Feynman diagram

noun

, Physics.

1. a network of lines that represents a series of emissions and absorptions of elementary particles by other elementary particles, from which the probability of the series can be calculated.

Feynman diagram

/ ˈfaɪnmən /

noun

1. physics a graphical representation of the interactions between elementary particles

Feynman diagram

1. A diagram used to help describe and visualize the possible interactions between particles in quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics. Fermions, such as electrons, are represented with straight lines and bosons, such as photons, with wavy lines. Points of intersection indicate an interaction, such as an electromagnetic interaction, between the particles.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Feynman diagram¹

1965–70; named after R. P. Feynman, who devised it

Example Sentences

For example, one electron can deflect another when the two exchange a photon, so the simplest Feynman diagram for the process consists of two lines representing the electrons and a wavy line connecting them that represents the photon.

From Science Magazine

A pictorial representation of this process, known as a Feynman diagram, is shown in Fig. 1a.

From Nature

Barr’s book, then, is a portrait of a pivot, a sumptuous record of an encounter not unlike those particle interactions depicted in a Feynman diagram in which the participants approach each other, glow furiously for an instant, and then depart the scene utterly changed.

From Slate

Therefore, the Feynman diagram, becomes the tool for turning extremely complicated field-theoretical mathematics developed by another physicist into more intuitive forms of computation by embedding some of the more complicated mathematical mechanism in the vertices of the diagram. 

From Scientific American

The Feynman diagram serves as a catalyst for understanding the calculations, processes, and microstate interactions involving the physical building blocks of nature through space and time, while also representing a visual actualization of ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ particles.

From Scientific American