As forewarned, CERN has presser tomorrow on Higgs

[Monte Davis]

Umm. by no means all photons are virtual particles.  

 

From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Prashant Kumar
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 7:37 AM
To: Monte Davis; pynchon -l
Subject: Re: As forewarned, CERN has presser tomorrow on Higgs

 

What I meant is that you have the same debate regarding identity and
individuality, but in the modern debate the object is not souls but quantum
mechanical particles. In fact, the mathematical definition of photons is
what leads to this debate: because they are massless, photons do not
experience proper time they are known as 'virtual particles' and exist
outside of the reality of massive particles, in some sense. Now since every
photon is identical, you have serious problems defining identity. Think
'spirit world', and you have the connection to Duns Scotus' haecceities.

 

Prashant

 

On 6 July 2012 18:40, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:

In defense of physicists (of whom I am not one):  what distinguishes
massless particles (e.g. photons) from scholastic word-spinning is that (1)
their properties are unambiguously, mathematically defined; (2) those
p[roperties have led to a century of predictions verified to many decimal
places; and (3) they are the only properties consistent with such irrelevant
arcana as stars shining, atoms cohering, and DVD lasers playing.

My apologies to Abelard and Duns Scotus if that's the kind of thing they
were doing and I missed it.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf

Of Paul Mackin
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 12:24 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: As forewarned, CERN has presser tomorrow on Higgs

On 7/5/2012 11:35 AM, David Morris wrote:
> OK, I stand corrected.  Existence w/o mass.  I expect such existence
> would never become more organized than at the sub-atomic level.  But
> I'm no physicist.

Me neither, but somehow I'm reminded of the Medieval controversy over the
distinction between essence and existence, if any.

P
>
> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:15 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net>
wrote:
>> It bestows mass; they haven't [yet] gotten around to a field/particle
>> that "bestows existence."
>>
>>
>>
>>  From  David Morris
>> Higgs is the new either, a medium that bestows existence.
>>
>>



 

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