Anyone familiar with this equation?

[Iota]

Purely out of interest, does anyone here know what this equation- extracted from an episode of The Big Bang Theory- is about? (other than nuclear physics).

 

It gets sheldon cooper (despite being fictional) stuck, and he's meant to be genius. From that, and that alone, I'm assuming it's something pretty complex?

[ajb]

It looks like something to do with electron-muon scattering, it looks something related to the scattering amplitude. I am not familiar enough to tell you exactly what it is, or if it is correct.

 

Maybe using Mandelstem variables would help him?

[Iota]

It looks like something to do with electron-muon scattering, it looks something related to the scattering amplitude. I am not familiar enough to tell you exactly what it is, or if it is correct.

 

Maybe using Mandelstem variables would help him?

 

It does look like a Mandelstam Variables diagram. I'll try a search using a chain of wiki-links to try and get there now.

 

Edit: Looks even more like a Feynman Diagram. Still some variations between them though. e.g. time is horizontal instead of vertical.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagrams

Edited August 18, 2012 by Iota

[timo]

1) It's not an equation at all, owing to the lack of an "=" sign. It's a "term" or "expression".

2) Of course I know what it is: The graphical representation of the term is directly above it.

3) There are no Mandelstamm variables in the expression. It is a t-channel diagramm, though.

4) I'm not a nuclear physicist. But I am a particle physicist in some sense, which is probably what you actually meant by "nuclear physicist".

[Iota]

1) It's not an equation at all, owing to the lack of an "=" sign. It's a "term" or "expression".

2) Of course I know what it is: The graphical representation of the term is directly above it.

3) There are no Mandelstamm variables in the expression. It is a t-channel diagramm, though.

 

Ah fair enough.

 

4) I'm not a nuclear physicist. But I am a particle physicist in some sense, which is probably what you actually meant by "nuclear physicist".

 

"nuclear physics" a character next to sheldon answers the question, and says: "back in former soviet Russia I am nuclear physicist". lol.

[JohnStu]

Purely out of interest, does anyone here know what this equation- extracted from an episode of The Big Bang Theory- is about? (other than nuclear physics).

 

It gets sheldon cooper (despite being fictional) stuck, and he's meant to be genius. From that, and that alone, I'm assuming it's something pretty complex?

 

 

it is gibberish written for the show, no way the time sign makes sense with the diagram. I knew it within 5 seconds of looking at the photo