Does anybody have an enough simple example and explanation of spontaneous breaking symmetry in quantum mechanics? When does the process of breaking take place? After or before some small perturbation appears?
reggepole said:When does the process of breaking take place? After or before some small perturbation appears? BTW I read somewhere that this effect does not appear in quantum mechanics.
tavi_boada said:My teacher gave us the following example:
Imagine you have a donkey with two buckets of food. One at his right and one at his left. You have specular symmetry and you are happy, because you're a physicist and you like symmetries.
After a while the animal gets hungry and eats one of the plates, thus breaking the symmetry.How could he chose one of the plates if they where equal? Answer: He's not a physicist.
Kinda stupid now that I see it written out.