Re:Did the W-boson just “break the standard model”?
by adrian_b on Sunday May 01, 2022 @10:15AM
(#31225172)
QED is very well tested for the handful of values that can be computed accurately (with great efforts).
These special values are too few to matter for practical applications and they apply only to exceedingly simple systems, e.g. a single free lepton or a single pair of interacting elementary particles.
The practical value of QED is null. By far the greatest success of QED is what you have mentioned, i.e. that it explains why g_e is not exactly 2, but it is slightly different. This fact could not be explained by the Dirac theory. However, we already knew the value of g_e through experiments. Having an explanation for our peace of mind is good, but this cannot help us design anything.
For example, it would have been enormously helpful if there would have existed any method to compute accurately the frequencies and various other properties of the spectral lines of the atoms and ions.
This would have allowed e.g. to find through computation optimal substances for applications like lasers and atomic clocks.
Because there exists no such method, the advances continue to be done only by discovering through experiments new better spectral transitions of certain atoms or ions.
These special values are too few to matter for practical applications and they apply only to exceedingly simple systems, e.g. a single free lepton or a single pair of interacting elementary particles.
The practical value of QED is null. By far the greatest success of QED is what you have mentioned, i.e. that it explains why g_e is not exactly 2, but it is slightly different. This fact could not be explained by the Dirac theory. However, we already knew the value of g_e through experiments. Having an explanation for our peace of mind is good, but this cannot help us design anything.
For example, it would have been enormously helpful if there would have existed any method to compute accurately the frequencies and various other properties of the spectral lines of the atoms and ions.
This would have allowed e.g. to find through computation optimal substances for applications like lasers and atomic clocks.
Because there exists no such method, the advances continue to be done only by discovering through experiments new better spectral transitions of certain atoms or ions.