And we, like particles us matter,

351
00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:50,760
Speaker 1: are just kind of like um little vibrations in these fields,

352
00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:53,879
Speaker 1: that's right. And they lay on top of each other, right,

353
00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:57,119
Speaker 1: Every point in space can have an electron field and

354
00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,359
Speaker 1: an upcork field, and a down cork field, and a

355
00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:02,680
Speaker 1: Higgs boson on field and electromagnetic field. We have lots

356
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:05,120
Speaker 1: of different kinds of fields, and you know, it might

357
00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:07,240
Speaker 1: turn out eventually that we figure out how they're all

358
00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:09,280
Speaker 1: really just part of one big field. But right now,

359
00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:11,400
Speaker 1: we have lots of different kinds of fields that all

360
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:13,240
Speaker 1: sort of lay on top of each other. They're all

361
00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:15,120
Speaker 1: the same size, or all the size of the universe.

362
00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:18,280
Speaker 1: Every piece of space has all these fields, and some

363
00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:20,240
Speaker 1: of them are zero ish, you know, they're low, and

364
00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:22,160
Speaker 1: some of them have energy in them, which is why

365
00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:24,520
Speaker 1: you have the electron here. So if you have like

366
00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:27,359
Speaker 1: an electron on your left, that means the electron field

367
00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:29,199
Speaker 1: is excited there. And if you have an upcork on

368
00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:31,760
Speaker 1: your right, it means the upcork field is excited there

369
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:34,399
Speaker 1: and the electron field is not. Right. But and they

370
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:36,920
Speaker 1: can sort of talk to each other, right, Like an electron,

371
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,359
Speaker 1: you could have a little vibration in the electron field

372
00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:43,000
Speaker 1: and then suddenly that disappears and it gets transferred to

373
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:46,320
Speaker 1: a different field and becomes a different particle exactly. And

374
00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:49,440
Speaker 1: those are the forces. So quantum field theory can describe matter.

375
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,520
Speaker 1: That's what we've been talking about. They could also describe

376
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,600
Speaker 1: the forces like the electromagnetic field is a way for

377
00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,679
Speaker 1: charge particle fields to interact with each other. Right, you

378
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,880
Speaker 1: have one electron over here, another electron over there. How

379
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:02,639
Speaker 1: do they talk to each other? Well, turns out the

380
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:06,480
Speaker 1: electron field and the photon field interact, and so one

381
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,359
Speaker 1: electron can talk to another electron by shooting a ripple

382
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:12,080
Speaker 1: through the photon field, which is like sending a photon

383
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:16,359
Speaker 1: between one electron and the other through another field. Yes, exactly,

384
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,040
Speaker 1: the fields coupled to each other, they interact otherwise would

385
00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,679
Speaker 1: be pretty boring universe, and in these fields fill the

386
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,880
Speaker 1: entire universe. So are they related to space, like if

387
00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:29,680
Speaker 1: if space grows, these fields grow as well. Yes, exactly,

388
00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:31,879
Speaker 1: it's a basic part of space, right, you can't have

389
00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:34,480
Speaker 1: space without these fields. As far as we know. There's

390
00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:37,240
Speaker 1: no fieldless part of space, and every part of space

391
00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:40,680
Speaker 1: has these fields. It's like there's a hum at every

392
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:42,720
Speaker 1: point in the universe. There's no quiet place in the

393
00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:44,960
Speaker 1: universe exactly. And you might be thinking, well, what if

394
00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:46,720
Speaker 1: you have an empty space, maybe all the fields are

395
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:50,439
Speaker 1: just zero. Right, Well, that's the fascinating thing about quantum fields,

396
00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:54,280
Speaker 1: right because uncertainty principle, because there's a maximum amount of

397
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,000
Speaker 1: information you can have. You can't have quantum field to

398
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,960
Speaker 1: be exactly at zero. There's a minimum amount of inner

399
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:02,719
Speaker 1: g they have to have, so they can bubble and

400
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,920
Speaker 1: slosh in a way that gives you that uncertainty. Wait wait, wait, um,

401
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:09,320
Speaker 1: there's there's kind of like an inherent energy in these

402
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:12,600
Speaker 1: quantum fields. That's right, Like they're positive. I guess they're

403
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:16,440
Speaker 1: they're not zero exactly. You can't have quantum fields exactly

404
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:20,080
Speaker 1: at zero, and so there's always some energy there and

405
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,879
Speaker 1: this is the energy of empty space, right, and that

406
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,879
Speaker 1: energy means you have energy and you can create an

407
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: electron and depositron which then annihilate themselves back into a

408
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 1: photon or back into something else. So this energy is

409
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:35,280
Speaker 1: always bubbling and frothing. And I feel like this kind

410
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:39,600
Speaker 1: of makes it kind of makes anything possible. Right like before,

411
00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:41,639
Speaker 1: when you when you were is there something specific you

412
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:43,920
Speaker 1: want to do? Accomplish with the punting field, you wanted

413
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:45,800
Speaker 1: to do your dishes, get away with something I wanted

414
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:47,640
Speaker 1: to get away with, or or imagine that I can

415
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:52,000
Speaker 1: do you No, What I mean is in the sense

416
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:54,600
Speaker 1: that before, if you were keeping track of all particles,

417
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: like if I was made out of the Kevin particles,

418
00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 1: then there's sort of no way for me to suddenly

419
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,919
Speaker 1: disappear and a you're over there. But now, because everything

420
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:08,399
Speaker 1: is a quantum field, I could choose magically for some reason. Rights,

421
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,679
Speaker 1: It's not like because we have quantum fields, there are

422
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,959
Speaker 1: no rules, right, There are specific rules for how quantum

423
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,440
Speaker 1: fields interact with each other and and how things propagate

424
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,440
Speaker 1: through quantum fields, and you know, so we still have

425
00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:22,440
Speaker 1: laws of physics. It's not like we're tossing the laws

426
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,000
Speaker 1: out the window and you do whatever you like. The

427
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:27,439
Speaker 1: parents are out of town, right um, there's it's just

428
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:29,480
Speaker 1: another way of looking at the universe. Okay, all right,

429
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 1: I guess what I mean is, you know stuff can

430
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,400
Speaker 1: appear out of nowhere with these quantum fields. Yes, okay,

431
00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:36,960
Speaker 1: it's certainly true that a lot of your intuition is wrong,

432
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 1: and the quantum fields tell us that crazy things could happen,

433
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 1: And then we do the experiments and it's right, right,

434
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:49,720
Speaker 1: quantum quantum field theory seems to be correct. It's a

435
00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:51,920
Speaker 1: pretty interesting view of the universe. You know, we think

436
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,480
Speaker 1: of it as big and empty, but really there's sort

437
00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,720
Speaker 1: of like a like a little froth in the background

438
00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,639
Speaker 1: where a little like simmering bubbling. Yeah, exactly, there's no

439
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,200
Speaker 1: place that's actually empty. Either's energy everywhere, and it's it's

440
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 1: filled with possibilities literally, and it's a it's a fascinating

441
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:08,800
Speaker 1: way to look at the universe, and it's led to

442
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,800
Speaker 1: a lot of insights. I mean, just like this mathematical

443
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,720
Speaker 1: way of thinking about things has revealed things about the

444
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,240
Speaker 1: universe we didn't know. For example, like what like the

445
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,560
Speaker 1: Higgs boson. The Higgs boson was just an idea. Right

446
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 1: fifty years ago, Peter Higgs and several others said, huh,

447
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: what if there was another field? We'll call it the

448
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 1: Higgs field conveniently, And you know, where did you get

449
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: this idea? Where did this idea come from? Right? Who

450
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,919
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to postulate a field that fills the universe?

451
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 1: And it is named after themselves? Right? Do you think

452
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:41,920
Speaker 1: he named it after himself or people named it after him? Oh,

453
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:45,359
Speaker 1: there's a whole controversy there about who named the Higgs fields,

454
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:48,679
Speaker 1: And it comes down to um who submitted a paper first,

455
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 1: and whether a paper is dated based on the submission

456
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 1: date or the acceptance dage. You know, I mean like,

457
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: did Higgs write in his paper I'm going to call

458
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,639
Speaker 1: this the Higgs field or did you say it's the

459
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,360
Speaker 1: age or b? And then that somebody said, oh, that's

460
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,719
Speaker 1: the field Higgs was talking about. Yes, somebody later referred

461
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,920
Speaker 1: to it as the Higgs field because Higgs paper has

462
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 1: the earliest date on it. But he actually submitted his

463
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,880
Speaker 1: paper after some other folks. Their paper had a later

464
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 1: date on it because the paper had the acceptance date

465
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: on it, not the submission date. So somebody later gave

466
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 1: Higgs credit, maybe inappropriately. Okay, so you're saying that these

467
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 1: fields are not just kind of need to think about,

468
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 1: but they've actually led to real discoveries and real understanding

469
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: of the universe. Yeah. It was a guy named Steve

470
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: Weinberg who read Higgs paper. He was looking at these

471
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,040
Speaker 1: fields and he was thinking, thinking, there's a mystery here,

472
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,000
Speaker 1: there's a pattern here that doesn't quite work, and that

473
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:44,920
Speaker 1: comes from trying to unify the fields. We've talked on

474
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:49,440
Speaker 1: other podcasts about how the electromagnetic field and the weak

475
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 1: nuclear field, Right, those two forces are actually parts of

476
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 1: the same thing, and they're very similar. But the difference

477
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 1: is that the photon, the thing that moves the electromagnetic field,

478
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:03,160
Speaker 1: has no mass, right, It's it's massless. And the thing

479
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,200
Speaker 1: that moves the weak nuclear force are the w n

480
00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:09,680
Speaker 1: z bosons. They're really heavy. So Weinberg was like, if

481
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 1: these are two parts of the same thing, how come

482
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:13,879
Speaker 1: one has no mass and the other one has a

483
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: huge amount of mass? Right? What could do that mathematically?

484
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: Like theoretically, how could you make that happen? And the

485
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 1: what he found was the simplest way to do that,

486
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:27,879
Speaker 1: the easiest, the clearest, like the without adding the minimal

487
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,639
Speaker 1: number of moving pieces was to add one more field.

488
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:34,159
Speaker 1: And so he read that paper by Higgs and he thought, Aha,

489
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,960
Speaker 1: that is just the field we need. So he said,

490
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,679
Speaker 1: if you add this field, and it explains this mystery

491
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 1: why photons have no mass and why the w z

492
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 1: have a lot of mass, But it, you know, creates

493
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,440
Speaker 1: another field that feels the universe. So let's go see

494
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 1: if that's real. And but what's interesting is that there

495
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 1: were other people positing other fields, right, Like, he wasn't

496
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: the only one. He wasn't the only one. Other people

497
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: had similar ideas, and then there are other totally competing ideas,

498
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: you know, for ways to solve that mystery with other

499
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 1: different fields. Yeah, exactly. So like I could say, hey,

500
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:08,920
Speaker 1: there's a horhe field that permius everything. Yeah, you could,

501
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:13,639
Speaker 1: and I would be a physicist. Boom, you're a physicist

502
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: right here today on the podcast and deputize you. Yeah. Alright,

503
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 1: So if you wanted to propose a field, they would

504
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 1: have to solve a problem, right, like why this field

505
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: and not some other fields? And you'd have to provide

506
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: a way for us to check, like what in what

507
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 1: experiment could we see the Jorge particle, right, which is

508
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: an excitation of the Jorge field, right, and the same

509
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 1: as the Higgs boson is an excited state of the

510
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 1: Higgs field. Right. You have to provide some way for

511
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 1: us to do that, and Peter Higgs did. He's like, oh, well,

512
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: if you smash protons together this energy, you should see

513
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: a certain number of Higgs particles. All right, So, um,

514
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:50,159
Speaker 1: i'll table that for my next career after we have

515
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 1: a podcast host in a world where cartoonists try to

516
00:26:54,040 --> 00:27:12,119
Speaker 1: be physicists. Before we keep going, let's take a short break. Um, okay.

517
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's like it's like, really the basic

518
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: theory of everything, you know, matter, light, forces, energy, any

519
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:25,120
Speaker 1: kind of everything out there, we describe it using quantum fields.

520
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: Almost everything is there? Yeah? Is there something we don't

521
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,880
Speaker 1: describe with quantum fields? Yeah, And it's always the same thing.

522
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:35,199
Speaker 1: It's the black sheep of physics. It's gravity. It's quantum

523
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: field theory describes matter, it describes electromagnetism, it describes the

524
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:43,119
Speaker 1: weak nuclear force, it describes the strong nuclear force. It

525
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: even can incorporate special relativity, meaning we understand what happens

526
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:49,680
Speaker 1: when electrons go super duper fast close to the speed

527
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: of light. Right, But quantum field theory is easiest when

528
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: space is flat. I mean, we can do quantum field

529
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:00,680
Speaker 1: theory and curved spaces, but it gets really nasty in space.

530
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 1: Getting curved is exactly what general relativity says will happen.

531
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 1: So what quantum field you're saying, don't work in space

532
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: that is not flat, like, it only works in flat space.

533
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: Not exactly. We can do it, but it's not easy.

534
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 1: It's not a lot of fun. Why not? Why not? Um,

535
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 1: it's a no, it's a great question. It's a great question.

536
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,199
Speaker 1: So the issue is more about figuring out how to

537
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,640
Speaker 1: get quantum field theory, to explain that curvature, to generate

538
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: that curvature, to get a quantum field theory description of

539
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:36,520
Speaker 1: how space gets curved. Like, I like your space curves

540
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 1: or contracts. What does that do to the quantum field?

541
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: Doesn't it just squishes it or bends it? Oh? Yeah,

542
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 1: you're right, it just squishes it. Thanks. We just solve

543
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: that problem, all right, Um, check that off the list

544
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: of modern physics mysteries. Nobel Prize please, Yeah, the squish function.

545
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 1: We'll decide this function. Um. I think also the larger

546
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 1: problem is that we don't know how to describe gravity

547
00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 1: in terms of a quantum field. Right, electromagna autism and

548
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 1: all these other forces we can describe as oscillations in

549
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: the field. Right, and that fields associated with its own particle.

550
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: The photon is is the particles is associated with the

551
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: field for electromagnetism, the gluon is the particle associated with

552
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: the field. For the strong nuclear force. We have never

553
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: been able to describe gravity in terms of a quantum field,

554
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: like a gravitational field field space and has a particle

555
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 1: associated with the graviton. We try to do that. We

556
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 1: try to do those theories and write them down, but

557
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:31,840
Speaker 1: you get crazy answers, you get infinities where you should

558
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: get reasonable numbers, and just doesn't work on and so

559
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: even if you came up with the gravity quantum field

560
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 1: and the graviton, it's still you're saying by itself, it's

561
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: not consistent even in flat space. That's right, it's um.

562
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: We can't make those theories work. I mean, people have tried,

563
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: and people are trying, and they're writing down theories of

564
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: quantum um gravity, but those theories don't make testable predictions

565
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 1: that make sense. You know, They predict infinities. You know,

566
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 1: what is the force between these two particles? Infinity? How

567
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 1: much mass does this thing have? Infinite? So it makes

568
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: predictions which your nonsense, and we haven't been able to

569
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: fix them mathematically. What if it does have infinite masks?

570
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 1: No wonder, I feel so sluggish today, I have infinite masks.

571
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: Um alright, So quantum fields they PerMIATE everything. They describe

572
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 1: everything that we know about almost except gravity, except gravity,

573
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: and and and they're amazingly accurate, like you're you're telling

574
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: me earlier. They can predict things up to like ten

575
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 1: decimal places. Yes, exactly, it's super accurate. Like if you

576
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 1: exclude gravity, we can do these experiments and we can

577
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 1: check them and we get bang on the right answer

578
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: to as far as we can measure. You know, it's

579
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 1: a kind of thing that makes me wonder if we

580
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 1: really have pulled back the curtain of nature and seeing

581
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 1: the way the world really works. You know, yeah, yeah,

582
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 1: that sort of makes me all wonder. You know, if

583
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: this is the way the universe works? What makes these fields? Like,

584
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: what's what's their origin? Where do they come from? You

585
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: just never satisfied, are you, Jorge? We explain matter in

586
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 1: terms of particles. We explained particles in terms of fields,

587
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:11,400
Speaker 1: But you're like, I want more. What makes up the fields? Yeah?

588
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: How far? How far does the rabbit hole go? Yeah?

589
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 1: I mean we've explained the way matter works in terms

590
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: of particles, and particles work in terms of fields and so,

591
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: and then of course the next natural question is you

592
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 1: know what makes the fields? Are the fields actually just

593
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 1: something else? Right? Uh, the wiggling of strings or you know,

594
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 1: the dancing of tiny puppies or something. We don't know,

595
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: and we don't know. If we get that answer, if

596
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 1: there's not another question behind it, right, it goes even deeper.

597
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 1: Is there an end of this rabbit hole? We have

598
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: no idea. Frankly, I hope not. I think the answer

599
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 1: is clear. It's made to Glorian's obviously making absolutely. Yeah,

600
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: that was definitely a documentary. So you know, the next

601
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: time you are out walking around in the world and

602
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: you look up at the sky and you are amazed

603
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 1: at how beautiful things are, remember that deep down underneath

604
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: it's a hot, sasty, frothing mess of quantum fields, oscillating

605
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,200
Speaker 1: and interacting and bouncing against each other and doing crazy

606
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: calculations just to make your everyday world work for you. Yeah,

607
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: I like to think of it more as happy fields,

608
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: maybe not so like nasty What if they're happy fields? Happy?

609
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: What's happy about these fields? They're like zinging and zinging

610
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: and interacting with each other, and they're like never resting,

611
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're not like slow lingorious lazy fields.

612
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: You know, these are hyper fields. But it's interesting. I

613
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,239
Speaker 1: think it sort of makes me think that maybe in

614
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 1: a way, we are all connected, you know, if we're

615
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 1: all just vibrations in these mysterious quantum fields of stuff,

616
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: we're all sort of part of all We're all connected,

617
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 1: you know, we're all part of part of the same

618
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: stuff that the universe is made out of. That's right, Me,

619
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 1: you and Kevin, who are all really the same, all

620
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 1: the Kens, all of them, all the Kevin's, We are

621
00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: all the Kevin's. Basically, that's my new religion, the Church

622
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 1: of Kevin to the Church of the Flying Kevin Monster.

623
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,720
Speaker 1: Now we are all oscillations in the same universe expanding fields.

624
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 1: That is true. All right, Well, I hope you enjoyed

625
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 1: that quantum field discussion. Thanks for tuning in, And if

626
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:15,239
Speaker 1: you have some crazy concept in physics you'd like us

627
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 1: to break down, send it to us at Feedback at

628
00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge dot com. Or if your name is Kevin,

629
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: we have reserved an email address for you, which is

630
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,800
Speaker 1: Kevin at Daniel and Jorge dot com. That's right, and

631
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: if you have secrets to the universe, Kevin, please send

632
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: them to us at that address. See you next time.

633
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. If you still have a question after

634
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 1: listening to all these explanations, please drop us a line.

635
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you. You can find us

636
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:54,480
Speaker 1: at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge that's

637
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: one word, or email us at Feedback at Daniel and

638
00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 1: Jorge dot com. One