Atomic and Elementary Particle Physics

Abstract

The field theory of matter developed in this book reveals that there are only correlated spin-1 /2 matter field components that comprise any complex system of matter. The ‘photon’ and the ‘neutrino’ are not elementary particle fields. Rather, they are virtual fields that couple matter to effect their mutual interaction. The bound electron—proton coupled with the long range electromagnetic force (with the virtual photon) is called hydrogen. The bound electron-proton, coupled with the short range electromagnetic force (with the virtual neutrino) is called neutron. These two types of electromagnetic force follow from the factorization of the electromagnetic field theory into a scalar and a pseudoscalar part, which may be identified, respectively, with the standard and the weak electromagnetic interactions. Such a factorization follows from the rejection of reflection symmetry in the electromagnetic (and all other) interactions in nature, in accordance with the underlying symmetry groups of the theory of relativity — the Poincaré group for special relativity and the Einstein group for general relativity.