Dressed particle (original) (raw)

In theoretical physics, the term dressed particle refers to a bare particle together with some excitations of other quantum fields that are physically inseparable from the bare particle. For example, a dressed electron includes the cloud of virtual electron–positron pairs and photons surrounding the original electron. A further noteworthy example is represented by polaritons in solid-state physics, dressed quasiparticles of dipolar excitations in a medium with photons.