From: nospam@de-ster.demon.nl   
      
   Anthk NM  wrote:   
      
   > On 2026-01-04, Stefan Ram  wrote:   
   > > Anthk NM  wrote or quoted:   
   > >>Hidden dimensions could explain where mass comes from   
   > >   
   > >   So now you might ask yourself: what exactly is "mass"?   
   > >   
   > >        These days, that kind of question usually comes up in the   
   > >   context of quantum field theory.   
   > >   
   > >        There we use something called a Lagrangian density, which is kind   
   > >   of a pain to write in plain ASCII, but it basically looks like this   
   > >   for a free field (no interactions):   
   > >   
   > > Lagrange = Psi-bar( i gamma^mu diff_mu - m )Psi.   
   > >   
   > >   In Unicode form, it would be more like:   
   > >   
   > > ? = ??( i ?^? ∂_? - m )?.   
   > >   
   > >   Here, the first term (the one before the minus sign) is the "kinetic   
   > >   term", and the second one is the "mass term".   
   > >   
   > >        For fields we already know, this lines up with what we normally   
   > >   mean by mass.   
   > >   
   > >        So if you come across some new kind of field theory that ends   
   > >   up giving you a Lagrangian of this general form, then whatever shows   
   > >   up in place of that "m" is what we call the "mass".   
   > >   
   > >        (The example I picked technically only applies to Dirac fermions,   
   > >   but the same idea works for other kinds of particles too.)   
   > >   
   > >   
   >   
   > There's the aamath package for Unix where you can display formulae   
   > as ASCII ART:   
   >   
   > https://github.com/gchudnov/aamath   
   >   
   > Check the documentation; it has an option to shrink the radicals.   
      
   Ouch!   
   This really dates way back to the stone age, [1]   
      
   Jan   
      
   [1] Similar things have existed, also --long-- ago   
   to render TeX output as ASCII art.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)