Etymology

penguin diagram

Today it means: A type of unicyclic Feynman diagram in which a quark temporarily changes flavor and engages in an interaction. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Coined by John Ellis in 1977, based on the shape of the diagram and inspired by a bet made with Melissa Franklin to put the word "penguin" in his next paper.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.