Quantum Quantum In physics, a quantum (plural: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude of the physical property can take on only discrete values consisting of integer multiples of one quantum. For example, a photon is a single quantum of light (or of any other form of electromagnetic radiation). Similarly, the energy of an electron bound within an atom is quantized and can exist only in certain discrete values. (Indeed,
Yukawa interaction explained by the fact that the Yukawa particle has spin zero and even spin always results in an attractive potential. The negative sign of the exponential gives the interaction an effectively finite range, so that particles at great distances will hardly interact any longer (interaction forces drop off exponentially with increasing separation). Now suppose that the potential formula_7 has a minimum not at formula_18 but at some non-zero value formula_19. This can happen, for example, with a potential form such as formula_20 with formula_9 set to an imaginary value. In this case, the Lagrangian exhibits spontaneous symmetry breaking. This is