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- The Universe started 13,800,000,000 years ago in a Big Bang. 95% of its composition is Dark Matter and Dark Energy that control the destiny of Universe. But, we don't know what that stuff is. 5% of the Universe is what we know as our “natural world“.
- In 1920 Edwin Hubble knew the universe was expanding. He came up with:
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-------------------------v = Ho * d
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-----------------------. Velocity of expansion = Hubble's Constant * the distance of separation.
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------------------------ Ho is about is how fast the universe is expanding. It is a constant.
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------------------------ Ho = 47,000 miles per hour for every million light-years distance of separation.
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- Space is expanding
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- The more space there is between us and another galaxy the faster we are separating.
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- The expansion is same in all directions.
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- There is no center from which the rest is expanding.
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- The revelation that there is the expanding universe at a uniform rate meant that back in time the universe was all compressed together. The density at the beginning must have been infinite. The entire universe was compressed into a single point.
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- The time for that compression to occur is the reciprocal of the Hubble constant.
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----------------------------- Time = 1 / Ho
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----------------------------- Ho = 47,000 mph / million lightyears
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--------------------------- Time = 13 billion years
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- In addition to being dense it must have been very hot as well. Some of that heat still remains today. It is 2.725 degrees Kelvin. Which is -455 Fahrenheit, throughout the entire universe. Any observer in the universe would see the same temperature.
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-Gravity is always an attractive force. If we take into account all the matter in the universe, gravity should be slowing things down. How much matter do we need to stop the expansion?
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- Surprisingly it is an amazingly small number
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- 9*10^-24 grams per cubic centimeter is enough matter density for enough gravity to stop the expansion.
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- This density also represents a “flat” geometry for space. If there is more matter density the curvature of space would be spherical. If there was less matter density the curvature of space would be saddle-shaped. The conclusion is the curvature of the universe is flat. So, the critical density of 9*10^-24 grams per cubic centimeter must be what the average density actually is.
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- But, ordinary matter adds up to far less than this amount of matter to arrive at this critical density. Ordinary matter is only is only 5% of the total mass-energy in the universe.
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- To understand what came out of the Big Bang we must exit the Theory of Relativity and Gravity and get into Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics. As things got compressed the math changed.
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- The Standard Model of Particle Physics is one of the most successful theories ever devised to explain the world we live in.
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- It starts with only three classes of indivisible matter particles:
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---------------------- (1) Quarks that make up protons and neutrons
---------------------- (2) Leptons that are electrons and neutrinos.
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- The right mix of these two classes of particles can make up all the elements known in the universe, in our natural world.
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- To bind these particles together we have 4 forces: gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces.
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- Force particles are known as Bosons. They mediate the 3 forces electroweak (combining the electromagnetic and weak nuclear force.) and the strong nuclear force. The force carrier for gravity has not been discovered yet.
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- The Higgs Boson was discovered in 2013 and is the last particle to be added to the Standard Model of Particle Physics.
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- The Standard Model includes two families of heavier particles for each of the Up -Quark, Down -Quark , Electron, and Neutrino. But, these heavier particles quickly decay into the lighter particles present in the natural world.
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- The Standard Model treats Quarks and Leptons as point-like particles without any internal structure. However, the possibility remains that there exist configurations of even smaller building blocks of matter within Quarks and Leptons.
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- The weak nuclear force is present in radioactivity and can change a neutron into a proton by changing the identity of the constituent quarks.
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--------------------------- Neutrons have one Up-Quark and 2 Down-Quarks.
----------------------------- Protons have 2 Up-Quarks and 1 Down-Quark.
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- Standard Model postulates that the Higgs field is the source of mass for all these fundamental particles. Massive particles feel a drag as they move through this field. Massless particles, like the photon, do not interact with the field. They feel no drag at all and move at the constant speed of light, 186,000 miles per second.
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- The masses of the fundamental particles cannot be predicted mathematically. Their masses can only be determined by measuring them. Obviously, we need a theory about particles that is missing up to now.
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- Supersymmetry and String Theory are two of the theoretical avenues being pursued. The challenge remains. When theoretical ideas fail to agree with experimental measurements the theories are wrong. That is the definition of science.
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- Protons and neutrons have radii of 10^-15 meters (0 .000001 nanometers).
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- Quarks are believed to be 0.0002 to 0.0010 times the size of a proton, 10^-18 meters.
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- If there is a smaller fundamental particle it must be smaller than 10^-18 meters.
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- The discussion so far has ignored antimatter. Take the standard model table and double it. Each particle has an exact twin with the opposite charge. Electrons have a negative charge. Anti-electrons have a positive charge and are called positrons.
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- Satellite experiments have found that less than 1% of the cosmic rays are anti-electrons and antiprotons. This small amount of antimatter does not appear to come from the Big Bang. They appear to be newly made in some other energetic process yet to be discovered.
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- The International Space Station experiments detect anti-electrons ranging from 10 billion electron volts to 250 billion electron volts. Antiprotons detected have maximum energies of 2 billion electron volts. No evidence has been found of anti-helium nuclei or other heavier antimatter nuclei.
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- Reductionism is a method to gain understanding of how complex things work by breaking them down into constituent parts with simple properties and simple interactions.
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- Conclusion: The macroscopic world is quite different than the microscopic world. Classical physics works well in the macro. But, Quantum Mechanics is needed to describe the micro.
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- Low-energy physics works well with protons , neutrons, electrons, and photons. Basically this makes up our natural world.
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- But, high-energy physics learns that these are complicated objects that have more fundamental parts
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---------------------------------- Quarks
----------------------------------- Anti-Quarks
----------------------------------- Gluons
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- To understand this level in the micro we need:
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------------------------------------ Quantum mechanics
------------------------------------ Special relativity
------------------------------------ Gauge symmetry
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- It was Gauge Symmetry that predicted the existence of Gluons before their existence was even observed. (See the book “ The Beautiful Question”.)
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- The way to think of energy and matter as “being the same thing” is to think of the atomic bomb. Simply put that is a matter converted to energy.
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----------- Energy = mass * (449, 500,000,000,000,000 miles^2 / hour^2)
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------------ Energy = mass * (299,800 kilometers per second)^2
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- Light is massless. But, so are the building blocks of matter. When you see the tracks of light, gamma rays, light coming out of a particle accelerator, those were particles transformed into massless light.
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- Empty spaces not empty. It is full of these virtual particles.
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- Particles are identified as separate entities, but, they can physically transform themselves into one another. When the light is summarized emanating from a particle collision adding energy and momentum, the equations essentially become the same as Quarks or Gluons.
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- The Standard Model of Particle Physics with the 4 force carriers and the Higgs Boson is still woefully incomplete. We still have a gravity force carrier to contend with? Then, there is likely a more fundamental particle yet, the Axion might appear.
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- Then, there is Supersymmetry that doubles the standard model with a high-energy pair for every particles There is the doubling again of equal amounts of matter and antimatter that formed from “nothing”. ( ie: These two cancel each other out).
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- The mystery remains why we get to live in this “matter” world? What happened to the other world. The antimatter matter world? As Richard Feynman said, “ There is plenty of room at the bottom". It's nice when there is always more to learn. An announcement will be made shortly stay tuned.
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(1) Check out Wikipedia “ cosmology”
(2) Wikipedia: “ Cosmic Background Explorer
(3) http:// www.haverford.edu/faculty/bpartrid
(4) http: www.esa.int/OurActivities/SpaceScience/Planck/Planck reveals an almost perfect Universe
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