Particles, Fields and Forces

Wouter J.M. Schmitz, born in 1970, studied physics in Amsterdam. He worked at CERN for an assignment at the Spin Muon Collaboration (SMC) and later as a summer student at a LEP experiment. He graduated at Nikhef Amsterdam in 1994. He has subsequently worked in IT and also holds an MBA degree. Today, Wouter works as a leading digital architect, retaining nonetheless a deep and informed interest in conceptual problems in physics.

• Introduction.- Particles or waves?.- Fields.- What is a particle if it is a wave?.- A matter of energy exchange.- A wave of relativity.- Quantization of fields.- Energy in waves and fields.- Symmetry and the origin of force.- Propagators and virtual particles.- Renormalisation of fearful infinities.- Spin makes up bosons and fermions.- Conservation of charge and particle number.- Particle zoo.- Electroweak force in the early universe.- The breaking of the world will never be the same.- The strong force: Quantum Chromo Dynamics.- Gravity as a field.- Further reading.- References and sources.