The Standard Model focuses on particles and their interactions, with energy being the system’s driving force.
Particles with half-integer spin are known as fermions, whereas those with integer spin are referred to as bosons. Fermions are considered the building blocks of matter, and bosons are considered responsible for carrying forces.
However, there is no focus on energy in the Standard Model.
Energy is the capacity to do work between particles that possess this property. For a naked particle, it represents potential. Therefore, energy is often defined as the ability to perform ‘work.’ In physics, energy is a fundamental quantitative property used to describe the state of a physical system or an object.
In 1961, Richard Feynman made the following statement about the concept of energy:
There is a fact, or if you wish, a law, governing all natural phenomena that are known to date. There is no known exception to this law—it is exact so far as we know. The law is called the conservation of energy. It states that there is a certain quantity, which we call energy, that does not change in manifold changes which nature undergoes. That is a most abstract idea, because it is a mathematical principle; it says that there is a numerical quantity which does not change when something happens. It is not a description of a mechanism, or anything concrete; it is just a strange fact that we can calculate some number and when we finish watching nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again, it is the same.
It’s impossible to consider energy in isolation. Energy is always related to the interaction of forces on particles that cause changes in the properties of these particles.
It’s difficult to grasp energy as a concept because it involves transforming particles within objects from one state to another.
The common assumption is that an object has a material nature. The object consists of point particles as constituents. Visualizing how energy transforms the properties of point particles is challenging, as their presence is linked through spatial manifestations of non-spatial extensiveness of material nature.
We can make and model some of these calculations toward what we perceive as spatial reality. These models usually relate to what we identify as concrete physical objects on which we can exercise forces.
Due to the Pauli exclusion principle, a concrete physical model shows itself in such a physical spatial mode. If the matter is in a solid-state phase, we can touch that object with our hands or tools and exercise these forces. The Pauli Exclusion Principle causes electrons to be unable to occupy the same space, which gives rise to the sensation of “pushing” when two objects are brought close together. This leads to a feeling of resistance and an exchange of energy. The same principle applies to matter in a liquid phase, but it becomes a bit more complex when dealing with gaseous phases.
Although scientists are working in line with what Feynman states and make observations regarding transitions also in non-tactile mode, this human understanding of energy, as it relates to tactile impact on objects, is deeply ingrained in our thinking.
Bosons, known as force carriers, are considered to possess no mass. However, visualizing a force carrier as a point particle that can significantly interfere with mass manifestations is challenging as well.