Field Quanta Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Gribbin (1989: 258-9):

When two particles interact, they do so, on the old picture, because there is a force between them.  This force can be expressed in terms of a field, and that field can in turn be expressed in terms of particles by means of the second quantisation.  When two electrons come close to each other, and are repelled from one another, it is because, in the new picture, one or more photons have been exchanged between them.  The energetic photon is a manifestation of the electric field around one or another of the electrons.  It borrows energy from the uncertainty principle, pops into existence, whizzes across to the second electron and deflects it before it disappears again.  The first electron recoils as the photon leaves it, and the result is that the electrons are repelled from one another.  One kind of field, corresponding to fermions [e.g. electrons], produces the material world; the other kind, corresponding to bosons [e.g. photons], produces the interactions that hold the material world together and sometimes break bits of it apart.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory:

• the "expression" of a field in terms of particles is the shift in perspective from potential (field) to instances (particles);
• as a "manifestation" of an electric field around an electron, an energetic photon is an instance of the electric potential of an electron;
• the "borrowing" of energy from the uncertainty principle by a photon is the instantiation of potential in line with the probabilities of that potential;
• the "production" of the material world by fermionic fields is the instantiation of fermionic potential as particles; and
• the "production" of interactions by bosonic fields is the instantiation of bosonic potential as interacting particles.