Do you know what particle physics and quantum physics are?

 Particle physics is the branch of physics that deals with the fundamental particles that make up everything in the universe, such as electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks, photons, and many more. We use special machines called particle accelerators to smash them together at very high speeds and observe the results. For example, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It can create collisions between protons that produce new particles and reveal new phenomena.

What kind of new particles and phenomena?

Well, one of the most important discoveries made by the LHC was the Higgs boson, which is a particle that gives mass to other particles. It was predicted by a theory called the Standard Model, which describes how particles interact with each other through four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force.

And what about quantum physics?

Quantum physics is the branch of physics that describes how particles behave at the quantum level, which is very different from how they behave at the classical level that we are used to. For example, quantum physics shows that particles can exist in superpositions of two or more states at the same time, until they are measured and collapse into one definite state. This is called the uncertainty principle.

How can something be in two states at once?

It is indeed very weird and hard to imagine, but it has been proven by many experiments. One famous example is the double-slit experiment, which shows that light can behave as both a wave and a particle depending on how it is observed.

So, particle physics and quantum physics are like two sides of the same coin? Yes, you could say that. They are both essential for understanding the nature of reality at the smallest scales. They also have many applications in technology, such as lasers, computers, nuclear power, medical imaging, and more.