[Kamog]

Well, of course lunches affect quantum fields. Lunches are composed of atoms, which are made up of subatomic particles, which have electromagnetic / gravitational / strong / weak force fields that can act on other particles. All right, suppose you have a system composed of N subatomic particles. Inherent to that system will be a certain set of dynamic quantum fields that have particular probability density functions. Now introduce an outside influence - a lunch - and the quantum fields of the lunch particles will interact with those of the system.

Let's look at the electromagnetic forces as an example. Lunches are more or less balanced electrically, meaning that the number of positively charged particles composing the lunch is roughly equal to the number of negatively charged particles. Of course, it is unlikely for a macroscopic object such as a lunch to be exactly neutral, so there will be slight positive or negative charge. Anyway, we all know that like charges repel each other and opposite charges attract. Each of the protons in the lunch atoms will repel the protons in the system, and each of the electrons in the lunch atoms will repel the electrons in the system. Simultaneously, each of the lunch protons are attracted to each of the electrons in the system, and vice versa. The resultant force on the lunch, and the opposite (equal magnitude) reaction force on the system is a superposition of all the component forces made of up each possible particle-pair.

This is where Light Front Dynamics come in. The forces are not instantaneously transmitted from one particle to another, but the information has a speed of c. Therefore, when the lunch is introduced to the system, multiple propagating wave fronts are generated, in which the influence from the lunch particles travel as a waves to the particles in the system. In the case of electromagnetic forces, electromagnetic waves are generated, of course, and therefore in certain frequency ranges we get light front dynamics.

As for quantum chromo dynamics, it depends on the relative motion and speed of the lunch with respect to the system, and how that causes a change in frequency of the wave. ('chromo' refers to color, which is a function of the frequency.) Of course, when we say the lunch is free, we don't mean that you didn't pay money to get it, it means that you can't produce it out of nothing - well, there is a very tiny but nonzero chance that a lunch will appear out of vacuum, but for all intents and purposes, we can say that it never happens.

[ November 22, 2002, 08:18: Message edited by: Kamog ]