= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
HalFinney comments on Can You Prove Two Particles Are Identical? - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (106)
One of the more amusing ways of thinking about the identity of all electrons is the idea that there's actually only one electron. This single electron moves backwards and forwards in time. When going backwards in time, it is an anti-electron (positron), and when forwards, it is an electron. In this way we get the illusion that there is more than one electron, but there is actually just the one. That's why they all have the same properties, in this not-completely-serious view.
There is definitely more than one electron, if only because when you create an electron-positron pair, you can then annihilate those two with each other, and that doesn't form a loop with the others.
If the only thing keeping them the same were identity, then these virtual electrons could be different. And don't bring up 'borrowed' energy or mass -- going off-shell is just a dynamical feature like position or velocity.
There's also the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry. Even if you want to argue that virtual electrons aren't real and thus don't count, it still seems to be the case that there are a lot more electrons than positrons. If it was just one electron going back and forth in time, we'd expect at most one extra electron.
Not to mention the fact that positrons = electrons going backwards in time only works if you ignore gravity.
"Well, maybe they are hidden in the protons or something"
;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe