- 3424 - QUANTUM MECHANICS - Applied to Astronomy? Quantum Mechanic’s “Uncertainty Principle” and the “Exclusion Principle” give us these new laws applying to the stars. The Degeneracy Pressures within stars, Quantum Tunneling, that allows fusion reactions to occur, Virtual Particles created by the Uncertainty Principle may create Dark Energy.
------------- 3424 - QUANTUM MECHANICS - Applied to Astronomy
- Most everything we know about astronomy we owe to light. Photons are particles called “Bosons” and they do not obey the law of Quantum Mechanics called the Exclusion Principle. Photons and all Bosons can occupy the same quantum state at the same time.
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- Electrons can not occupy the same quantum state at the same time and are therefore classified as “Fermions“. All Fermions do obey the Quantum Mechanic Exclusion Principle, including electrons, protons, and neutrons.
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- See Review 2703 to learn about the Quantum Mechanic Uncertainty Principle and the Exclusion Principle. When we apply these laws to astronomy several new laws applying to the stars can be derived:
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------------------- (1) The Degeneracy Pressures caused by the Exclusion Principle is what keeps stars from totaling collapsing under the force of gravity.
------------------ (2) Quantum Tunneling allows fusion reactions to occur at the core of our Sun.
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--------------------- (3) Virtual Particles created by the Uncertainty Principle in the vacuum space may be the Universe’s expansion pressure called “Dark Energy“.
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--------------------- (4) Virtual Particles may cause Blackholes to evaporate and have a finite lifetime.
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- (1) Electron Degeneracy Pressure is what creates Brown Dwarf stars and White Dwarf stars. When stars are not big enough to create fusion at their cores, or, when their cores run out of fuel they have no thermal pressure to withstand the force of gravity. They would collapse into a solid neutron. Except, Electron Degeneracy Pressure caused by the Exclusion Principle prevents gravity from collapsing them beyond that point.
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- After a star’s death they may collapse down to a smaller diameter but Degeneracy Pressure will prevent the further collapse and the star will live the remainder of its life as a “White Dwarf“. This is what will happen to our Sun in another 5,000,000,000 years.
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- If the star was massive enough to have the gravity force be great enough to overcome the electron degeneracy pressure the star will overcome the Exclusion Principle and force the electrons down into the nucleus creating neutrons with the electron-proton pairs. The star will collapse down into a 10 mile diameter as a “Neutron Star“. At this point the Neutron Degeneracy Pressure prevents a further collapse and the star lives the remainder of its life as a Neutron Star.
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- If the star was still more massive it is possible for gravity to overcome even the Neutron Degeneracy Pressure and the star collapses into a “Blackhole“. The Blackhole would live forever except for the other principle, the Uncertainty Principle.
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- (2) Quantum tunneling is what makes nuclear fusion possible in stars the size of our Sun. Larger stars have greater gravity pressure and their cores become dense enough and hot enough for fusion to occur without quantum tunneling. Quantum tunneling is caused by the Uncertainty Principle where the particles location is determined by probabilities.
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- When a star the size of our Sun compresses its core density is not great enough to force fusion of hydrogen nuclei to occur. But, quantum tunneling of particles overcomes the density barrier and fusion is allowed to occur at a certain rate. Hydrogen fusion to helium is what fuels our Sun.
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- (3) “Virtual particles” pop in and out of existence in the expansion and vacuum of space. They exist due to the Uncertainty Principle but for such a short time that they do not violate law of the Conservation of Energy.
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- We are unable to detect these particles. However, we can detect the expansion of space and that is happening at an accelerating rate. We call it Dark Energy. We believe virtual particles are responsible for it but we have not detected them and Dark Energy remains a mystery.
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- (4) Virtual particles are also associated with the limited lifetime of Blackholes. Nothing escapes a Blackhole, not even light. However, at the edge of the Blackhole’s Event Horizon virtual particles can boil off and escape into space. In this way the Blackhole is slowly evaporating. This evaporation is not confirmed but the theory is credited to Steven Hawking as Hawking Radiation.
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- We have not detected virtual particles so Blackhole evaporation and Dark Energy remain to be discovered. The Uncertainty Principle still applies, we just do not know how. In the case of our Sun’s fusion and all star’s collapse and we do know how the theory applies. Gravity eventually overcomes the Exclusion Principle. Yet, among the four fundamental forces gravity is extremely weak.
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- Gravity is weaker by 39 orders of magnitude compared to the electromagnetic force, the weak and strong nuclear forces. We can not explain why that is so. Pick up a paper clip with a refrigerator magnet. The entire mass of the Earth is causing gravity to pull the clip down but the little magnet has enough force to pull the clip up. We obviously have much more to learn. Quantum Mechanics not only opens up the atomic world to our understanding but to the cosmic world as well.
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- (a) The Lifetime of a Blackhole can be calculated with this formula:
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------------------ Lifetime = 10,240 *pi^2 * G^2* M^3 / h*c^4
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- G is the force of gravity, M is the mass of the Blackhole, h is Planck’s Constant of Action and c is the speed of light. From the formula you can see that lifetime varies as the cube of the mass. Therefore, low mass Blackholes have shorter lifetimes.
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- If you use this calculation on the smaller mass Blackholes you get a lifetime of about 10 billion years. This is about the lifetime of the Universe. Blackholes created at the beginning may be ending their lifetimes about now. Astronomers expect a giant explosion of Gamma Rays with this happens. They are on the look out hoping to see the death of a mini- Blackhole.
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- (b) Mini-Blackholes would be about the mass of the Earth 6*10^24 kilograms. Lifetime about 13.7 billion years. Could we see one of these in your lifetime?
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- I have never heard it said, but I would suspect that in genetics, it is the quantum Mechanic Uncertainty Principle that causes life to age and be responsible for our lifetimes as well. My guess. Don’t hold me to it, I am only 81 years old.
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January 22, 2022 QUANTUM MECHANICS - Astronomy 1028 2171 3424
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