It’s that time of year again! Valentine’s Day was this week, so to continue this blog’s tradition it’s time for me to post one of my physics poems. I wrote this back before I fully understood quantum field theory, so you’ll have to excuse any inaccuracies in the metaphor (at least on the physics side 😉 ).

 

Perturbation Theory II – Going in Loops

 

In order to interact, two particles must collide.

But a particle is a small thing, moving in its own circles, covering little space in its lonely life.

So we will never interact.

 

But particles emit bosons,

Tiny messengers of force,

Tendrils of interaction.

When these find us,

As they sometimes do,

We can interact.

 

But a boson is a small thing, moving in its own circles, covering little space in its lonely life.

So we will never interact.

 

But each boson has its own retinue,

Particles and their bosons in turn,

Spawned from its self-energy, uncertainty in its own nature,

Each, unobserved, with infinite possibilities.

 

And to compensate for these infinities

The charged nature of our naked selves

Must in turn be infinitely repressed.

 

So perhaps interaction would still be understandable

For those with simple repressions,

Matching constraints.

 

But we are not such people.

Complicated beings, we spin and twirl.

We hide our charge behind an infinity of possible terms,

So we can never know

If we will interact.

 

But perhaps we are not simply isolated points.

Perhaps we have extension,

Dimension,

Reach, beyond the confines of zero-dimensional selves.

And with that reach

Perhaps we can understand.

Perhaps

We can interact.