Run, Alpha Strong, Run
Saturday, December 6, 2014 - 20:10
in Physics & Chemistry
One of the funniest misnomers in particle physics is the naming of coupling strength parameters of the fundamental interactions as "constants". We speak of a fine structure constant (alpha) to address one of the most important parameters of electromagnetism; and we call "strong coupling constant" the coupling strength parameter alpha_s of QCD. But these are not constants at all! In fact, they are parameters that show a quite distinct dependence on the energy of subatomic processes. read more