Tales of the Quantum: Understanding Physics' Most Fundamental Theory

by Art Hobson

Quantized matter fields explain the absolute uniformity of microscopic matter. As far as we can tell, every electron is precisely identical to every other electron, every proton is identical to every other proton, all hydrogen-1 atoms (i.e., atoms with a nucleus of just one proton) are identical, and so forth. Why is this? The explanation remained a profound mystery until the discovery of matter fields showed that electrons are identical because every electron is a ripple in a single matter field that fills the universe. This not only explains the absolute identity of all electrons, it also represents another unification. The zillions of electrons, for example, are instances of one thing: the universal electron–positron field.