This page gathers the 3,177 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Physics”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 32 of 32: from “vorton” to “zweibein”.
- vorton noun A hypothetical circular cosmic string loop stabilized by the angular momentum of the charge and current trapped on the string.
- VSS symbol one of the power-supply pins on some integrated circuits
- W-boson noun a fundamental particle, a gauge boson, that, together with the Z-boson, mediates the weak nuclear force; it has a charge of ± 1
- wafer noun A thin disk of silicon or other semiconductor on which an electronic circuit is produced.
- wafer-scale integration noun A rarely-used system of building very large integrated circuit networks that use an entire silicon wafer to produce a single "super-chip".
- wake noun The perturbation behind a body moving through a fluid.
- wake vortex noun One of the paired vortices formed behind any heavier-than-air aircraft when producing lift, created by the velocity differential between…
- wakefield noun The electron density wave structure which immediately follows an intense laser beam or relativistic charged particle beam as it passes…
- Wannier function noun Any of a set of orthogonal functions used in solid-state physics; they are the localized molecular orbitals of crystalline systems.
- warp drive noun A technological device that warps spacetime to enable movement through space in a non-Newtonian manner.
- watchdog verb To be continuously reset by a watchdog timer.
- wave noun A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
- wave mechanics noun The mathematical basis for quantum mechanics in which light and subatomic particles have the characteristics of both waves and particles.
- wave packet noun a collection of waves, travelling together
- wave processing noun The act or technique of transforming data coming from sensors into measurements of a wave. It is usually preceded by the type of wave being…
- wave vector noun A vector whose direction is that of the direction of propagation of a wave, and whose magnitude is inversely proportional to its wavelength
- wave-particle duality noun The concept applying to all matter and radiation, but most evident in light and particles such as the electron, that properties of waves…
- wavefield noun The extended area or space taken up by a wave.
- waveform noun The shape of a physical wave, such as sound, electric current or electromagnetic radiation, or its representation obtained by plotting a…
- wavefunction noun A mathematical function that describes the propagation of the quantum mechanical wave associated with a particle (or system of particles)…
- wavelength noun The length of a single cycle of a wave, as measured by the distance between one peak or trough of a wave and the next; it is often…
- waveplate noun A thin layer of a birefringent material that is used to introduce a controlled phase shift between the two polarization components of a…
- weak adj One of the four fundamental forces associated with nuclear decay.
- weakly symmetric matter noun A predicted very high-energy state of matter, present in the very early universe for perhaps 10⁻¹² seconds after the Big Bang, when strong…
- weight noun Mass (atomic weight, molecular weight, etc.) (in restricted circumstances).
- Weissenberg effect noun A phenomenon that occurs when a spinning rod is inserted into a solution of elastic liquid. Instead of being thrown outward, the solution…
- wetted area noun The total surface area of an aircraft.
- Weyl fermion noun A massless quasiparticle and fermion, which carries electric charge, and cannot move backwards, that may exist in Weyl semimetals, where an…
- white hole noun A theoretically possible but hypothetical singularity from which matter and energy are able to escape but unable to enter; the antithesis…
- white noise noun A random signal (or process) with a flat power spectral density; a signal with a power spectral density that has equal power in any band…
- white plague noun The white gold-aluminium intermetallic compound Au₅Al₂, which can be formed when gold and aluminium are heated in direct contact (for…
- wicking noun Capillarity, capillary effect, capillary motion.
- wiggler noun A magnet designed to make a beam of charged particles follow a curving path in an accelerator.
- Wightman axiom noun Any of a number of axioms representing an attempt at a mathematically rigorous formulation of quantum field theory.
- wild adj Of unregulated and varying frequency.
- Wilson loop noun A gauge-invariant observable obtained from the holonomy of the gauge connection around a given loop.
- wimpzilla noun A theoretical superheavy dark matter particle, trillions of times more massive than other proposed types of dark matter.
- wind energy noun Energy of the wind.
- wind power noun Power of the wind.
- windage noun The difference in diameter between the bore of a firearm and the shot.
- winding noun A length of wire wound around the armature of an electric motor or the core of an electrical transformer.
- window detector noun A special type of comparator which provides an indication of whether the input voltage is within a specified range.
- wino noun A hypothetical particle that is the superpartner of the W boson.
- wiring harness noun A bundle of insulated wires, often held together with straps or other connectors, that transmit signals or electrical current within a…
- wiring loom noun A wiring harness; a bundle of wires, tied together but not enclosed in a rigid conduit, that transmit signals or electrical current within…
- wordline noun An array of rows of memory cells in random access memory, used with the bitline to generate the address of each cell.
- work noun A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move.
- work function noun The minimum energy needed to remove an electron from the surface of a material
- world line noun A path in spacetime, especially that traversed by an elementary particle from its creation to its destruction.
- worldsheet noun A two-dimensional manifold which describes the embedding of a string in spacetime, a direct generalization of the worldline of a particle…
- wounded adj Of a particle: having undergone an inelastic collision.
- WPT noun Abbreviation of wireless-power transfer.
- wrench noun In screw theory, a screw assembled from force and torque vectors arising from application of Newton's laws to a rigid body.
- X boson noun A hypothetical elementary particle that couples quarks to leptons, analogous to the W boson and Z boson, but corresponding to a new type of…
- X-ray diffraction noun The scattering of X-rays by the regular lattice of atoms or molecules in a crystal.
- X-ray radiation noun Electromagnetic radiation consisting of X-rays, radiation in the X-ray spectrum, of shorter wavelength and higher frequency than…
- X-ray spectrum noun The distribution of X-ray photons emitted by a source, as a function of photon energy or wavelength.
- xi noun Either of a pair of hyperons having spin 1/2, which decay into a lambda particle and a pion.
- xi baryon noun A subatomic hadron particle, denoted by Ξ, comprising three quarks: one up or down quark, and two heavier quarks.
- xor noun A logic gate that implements "exclusive or".
- Yang-Baxter equation noun A consistency equation first introduced in the field of statistical mechanics, based on the idea that, in some scattering situations…
- Yang-Mills theory noun A gauge theory that seeks to describe the behaviour of elementary particles using certain Lie groups. It is important in the unification of…
- yield value noun The minimum amount of shearing or normal stress required to cause a continuous deformation in a solid.
- yoke noun Originally, a metal piece connecting the poles of a magnet or electromagnet; later, a part of magnetic circuit (such as in a generator or…
- yrare noun The state of a nucleus with minimum energy, but excluding the yrast. The second-least excited state for a given angular momentum.
- Yukawa interaction noun A kind of interaction between a scalar field and a Dirac field, used to describe the nuclear force between nucleons mediated by pions.
- Z-boson noun a fundamental particle, a gauge boson, that, together with the W-boson, mediates the weak nuclear force; it has a charge of 0
- Zeeman energy noun The energy of the interaction between the magnetic moment of an atom or molecule or the magnetization and an applied magnetic field
- Zener diode noun A semiconductor junction device through which current flows normally in the forward direction, and in the reverse direction if a large…
- zero method noun A method of comparing, or measuring, forces, electric currents, etc., by so opposing them that the pointer of an indicating apparatus, or…
- zero point adj associated with zero on any scale, but particularly with a temperature of absolute zero
- zero-point energy noun The lowest possible energy of a given quantum mechanical system.
- zevatron noun A hypothetical source of extreme-energy cosmic rays (EECR), capable of accelerating particles to 1 ZeV (zetta-electronvolt).
- zitterbewegung noun An extremely fast oscillation of free electrons (and other particles) predicted by some solutions of the Dirac equation
- zombie finger noun The failure of a capacitive touch screen to sense the user's fingertip, due to dry skin, calluses, cold weather, etc.
- zone melting noun A technique used to purify a metal, semiconductor or other solid in which a heating system slowly causes a series of molten zones to…
- zweibein noun Synonym of dyad.