Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The helicity of a particle is positive (" right-handed") if the direction of its spin is the same as the direction of its motion and negative ("left-handed") if opposite. Helicity is conserved. [1] That is, the helicity commutes with the Hamiltonian, and thus, in the absence of external forces, is time-invariant. It is also rotationally ...
Helicity may refer to: Helicity (fluid mechanics) , the extent to which corkscrew-like motion occurs Helicity (particle physics) , the projection of the spin onto the direction of momentum
In plasma physics, magnetic helicity is a measure of the linkage, twist, and writhe of a magnetic field. [1] [2] Magnetic helicity is a useful concept in the analysis of systems with extremely low resistivity, such as astrophysical systems. When resistivity is low, magnetic helicity is conserved over longer timescales, to a good approximation.
Since the helicity of massive particles is frame-dependent, it might seem that the same particle would interact with the weak force according to one frame of reference, but not another. The resolution to this paradox is that the chirality operator is equivalent to helicity for massless fields only, for which helicity is not frame-dependent. By ...
Helicity is a pseudo-scalar quantity: it changes sign under change from a right-handed to a left-handed frame of reference; it can be considered as a measure of the handedness (or chirality) of the flow. Helicity is one of the four known integral invariants of the Euler equations; the other three are energy, momentum and angular momentum.
Helicity indicates the orientations of the spin and translational momentum vectors. [29] Helicity is frame-dependent because of the 3-momentum in the definition, and is quantized due to spin quantization, which has discrete positive values for parallel alignment, and negative values for antiparallel alignment.
Note the freedom one has to equate negative helicity with negative energy, and thus the anti-particle with the particle of opposite helicity. To be clear, the σ {\displaystyle \sigma } here are the Pauli matrices , and p μ = i ∂ μ {\displaystyle p_{\mu }=i\partial _{\mu }} is the momentum operator.
In the Standard Model, using quantum field theory it is conventional to use the helicity basis to simplify calculations (of cross sections, for example).