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Feynman diagram

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Also known as Feynman rules

pictorial representations of the behavior of subatomic particles

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

In this Feynman diagram, an electron (e) and a positron (e) annihilate, producing a photon (γ, represented by the blue sine wave) that becomes a quark–antiquark pair (quark q, antiquark q̄), after which the antiquark radiates a gluon (g, represented by the green helix).

In theoretical physics, a Feynman diagram is a pictorial representation of the mathematical expressions describing the behavior and interaction of subatomic particles. The scheme is named after American physicist Richard Feynman, who introduced the diagrams in 1948.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Feynman diagram” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.