AnnihilationIn particle physics, annihilation is the process that occurs when a subatomic particle collides with its respective antiparticle to produce other particles, such as an electron colliding with a positron to produce two photons. The total energy and momentum of the initial pair are conserved in the process and distributed among a set of other particles in the final state. Antiparticles have exactly opposite additive quantum numbers from particles, so the sums of all quantum numbers of such an original pair are zero.
Invariant (physics)In theoretical physics, an invariant is an observable of a physical system which remains unchanged under some transformation. Invariance, as a broader term, also applies to the no change of form of physical laws under a transformation, and is closer in scope to the mathematical definition. Invariants of a system are deeply tied to the symmetries imposed by its environment. Invariance is an important concept in modern theoretical physics, and many theories are expressed in terms of their symmetries and invariants.
PseudorapidityIn experimental particle physics, pseudorapidity, , is a commonly used spatial coordinate describing the angle of a particle relative to the beam axis. It is defined as where is the angle between the particle three-momentum and the positive direction of the beam axis. Inversely, As a function of three-momentum , pseudorapidity can be written as where is the component of the momentum along the beam axis (i.e. the longitudinal momentum – using the conventional system of coordinates for hadron collider physics, this is also commonly denoted ).
Mass generationIn theoretical physics, a mass generation mechanism is a theory that describes the origin of mass from the most fundamental laws of physics. Physicists have proposed a number of models that advocate different views of the origin of mass. The problem is complicated because the primary role of mass is to mediate gravitational interaction between bodies, and no theory of gravitational interaction reconciles with the currently popular Standard Model of particle physics.
Extended supersymmetryIn theoretical physics, extended supersymmetry is supersymmetry whose infinitesimal generators carry not only a spinor index , but also an additional index where is integer (such as 2 or 4). Extended supersymmetry is also called , supersymmetry, for example. Extended supersymmetry is very important for analysis of mathematical properties of quantum field theory and superstring theory. The more extended supersymmetry is, the more it constrains physical observables and parameters.
