- 1693 - - Let’s play around with Particle Physics and you may be surprised what you learn. This review is about Quarks. These are the sub-atomic particles that make up protons and neutrons. The discoveries of new particles come from the Large Hadron Collider that smashes protons together.
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--------------------------- 1693 - Playing around with Particle Physics.
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- How can a Quark and an Anti-Quark decay into an Electron?
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- Quarks are fundamental particle, like the Electron is a fundamental particle. Quarks have positive and negative charges and when 3 come together they form a proton with a net positive charge, +1. The Electron has a net negative charge, -1, and the Electron is not made up of smaller particles. So, how can Quarks decay into Electrons?
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- Quarks are never found independently. They are always found in combinations that form heavier particles. There are 3 Quarks in every Proton, 2 Up Quarks and 1 Down Quark. There are 3 Quarks in every Neutron, 2 Down Quarks and 1 Up Quark. Up and Down Quarks are at there lowest energy level and are stable. They make up the nucleus of all the atoms.
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- But, there are heavier Quarks that are not stable and quickly decay to these lighter Quarks in order to get to the lower energy levels Here are the 6 types of Quarks with their masses and charges:
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--------------------Lowest Energy Level ---------------Mass -------------- Charge -------
----------------------------------------------- Up -------- 0.002 --------------- +2/3
----------------------------------------------Down ------ 0.005 --------------- - 1/3
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-------------------- Medium Energy Level ------------Mass -------------- Charge -------
-------------------------------------------- Charm -------- 1.3 --------------- +2/3
-------------------------------------------- Strange ------ 0.1 --------------- - 1/3
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- --------------------Highest Energy Level ------------Mass -------------- Charge -------
----------------------------------------------- Top --------- 173 --------------- +2/3
----------------------------------------------Bottom ----- 4.2 --------------- - 1/3
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- The mass is in billions of electron-volts /per c^2. M = E/c2 Mass = Energy divided by the speed of light squared.
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- Charge is relative to the charge magnitude of the electron, 1.
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- The Charm, Strange, Top and Bottom Quarks are heavier Quarks ( higher energy) and quickly decay into their lighter and stable Up and Down Quarks. We only get the heavier Quarks in high energy collisions that occur with Cosmic Rays and in Particle Accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider, LHC.
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- Quarks are the only fundamental particles that interact with all 4 fundamental forces, electromagnetism, gravity, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces. Quarks have electric charges that are not whole integers like the Electron, which is integer -1.
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------------------------- Up Quark +2/3
------------------------- Down Quark - 1/3
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- An Anti-Quark is exactly the same as its counterpart except it carries the opposite charge.
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------------------------- Up Anti-Quark -2/3
------------------------- Down Anti-Quark + 1/3
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- There are 2 Up Quarks and 1 Down Quark in a Proton:
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----------------------Proton = +2/3 + 2/3 - 1/3 = +3/3 = +1 charge
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- There are 2 Down Quarks and 1 Up Quark in a Neutron:
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------------------- Neutron = - 1/3 - 1/3 + 2/3 = 0 charge
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- OK, back to how do we collide a Quark and an Anti-Quark to create an Electron?
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- An Up Quark and an Anti-Up Quark collide and out comes a “ Virtual Photon” “Virtual” because it is not a real photon, it has mass and photons can not have mass. It must decay so quickly that physics does not notice it. It is such a short lifetime that the laws of physics do not have time to apply. The Virtual Photon quickly decays into an Electron and an Anti-Electron ( called a Positron). All these charges add up to zero. Just like the Big Bang itself it all starts from “nothing”. When you put everything in the Universe together it adds up to zero.
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- Up Quark +2/3 and Anti-Up Quark -2/3 equals zero.
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- Electron -1 and Positron +1 equals zero.
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- The time limit for all this to happen is set by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle ( A different Review #18 ).
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- Heisenberg’s Uncertainty = change in position of a sub-atomic particle * change in momentum is always greater than h / 4*pi = change in Energy * the change in Time.
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- “h” is Planck’s Constant and is a very small number:
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--------------- h = 0.0000000000000000000000000000006625 grams * meter^2/second
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- To put into words it says that the uncertainty of a particles position times the uncertainty of its momentum is always greater than 1.055*10^-31 grams*m^2/sec. If the uncertainty of one goes down the other must go up to keep the product of the two greater than h/4*pi.
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- And, the uncertainty of time * the uncertainty of energy is always = 1.055*10^-31 grams*m^2/sec. Planck’s Constant divided by 4*pi.
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- The maximum time that virtual particles can exist is 10^-23 seconds:
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----------------- time = 0.0000000000000000000001 seconds
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- Welcome to the sub-atomic world. These math formulas describe a world that looks like this:
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- The Electron is always in a constant motion of jitter. It is this jitter, or particle - wave indeterminacy that causes the Heisenberg Uncertainty. If you determine the position of an Electron you can not know its momentum, or velocity precisely. Momentum is mass * velocity. Because we observe a “cloud” of jitter we must deal in probabilities of position and velocity with these sub-atomic particles. Mass and Energy too are constantly being exchanged in a sea of uncertainty, a cloud of jitter.
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- All this particle physics uses the math of Quantum Mechanics. The math of the Theory of Relativity does not work at the sub-atomic level. And, the Quantum Mechanics math does not work at the astronomical level. This is a mystery, why this is so?
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- Relativity math uses the concept that gravity is the presence of mass distorting space and time. Gravity is a geometric phenomena.
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- Quantum Mechanics math explains the four forces, including gravity, as an exchange of virtual particles. Virtual particles pop in and out of existence so fast we can not detect them. It all happens inside the bounds of Heisenberg’s Uncertainties explained above. Gravity’s virtual particle is called the “ Graviton” and is yet to be discovered. So, gravity is the dynamic exchange of Gravitons rather than being geometric.
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- Attempts to unify the math has failed so far. Attempts take us into “ String Theory” and another path, “ Quantum Loop Theory”. On says all particles are really vibrating strings and the other says space-time is granular, made up of quantum particles of the smallest dimensions possible.
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- These mysteries have not stopped science from discovering new particles. Just this week a paper was published on-line ( November 23, 2014) announcing the discovery of 2 new particles. At the LHC colliding protons created a Baryon , like a Neutron , only:
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-------------------- Bottom Quark = -1/3
-------------------- Down Quark + 2/3
-------------------- Strange Quark - 1/3
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- The discovery was made based on the new particle having the exact weight and charge of these 3 particles. The new particle only lived for a thousandth of a billionth of a second before decaying into lighter particles. The lighter particles were detected in the LHC and their trajectories extrapolated backward to define the heavier new particle.
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- The second new particle was exactly the same except having the opposite “spin“. When the spin of two Quarks are aligned it has slightly heavier mass.
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- The observations exactly match the math calculations of Quantum Mechanics, called Lattice Quantum Chromodymanics
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- There were two other particles discovered at the LHC in 2012:
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-------------------- Bottom Quark = -1/3
------------------- Up Quark + 2/3
-------------------- Strange Quark - 1/3
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- And the Higgs Boson. There are many mysteries left in Particle Physics for younger students to figure out. I have exceeded my pay grade , but, hope you learned a little. Stay tuned- there is more leaning to follow. There is plenty of room at the bottom.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
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