scalar field
1
9.3
- noun
- /ˈskeɪlər fiːld/
- Specialized
:
campo escalar
- In mathematics, a scalar field is used to represent temperature distributions across a region.
So you can view it as an arbitrary scalar field, OK, with no constraints.
- So you can view it as an arbitrary scalar field, OK, with no constraints.
- OK, so this is a Einstein gravity coupled scalar field, OK.
- It was especially audacious till a couple of years ago, of course, when we didn't actually know were there any scalar fields in nature at all.
Examples
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Let's write down the field equation for a scalar field with no potential.
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The conformal equivalent theory in the Einstein frame corresponds to a scalar field with an exponential potential.
Academic text (2018) -
You imagine a thing called a scalar field that has a certain properties, and then you say it's unstable.
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Apparently, the only one who still took it seriously, Jordan tried to turn G into a scalar field.
Academic text (1999) -
So you can view it as an arbitrary scalar field, OK, with no constraints.
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And everybody will agree that scalar fields typically do have such potentials.
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In the simplest such extension, one adds a scalar field, as described in box 1.
Academic text (2004) -
So in the simplest models of inflation, there is a single scalar field slowly rolling down a potential.
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In that view, the matter and energy that later come to populate the universe are created after inflation through the decay of a scalar field from an initial state otherwise devoid of particles.
Academic text (2012) -
Most proposed extra gravity fields are "long range" in the sense that, like the GR tensor field, the Brans-Dicke scalar field, and the electromagnetic field, their quanta are massless.
Academic text (2012)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is compositionally transparent: the adjective 'scalar' (magnitude-only) simply specifies the type of 'field' (a region or mathematical space), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a field that assigns scalar values at points. Although the full mathematical formalism may be technical, the basic meaning follows standard modifier + noun composition and is cross-linguistically expressed in similar terms (e.g. Spanish 'campo escalar', French 'champ scalaire'), making it accessible to informed B1 learners.
Etymology
The term scalar field combines scalar, meaning one number, and field, meaning an area or space. Imagine a map of temperature where every point has one number — that's why a scalar field means 'something that gives one number at every point in space'.