- 3304 - MATTER - from colliding light photons? Creating matter from light smashing together. It’s a striking demonstration of the physics immortalized in Einstein’s equation E=mc2, which revealed that energy and mass are two forms of the same thing.
--------------------- 3304 - MATTER - from colliding light photons?
- A photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic field and the basic "unit" of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is also the force carrier for the electromagnetic force.
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- The effects of electromagnetic force are easily observed at both the microscopic and macroscopic level, because the photon has no rest mass; this allows for interactions at long distances.
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- Like all “elementary particles“, photons are governed by quantum mechanics and will exhibit wave-particle duality. They exhibit properties of both waves and particles. A single photon may be refracted by a lens or exhibit wave interference, but also act as a particle giving a definite result when its location is measured.
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- The modern concept of the photon was developed by Albert Einstein to explain experimental observations that did not fit the classical wave model of light. The photon model accounted for the frequency dependence of light's energy, and explained the ability of matter and radiation to be in thermal equilibrium.
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- The photon model also accounted for other observations, including the properties of blackbody radiation. Max Planck, had sought to explain using semiclassical models, in which light is still described by Maxwell's equations, but the material objects that emit and absorb light are quantized.
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- Although these semiclassical models contributed to the development of quantum mechanics, further experiments proved Einstein's hypothesis that light itself is quantized; the quanta of light are photons.
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- I can turn matter into light. Just start a fire. But, can I turn light into matter?
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- In the modern Standard Model of particle physics, photons of light are described as a necessary consequence of physical laws having a certain symmetry at every point in spacetime. The intrinsic properties of photons, such as charge, mass and spin, are determined by the properties of this “gauge symmetry“.
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- This photon concept has led to advances in experimental and theoretical physics, such as lasers, Bose–Einstein condensation, quantum field theory, and the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. It has been applied to photochemistry, high-resolution microscopy, and measurements of molecular distances.
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- Photons have been studied as elements of quantum computers and for sophisticated applications in optical communication such as quantum cryptography.
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- However, for the first time, physicists have used the photons from lasers to deep-freeze antimatter. An ultraviolet laser cooled anti-hydrogen atoms, chilling the anti-atoms to just above “absolute zero“.
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- This laser technique for slowing down antimatter, the oppositely charged counterpart to normal matter, could help scientists build the first antimatter molecules. This would allow physicists to measure the properties of anti-atoms much more precisely. Comparing anti-atoms with normal atoms could test some fundamental symmetries of the universe.
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- Lasers can cool atoms by dampening the atoms’ motion with a barrage of light particles, i.e. photons. To create anti-hydrogen atoms physicists mixed antiprotons with “positrons“, the antiparticles of electrons, at the CERN particle physics lab near Geneva.
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- A laser beam tuned to a specific frequency of UV light slowed the anti-hydrogen atoms from 90 meters per second to about 10 meters per second.
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- Supercooled anti-hydrogen could test an idea called charge-parity-time symmetry. This physics principle says that normal atoms should absorb and emit photons with the exact same energies as their antimatter look-alikes. Even the tiniest differences between hydrogen and anti-hydrogen could undermine modern theories of physics.
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- Similarly, Einstein’s theory of gravity predicts that matter and antimatter should fall to Earth at the same rate. Lab experiments dropping laser-cooled anti-atoms, instead of warm, jittery ones, into free fall could provide a clearer view of gravity’s effects.
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- Collide light with light and you get matter and antimatter. Called the “Breit-Wheeler process“, in which two particles of light, or photons, crash into one another and produce an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron.
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- Predicted more than 80 years ago, the Breit-Wheeler process had never been directly observed, although scientists have seen related processes, such as light scattering off of light.
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- Creating matter from light smashing together. It’s a striking demonstration of the physics immortalized in Einstein’s equation E=mc2, which revealed that energy and mass are two forms of the same thing.
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- Photons from a commonplace source of light, like a lightbulb or a laser, are real. In the “Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider“, atomic nuclei travel at nearly the speed of light before ramming into one another. Those speedy nuclei are surrounded by electromagnetic fields, and those fields have photons that are also colliding with them.
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- Normally, such photons from electromagnetic fields are “virtual“. But in this experiment, the photons act as if they are real due to the high speeds at which the two nuclei.
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- The new evidence for the Breit-Wheeler process comes from collisions where the nuclei just missed one another. In those cases, the electromagnetic fields of the two nuclei overlap, and two photons from those fields can collide. The researchers looked for near-misses that spit out one electron and one positron.
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- Although the photons behave almost as if real, they are technically virtual. However, if the reality of a photon is based only on how it behaves then these would be real photons. However, unlike “normal” photons, which have no mass, these photons do have mass.
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- One way to skirt thorny questions about the definition of reality would be to perform this experiment with indisputably real photons. Scientists are now are working toward detecting the Breit-Wheeler process with lasers, which produce light that’s as real as the light allowing you to read this article.
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- That experiment, physicists are hoping, will clinch the case for colliding light making matter. It is a lot easier making light out of matter. Just strike a match!
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- October 13, 2021 MATTER - from colliding light photons? 3304
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