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--------------------------------- 2407 - Fine Structure Constant
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- There are four fundamental forces in the Universe, gravity, strong, weak nuclear, and electromagnetic. The strength of the electromagnetic force is determined by a number called the fine structure constant. This number can be measured with a high degree of accuracy. Scientists wonder, has it truly remained constant since the Big Bang?
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- After a 5 year study of 40,000 galaxies formed up to 8,000,000,000 years ago scientists have determined that the fine structure constant has remained constant over time. The light from these galaxies has been stretched out, redshifted, to nearly double its original wavelength by the expansion of the Universe.
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- The measurements were made of the emission and absorption lines of the spectrum of the elements in the galaxies. The emission lines of oxygen 3 were measured for 300 individual galaxies from 4,000,000,000 years to 8,000,000,000 years ago ( redshifts from 0.4 to 0.8) and the measured fine structure constant was no different from today’s value.
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- For over 4,000,000,000 years there is no trend line upward or downward in the data. Oxygen 3 is ionized oxygen that has lost 2 of its electrons. The spectral lines were measured to great precision, within 0.1 nanometers out of 50,000 nanometers.
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- The fine structure constant number was discovered in 1916 by Arnold Sommerfeld and has remained a mystery ever since. Fifty years after Sommerfeld Richard Feynman said, “ it is one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics.
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- You might say the hand of God wrote the number, and we don’t know how He pushed the pencil. We know what kind of dance to do experimentally to measure the number, but we don’t know what kind of dance to do on the computer to make this number come out.” In other words, we do not know how to calculate the fine structure constant from theory to this day.
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---------------------------------- The number is 1/137.
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----------------- The designation for the number is the Greek letter Alpha.
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- Alpha is a pure dimensionless number that pops up in almost all equations dealing with electricity and magnetism. The constant represents the strength of the electromagnetic force that holds atoms together.
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- Electrons are negative charges, proton nuclei are positive charges. The electromagnetic force is the attractive force that holds atomic electrons and protons together. If the constant has not changed than scientists conclude that atoms have not changed since they were first formed after the Big Bang.
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------------------- Alpha = (electron charge)^2/ 2 * (Planck constant) * (speed of light * (electric constant permittivity of space)
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---------------------------- Alpha = 0.007297352568
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--------------------------- Alpha = 1/137.03599976
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-------------------------- Most scientist use Alpha^-1 = 137
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- Alpha sets the energy levels for the electrons that are orbiting the nucleus of every atom. The spectral lines of emission and absorption are set by these same energy levels. Atoms emit and absorb electrons according to the interaction between orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum.
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- The fine structure constant is the ratio of two energies, the energy to bring two electrons from infinity to a specific distance against their electrostatic repulsion, and the energy of single photon of wavelength 2/pi* that distance.
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- A third definition has Alpha equal to the relativistic velocity of an electron in orbit about the nucleus / the speed of light. All these produce a number that has been the same since time began. But, we still do not have the theory to back it up.
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-------------------------- Alpha = fine structure constant
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-------------------------- Alpha = 2*pi*Ke*e^2 / h * c
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-------------------------- Ke = coulomb’s electric constant = 8.99*10^9 newton * m^2/coulomb^2
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-------------------------- e = electron charge = 1.6*10^-19 coulomb
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-------------------------- h = Planck’s constant = 6.625*10^-34 Kg*m^2/sec
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-------------------------- c = speed of light = 2.998*10^8 m/sec
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-------------------------- Alpha = 6.28*(8.99*10^9 newton*m^2/coulomb^2) * (1.6*10^-19 coulomb)^2 / (6.625*10^-34 Kg*m^2/sec) * (2.998*10^8 m/sec)
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-------------------------- Alpha = 56.46 * 2.536 * 10^-29 newton*m^2 / 19.86 * 10^-26 kg*m^3/sec^2
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-------------------------- Alpha = 144.7 *10^-29 kg*m^3/sec^2 / 19.86 * 10^-26 kg*m^3/sec^2
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-------------------------- Alpha = .00729 = 1/137.03598561
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-------------------------- Alpha = 1/137
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- Alpha is the measure of electromagnetic interaction and it is .007
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- To make the equivalent measure of the strong force it is 1.
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- (Roger Penrose says it is 10. But we are dealing with orders of magnitude here.)
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- The equivalent measure for the weak force is .0000000000001
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- The equivalent measure for gravity is .00000000000000000000000000000000001
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- There is enormous differences between the strengths of the forces with the electromagnetic and strong force holding atoms together being the strongest. The electromagnetic force between electron and proton is attractive. If by itself the atom would collapse. The strong nuclear force is repulsive over very short distances it keeps the electrons from collapsing into the nucleus.
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- The value of this electromagnetic constant of interaction is 1/137 but we do not know why that is the number. We do know that if it were 0.4% larger or smaller then carbon could not form in the stars supernovae. If it were 4% larger or smaller than oxygen could not form in the stars either. Without carbon and oxygen there would be no life as we know it.
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- At the same time the measurements were made for Alpha, with great precision, astronomers were also measuring the expansion of the Universe in the redshifts of these spectra.
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- There calculations agree with others that the Universe is full of 70% Dark Energy. Is Dark Energy Einstein’s cosmological constant or is it something else? Something is creating space, repulsing matter, and accelerating the expansion of the Universe and we do not know what.
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- I leave that mystery for you to solve.
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- Other Reviews available about mysterious Alpha.
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- 1473 - The math that makes an atom work.
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- 1336 - The mystery of the fine structure constant. Alpha = 0.0072973531
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- June 23, 2019 599
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