Talk:3091: Renormalization

It's been an hour. Does nobody know what this is about? Are we all dumb? Pgn674 (talk) 22:43, 19 May 2025 (UTC)

I'm not certain. Renormalisation is a concept from quantum field theory in which coupling constants take different values at different scales. I believe the intuition for this is that at longer scales, particles are shielded by a cloud of virtual particles which spring into 'existence' around them and take some of the apparent strength out of the interaction. The best I've got is that somehow this is like an electron hitting off of other imaginary electrons? Maybe the old, since a photon (another editor here: of course you meant to say "positron"... 162.158.74.68 - thank you, good catch 172.69.79.164) can be interpreted as an electron going backwards in time, there might only be one electron in the universe, it's just bouncing back and forth a lot? But in this case any electron interacting in any way with another electron would be 'hitting itself', so I don't see how that would be a renormalisation specific thing. 172.70.58.112 22:52, 19 May 2025 (UTC)

Wait, I was dumb. Renormalisation is a self interaction, the interpretation in terms of virtual particles is irrelevant. I was over thinking it. Interacting with itself => hitting itself, simple. 172.70.58.150 22:59, 19 May 2025 (UTC)

Can someone who understands renormalisation better than I add the bit about self-interaction to the explanation? I did not get that at ALL from the linked Wikipedia page (although I did get the Endless Mike reduction joke from it. 162.158.62.106 03:52, 20 May 2025 (UTC)

I feel you. It seems like the site itself feels you, the topic is so heavy (maybe it will let me in this time). FWIW, my digging around led me here and, especially, here. 162.158.42.88 04:50, 20 May 2025 (UTC)