Large Hadron Collider Shooting Holes in Particle Theory
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) did not destroy the Earth when it was turned on, but it might rewrite the theory of particle physics. It could go as far as building an entire set of new laws with the help of a little scientific study.
The super enormous collider is in operation, and scientists are busy shooting protons along its 27 km track and smashing them into each other, generating high energy explosions. From these explosions, they have found that tiny pieces of matter are not behaving as they should when they are compared with their anti-matter brethren. The difference between how matter and anti-matter behave, just might explain the unknown properties of antimatter.
Our universe is composed entirely of a substance known as matter. Matter is the stuff that we are used to seeing each and every day. It is our desk, the chair we sit in, and our bodies are made up of matter, too. However, when the universe was born, so many billions of years ago, modern cosmology and theoretical physics predicted that both matter and anti-matter was created in nearly equal amounts. Yet, mysteriously, there is no observable, or only faint wisps anti-matter left today.
It is thought that the majority of both matter and antimatter where destroyed when they interacted with each other when the universe was born. The leftovers from that grand explosion, popularly called the Big Bang, is all of the matter that makes up our universe today.
Antimatter does form today wherever high impact particle collisions take place. There are still places in our universe where antimatter exists, like the center of our Milky Way, where a black hole is said to take up residence.
Here on Earth, anti matter is virtually non existent, yet scientists have feverishly been trying to create and observe antimatter in places like the Large Hadron Collider at great expense.
The collider can create tiny amounts of anti-matter for instants of time. Scientists are able to capture a snapshot of these particles formed from B mesons. B Mesons are made up of smaller particles that are either quarks or anti-quarks. They have found that a small percentage of quarks and anti-quarks are not behaving as they should.
More experiments will be needed to confirm the finding, but a few of these quarks and antiquarks are behaving badly, going against the prediction Standard Model of Physics. This means that new rules of behavior will need to be written for the particle physics.
Source:
Live Science
Wikipedia
The super enormous collider is in operation, and scientists are busy shooting protons along its 27 km track and smashing them into each other, generating high energy explosions. From these explosions, they have found that tiny pieces of matter are not behaving as they should when they are compared with their anti-matter brethren. The difference between how matter and anti-matter behave, just might explain the unknown properties of antimatter.
Our universe is composed entirely of a substance known as matter. Matter is the stuff that we are used to seeing each and every day. It is our desk, the chair we sit in, and our bodies are made up of matter, too. However, when the universe was born, so many billions of years ago, modern cosmology and theoretical physics predicted that both matter and anti-matter was created in nearly equal amounts. Yet, mysteriously, there is no observable, or only faint wisps anti-matter left today.
It is thought that the majority of both matter and antimatter where destroyed when they interacted with each other when the universe was born. The leftovers from that grand explosion, popularly called the Big Bang, is all of the matter that makes up our universe today.
Antimatter does form today wherever high impact particle collisions take place. There are still places in our universe where antimatter exists, like the center of our Milky Way, where a black hole is said to take up residence.
Here on Earth, anti matter is virtually non existent, yet scientists have feverishly been trying to create and observe antimatter in places like the Large Hadron Collider at great expense.
The collider can create tiny amounts of anti-matter for instants of time. Scientists are able to capture a snapshot of these particles formed from B mesons. B Mesons are made up of smaller particles that are either quarks or anti-quarks. They have found that a small percentage of quarks and anti-quarks are not behaving as they should.
More experiments will be needed to confirm the finding, but a few of these quarks and antiquarks are behaving badly, going against the prediction Standard Model of Physics. This means that new rules of behavior will need to be written for the particle physics.
Source:
Live Science
Wikipedia
Published by J.A. McLynne
An information technology professional by trade, I enjoy cooking, reading novels, and refurbishing old computers. I also write on the side to change pace. View profile
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1 Comments
Post a CommentVery lucidly explained to benefit a non-scientific reader. We seem to know very little, but think of the possibilities when we get started. Miles to go before we all sleep! siva