Talk:Yukawa potential

Please define symbols
Would anyone care to define each of the symbols on this page explicitly? That would be a service to the general public. Symbols make things brief for those who already understand, but impenetrable for those who are learning.

Thanks. 71.202.89.142 (talk) 18:19, 7 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I came here to make exactly the same request! But an elapsed time of 1.4 years probably indicates there are no active WP editors familiar with the physics of this article. Maybe someone will show up in another year or two and the article will be edited so it won't require preexisting intimate knowledge of the topic.


 * I love WP even with its many elegant but obscure articles in physics and mathematics. Perhaps due to intellectual arrogance, physicists and mathematicians seem much more likely than anthropologists, linguists, and other professionals to use jargon, undue compactness, and to assume significant specialized knowledge on the part of the reader. Then, again, maybe I'm just cranky today because I'm stuck in bed with a cold. David spector (talk) 17:28, 7 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I've decided, based on these comments and my own observations, to flag this article for jargon. Compare this article with the one on the Strong Force, for instance, which is much more understandable; the first paragraph of this article, which starts


 * 'Hideki Yukawa showed in the 1930s that such a potential arises from the exchange of a massive scalar field such as the field of the pion whose mass is m. Since the field mediator is massive the corresponding force has a certain range, which is inversely proportional to the mass. '


 * A bit confusing to the layperson, as you can see. What do you mean by potential?  What scalar field?  Why a pion?  What's a field mediator?  Why does the corresponding force have a "certain" range and what is meant by the adjective "certain?"  Etcetera.  I am unfortunately not an expert on this topic, but hopefully a perspicuous physics PhD will help us refine this. Slugmaster (talk) 06:10, 22 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for reminding me to get back to this page. I got a long "to do" list :)
 * Phancy Physicist (talk) 23:49, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

The first equation given is wrong
Hi, I am not a physicist, but just performing a basic dimensional analysis, with the parameters defined as the article does, you can see the exponent in the 1st equation (-mr) is not dimensionless. I am tempted to fix it myself but the article goes further and that is well beyond my abilities. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Superfloccinaucinihilipilification (talk • contribs) 16:35, 7 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Not really. In units where speed of light c and h are set to be 1, then mass and reciprocal length are in the same units.  Vis mass =(c)= energy =(h)= 1/time =(c)= 1/distance.  Anyway, yall should not be editing articles you don't understand, but flagging them for attention from someone who does. 2001:BB8:2002:200:E870:BC4D:B4ED:31DD (talk) 07:59, 12 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Yep. There is of course another scaling constant in the exponent to ensure its non-dimensionality. I've stuck one in as a "k". This is meant only to give the form of the equation, and the h-bars and c's are often left out. In this case, k probably is dimentionalized by some multiple of c/h. S  B Harris 18:12, 7 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I'll try to find some more information in the Internet about the Yukawa potential to extend or revise the article, I will need a hand probably (I'm not a native English speaker).Superfloccinaucinihilipilification (talk) 17:59, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Hi, the k you introduced in the first formula is in conflict to the V(k) in the last formula. Using formula 1, Fourier transform yields V(k) ~ 4π / ((km)^2 + k^2). In quantum mechanics, k is always reserved for calculations in momentum space ( p = hk/2π). 14:28, 02 November 2013 (UTC+1) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.202.37.38 (talk)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 11:12, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Coulomb potential
how can -g²/r give the Coulomb potential given by U=Q/(eps°r4pi)??? Ra-raisch (talk) 23:44, 15 December 2016 (UTC)


 * We can just define g^2 to be (q1*q1)/(4*pi*e0) Landmark ni (talk) 15:39, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Edited Landmark ni (talk) 19:21, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

again on first equation
I would remove

In the SI system, the unit of the Yukawa potential is (1/meters).

or explain immediately what is g^2Suppongoche (talk) 23:18, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

Another question: I understand

... the fermions would be a proton and another proton or a neutron.

as "there is no Yukawa interaction between two neutrons". Something seems wrong: the statement, my physical knowledge or my english. May you help me? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Suppongoche (talk • contribs) 23:25, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

Last point: I arrived here searching for the value of alpha, that was evidently known from the start (if the pion mass could be estimated). Is it possible to give itSuppongoche (talk) 23:31, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

Screened Coulomb potential ?
"(also called a screened Coulomb potential)" -- Who calls it? In three decades working in nuclear physics I never ever heard these words in connection to Yukawa potential. Btw, there is no screening. -- Wassermaus (talk) 09:47, 20 March 2023 (UTC)