Higgs Boson:On the standard model, the Higgs particle is in its category because of its unique and important role in our cosmos. The Higgs field is the reason mass exists, it gives objects their mass. I personally have not taken a deep dive into the details of the Higgs but am still astounded by the role it plays in our world. CERN, the first detected in 2012 at the CERN lab, here's their definition of the Higgs boson," In the 1970s, physicists realised that there are very close ties between two of the four fundamental forces – the weak force and the electromagnetic force. The two forces can be described within the same theory, which forms the basis of the Standard Model. This “unification” implies that electricity, magnetism, light and some types of radioactivity are all manifestations of a single underlying force known as the electroweak force. The basic equations of the unified theory correctly describe the electroweak force and its associated force-carrying particles, namely the photon, and the W and Z bosons, except for a major glitch. All of these particles emerge without a mass. While this is true for the photon, we know that the W and Z have mass, nearly 100 times that of a proton. Fortunately, theorists Robert Brout, François Englert and Peter Higgs made a proposal that was to solve this problem. What we now call the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism gives a mass to the W and Z when they interact with an invisible field, now called the “Higgs field”, which pervades the universe."
The Higgs field led to the creation of cosmic strings, which will be our next subtopic next week.
1 Comment
What is the Standard Model?If you ask any physicist about what the most useful and successful scientific theory is when it comes to explaining observable and quantum behavior, I bet that nearly all of them will tell you about the standard model. But why is it so vital in our modern-day understanding, well that's because it provides the building blocks to understanding matter's properties and the 4 fundamental forces ( except gravity since it's yet to be united with quantum theory, for the time being, the graviton has taken its place but it has yet to be proven or discovered). The model describes particles that make up the famous particles of the atom the proton, neutron, and electron, it also describes how the particles interact using a quantized version of each force. Also, particles can have a different value for many different variables such as spin, mass, and charge. To further understand the standard model, here is a nice explanation from CERN, one of the most famous particle colliders that aided in the discovery of the model, "The theories and discoveries of thousands of physicists since the 1930s have resulted in a remarkable insight into the fundamental structure of matter: everything in the universe is found to be made from a few basic building blocks called fundamental particles, governed by four fundamental forces. Our best understanding of how these particles and three of the forces are related to each other is encapsulated in the Standard Model of particle physics. Developed in the early 1970s, it has successfully explained almost all experimental results and precisely predicted a wide variety of phenomena. Over time and through many experiments, the Standard Model has become established as a well-tested physics theory."  Standard Model from Wikimedia Commons Understanding the 4 Subcategories of the Standard ModelThere are 4 sections of the standard model as seen above, this part of the blog will be separated into 3 parts to explain the categories Bosons: In particle physics, forces are represented by bosons. They are considered force carriers that transfer the fundamental forces between the particles. There are 4 main fundamental forces and they are the origin of each all the forces we observe. The forces are gravity (represented by the hypothetical graviton), electromagnetic (represented by photon), the strong force (represented by the gluon), and the weak force (represented by the W and Z boson). Details of each will be in the next subtopic. Matter (Leptons and Quarks): All matter is made up of these two categories: Leptons and Quarks The main difference between them is that leptons can exist freely while quarks cannot (they can't exist individually). Leptons also have neutrinos which follow around each lepton and balance it out. Both set of particles have an anti-set of particles, but that's for another blog. The Higgs, THE GOD PARTICLE : NEXT SUBTOPIC WILL BE ABOUT THE GOD PARTICLE, THE HIGGS BOSON BE READY
What is Nuclear Fusion ?Hello, I decided to go with a short blog about nuclear fusion bceause it relates to next weeks topic about stars. So what is nuclear fusion, it is when two light atoms fuse to make an atom of larger mass. To account for this mass, it releases energy ( this can be explained by the famous E=MC^2). This process is an example of energy conservation, energy can never dissapate, it must always be accounted for. An example of the use of nuclear fusion is the hydrogen bomb. For a long time, experiments have been made to attempt at doing fusion to gain energy, however, none have reached the perfect conditions nor materials for this to occur. Why is utilzing nuclear fusion so hard?
The Diffculties of Nuclear Fusion)Nuclear fusion is proven to not just produce more energy, but to also be less harmful to humans, Despite all these factors, there are sturggles with wielding this immense power. According to IAEA, ("While the sun’s massive gravitational force naturally induces fusion, without that force a higher temperature is needed for the reaction to take place. On earth, we need temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius and intense pressure to make deuterium and tritium fuse, and sufficient confinement to hold the plasma and maintain the fusion reaction long enough for a net power gain, i.e. the ratio of the fusion power produced to the power used to heat the plasma. While conditions that are very close to those required in a fusion reactor are now routinely achieved in experiments, improved confinement properties and stability of the plasma are needed. Scientists and engineers from all over the world continue to test new materials and design new technologies to achieve fusion energy. " (https://www.iaea.org/bulletin/what-is-fusion-and-why-is-it-so-difficult-to-achieve). We have come close, but limitation in our current techonoly leave us wondering when we will be able to take full of this powerful source of energy.
What is a Neutron Star ?When a star dies, it has 3 possible fates that are mass-dependent, it either turns into a white dwarf star or goes supernova and has a possibility of becoming a blackh0le or a neutron star (there is a graphic below that goes into specifications and details). But what really is a neutron star, it is the collapsed core of the star, they are actually the smallest and most dense known object other than black holes. The supernova explosion accompanied by gravitational collapse causes the core of the star to get squeezed down further than a white dwarf. This means that a neutron star is the remains of a core of a dead star that collapses due to its own mass causing an inward gravitational pull. It is hard to imagine how much mass can be compressed into a neutron star, to give you a better vision, imagine around a 20 km sphere with a mass range of around 1.5-2 times the mass of the sun. When they form, they are unbelievably hot (1.8 million°F), but because they do not produce any heat, cool down slowly.  Fate of Stars, Source britannica.comThree Types of Neutron StarsThe first type is a pulsar, a type of neutron star that produces beams of radiation from its poles. Since all neutron stars rotate rapidly, this beam may be seen as a pulse of on and off for us on Earth. According to NASA, "Most neutron stars are observed as pulsars. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars observed to have pulses of radiation at very regular intervals that typically range from milliseconds to seconds. Pulsars have very strong magnetic fields which funnel jets of particles out along the two magnetic poles. These accelerated particles produce very powerful beams of light. Often, the magnetic field is not aligned with the spin axis, so those beams of particles and light are swept around as the star rotates. When the beam crosses our line-of-sight, we see a pulse – in other words, we see pulsars turn on and off as the beam sweeps over Earth. One way to think of a pulsar is like a lighthouse. At night, a lighthouse emits a beam of light that sweeps across the sky. Even though the light is constantly shining, you only see the beam when it is pointing directly in your direction."(https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/neutron_stars1.html #:~:text=Pulsars%20are%20rotating%20neutron%20stars,very%20powerful%20beams%20o f %20light.) The second type is a magnetar, a magnetar does not have two intense beams of radiation, but instead has an unbelievably strong magnetic field (1000 stronger than Earth's). The strength of the magnetic field causes it to emit extremely high-energy electromagnetic radiation. The surface of a neutron star (or the crust) and its magnetic field are related to a change in one that directly affects the other. This means that the motion of crust can be explosive, in a magnetar this explosion is amplified unbelievably and it releases an insane amount of energy, an example of this is magnetar SGR 1806-20 emitted more energy in a tenth of a second than our sun has for the past 100,000 years. ( I WOULD LIKE TO STATE THAT ALL OF THIS INFORMATION IS FROM NASA's WEBSITE, THANK YOU NASA :D)  Types of Neutron Stars, Source NASA  Magentar features, Source : NASA SUBTOPIC'S MOVED TO TUESDAY BE READYHey guys, quick update, I have decided to make an extra blog midweek that will be about a subtopic that may complement the regular post, I ALSO GOT A 5 on my Calc test so thats also good. Absoloute ZeroAbsolute zero, also known as 0 kelvin or -273.15 Celcius is theorized to be the lowest state of energy that can be reached in terms of heat and temperature. At that point, matter itself cannot move meaning it is impossible to slow it down meaning it is the lowest point. The closest scientists have come to achieving ABS zero is around 150 nano kelvin off, which is impressive, to say the least. The entirety of physics describes the wheres, hows, and whys energy is transformed into different forms and transported from one place to another. A simple example of this is how the sunlight's energy allows plants to go through photosynthesis, and then that energy is given to us through our digestive system, and then that energy is what keeps us rolling throughout the day as we continue to spread energy. But what if all energy is distributed evenly throughout the universe, does that mean all matter would be in a constant state of no-motion. Energy itself is the reason motion occurs, everything is gaining or losing energy from another as behaviors you see every day. If everything has one temperature throughout the cosmos, then there is no need for energy transfer meaning no motion, also this means that absolute zero does NOT stop time but the actual motion of the particles. Even at its end, it turns out the universe can't reach absolute zero, according to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/11/12/even-at-its-end-the-universe-will-never-reach-absolute-zero/?sh=327636f82748) , "At this stage, we’ll have a cold, empty Universe, where the density of matter and radiation has effectively dropped to zero. But our Universe also contains dark energy: an energy inherent to the fabric of space itself. According to our best measurements, it appears that dark energy doesn’t decay, meaning that even as the Universe relentless expands forever and ever, this form of energy density will remain constant. Surprisingly, this fact alone will keep our Universe’s temperature from dropping to absolute zero, no matter how long we wait. Here’s the science of why." Absolute zero is unachievable theoretically, but with new research and technology, I am sure it will be reached.  Graphic discribing paritcle behavior as energy is lost, from Discovery Magazine
What is the Andromeda Galaxy?Before I begin, I would like to state why I changed this week's topic (it was supposed to be about wave function collapse), I feel like I need to discuss more topics before getting into a complex topic which is why I will delay it till I build more base-knowledge. At the center lies a supermassive black hole, commanding the stars to follow its curvature and causing them to follow set paths. As we discussed previously, galaxy cluster's motions are affected by Dark Matter. M31, AKA Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy (galaxy types in the image below) that was discovered in the 1920s by famous scientist E.Hubble. Compared to our galaxy (The Milky Way), Andromeda is much denser with around 1 trillion stars meanwhile TMW sits at 300-400 million. It has been theorized that Andromeda formed around 5 to 9 billion years ago by a collision of two smaller galaxies. Did you know that the galaxy appears 6 times wider than the moon in the sky, according to astronomytrek.com, "... but it may come as a surprise to most people that the Andromeda galaxy appears six times wider than the full Moon in the night sky. Even the naked-eye portion, which appears as a cloud of faint light, is about the size of the Moon (0.5 degrees of the sky), while 10×50 binoculars will reveal a much larger image. Using an 8-inch (200mm) telescope, M31 presents a spectacular sight with its diffuse dust lanes stretching out from its bright center, and if these vast spiral arms are included, the Andromeda Galaxy would cover around 20 degrees of sky or 40 full Moons."
The Future of our ResidenceAndromeda galaxy is heading straight for us, approaching at approximately 110 km/s. Before you wonder what this will mean for Earth, scientists believe that Earth won't be affected as much as you think. According to https://www.businessinsider.com/, "An epic war is coming between our home galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy, which is currently racing toward us at a speed of 250,000 mph. Astronomers estimate that 3.75 billion years from now, Earth will be caught up amid the largest galactic event in our planet's history, when these two giant galaxies collide. Luckily, experts think that Earth will survive, but it won't be entirely unaffected. The collision will unfold right in front of us, changing the night sky to look like nothing any human has seen before." The battle will continue for billions of years as the supermassive black holes get close enough to merge, The collision will form an elliptical type of galaxy containing the remnants of both galaxies. Imagine the view, multiple explosions and a variety of new stars will light up our night sky and will be an amazing wonder to observe, but what I believe is even more beautiful is the night sky view right before the collision, we will have an amazing close-up view of the galaxy.  Image of the simulation of the collison, the simulation's link and Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi-2ySsWSAs Sub Topic : Andromeda Discovery StoryAndromeda was initially misidentified until Edwin Hubble successfully confirmed it to be a galaxy. According to theplanets.org, "The first supernova observed outside the Milky Way was S Andromedae. Also, it remains the only supernova event that was ever observed in the Andromeda Galaxy. It is also called Supernova 1885 after the year it was seen. At the time, the distance of the Andromeda Galaxy was not yet fully known. It was thought to be just another nearby object in the Milky Way that they called “Nova 1885.”Charles Messier gave the designation M31 to Andromeda in 1764. And even by then, astronomers had given it some interesting descriptions. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi called it a “nebulous smear” and for some, it was the “little cloud.” French philosopher Pierre Louis Maupertuis considered it an “island universe.” William Herschel, on the other hand, noted that it is the closest “great nebula” to us. One of the earliest photographs of Andromeda was taken by Isaac Roberts in 1888. Though, at this time, it was still considered a “spiral nebula,” a field for the formation of new stars."
What is a frame of reference?Time is the most interesting concept of modern physics, we experience time, we can differentiate the past from the present and we can feel the moment. But what about the future, does it exist, is it set in stone, if so why can't we experience it or feel it. There is a lot to cover about time, but the main focus of today's blog is how time is relative to each person, and by that, I mean how each of us perceives time differently. This was predicted by Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity, as explained by the American Musem Of Natural History, "The faster a clock moves, the slower time passes according to someone in a different frame of reference. To explain this bewildering result, physicists point to a thought experiment involving a clock that uses light to mark time. Although this "light clock" experiment is a hypothetical one, the same effects are true for any timepiece, from old-fashioned grandfather clocks to atomic clocks, the most accurate time-keeping devices available. Time is relative even for the human body, which is in essence a biological clock. The effect of time slowing down is negligible at speeds of everyday life, but it becomes very pronounced at speeds approaching that of light." Another factor in time dilation is gravity (time slows down as gravity increases, this means that height off the ground directly affects time), people on the ISS seem to age slower than people on Earth, which provides further evidence of time not following a universal clock. One more factor I would just like to mention is speed, a moving clock ticks slower.
How time differs for each of us ?You watch as your best friend is approaching the event horizon of a black hole, as the effects of the gravitational field increase you watch as he/her's motion slows down, and eventually, he is stuck in space. Since the area, he/she entered's nature is different than the place you are observing from, your perspective of time is much different from what they are experiencing. As you watch them freeze in time, in their perspective they have probably already entered the singularity. Let me further explain what I mean, your friend experienced time regularly, by 10 seconds in their perspective, they may have reached the inside of the black hole, but for 10 seconds in your perspective, they are frozen in time right and has barely made progress in getting close to the black hole. This means that a second in their perspective could be an eternity for you since time passes slower for them. ( I got really confused and had to read this out at least 4 times :( ). Another example is the movie Interstellar when the crew gets onto the first planet, they spend nearly an hour which results in the scientists on the ship waiting around 10 years, same concept, different situation.  Recapping the paragraph above, Source : medium.com Sub Topic / Sneak Peak : How Observation Effects OutcomePerhaps one of the most interesting topics in physics is how observation affects outcome, this is a complex topic in the Quantum realm and describes the event named The Collapse of The Wave Function ( Friday's topic). To give you all a sneak peek, let us say I was to measure the distribution of photons across two slits onto a sensor screen. If I were to not observe any of the slits, I would get the regular distribution, but what if I observed covered a slit, or only observed a single slit, how would it interfere with the pattern, find this Thursday :D.
|
