Quantum Physics

Hmmm....between teaching religion and quantum mechanics things over here are probably indistinguishable from being roaring drunk. So Petty...Petty? Where's he got to now?

Um, sorry Halfwise, got distracted, my behind is red and sore, and I've not said that since that time I made the mistake of joining a rugby club- thats private education for you!

Mrs Figg wrote: good answer. I wonder if spooky whotsit at a distance is like the transporter? for a split second you can be wibbly wobbly in two places at once.

Um, yes. In that information can be transported by quantum effects, but whether or not you consider it faster than light is open to interpretation. Anyway, atoms in different quantum states have now been 'teleported' across the lab, or at least the quantum states have. But it's more of an information shell game - I may get to it in the next installment.

what I want to know is, where did all the Anti Matter go? there was supposed to be an Anti Matter particle that twinned the Matter particles, and they clashed and the Anti Matter killed all the Matter, so how come we are still here? Is the Anti Matter still lurking somewhere.?

Mrs Figg wrote:what I want to know is, where did all the Anti Matter go? there was supposed to be an Anti Matter particle that twinned the Matter particles, and they clashed and the Anti Matter killed all the Matter, so how come we are still here? Is the Anti Matter still lurking somewhere.?

Potentially, yes. But I suspect you'll have wait for Halfwise to finish the Quantum Physics thread and start an Astrophysics thread for that question to get a complete answer.

well if he is not too exausted by the blonde with big boobies camping then I will wait for the explaination.

Mrs Figg wrote:well if he is not too exausted by the blonde with big boobies camping then I will wait for the explaination.

I was wondering were my archivist went!

Mrs Figg wrote:what I want to know is, where did all the Anti Matter go? there was supposed to be an Anti Matter particle that twinned the Matter particles, and they clashed and the Anti Matter killed all the Matter, so how come we are still here? Is the Anti Matter still lurking somewhere.?

Does it matter

It only matters if Anti Matter is lurking behind the bike shed having a fag and suddenly pops out to say hi, then it really matters

I won't have time until August for a long answer, but the short answer is that the universe is slightly unbalanced (no surprise, you say). There was nearly equal amounts of matter and antimatter early on, then all but a small fraction turned into energy and what was left is us. Rather than me explain it, I'll let this guy do it.

http://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/beamline/26/1/26-1-sather.pdf

Unfortunately he's writing mainly for general physicists, but the first page or two should make some sense. To summarize the rest: the imbalance in matter-antimatter comes from slight asymmetries in physical law, rather obtuse bits of reality which don't pop up in the normal world. Kind of like a beautiful symmetrical sculpture, but if you look closely you see the grain of the stone is ever so slightly tilted. The end effect is this slight imbalance allowed some matter to survive the great annihilation love fest right after the big bang, and hence explains the existence of matter itself.

Why the ever so slight skewness? Nobody knows.

Mrs Figg wrote:It only matters if Anti Matter is lurking behind the bike shed having a fag and suddenly pops out to say hi, then it really matters

I've been reading through Halfwise's link for you Mrs Figg. The key quotation is:

A definitive answer to the mystery of baryon asymmetry thus awaits the next generation of high-energy experiments, which hope to shed light on the far-reaching phenomenon of electroweak-symmetry breaking.

In other words, best to stay clear of the bike shed, just in case!

preumably without anti matter the Universe would be just an infinite rock thingy, we needed it to give us space. But the slight imbalance was pretty convenient if you ask me. I wonder if Black holes swallowed it all.

only one way to find out... do you care to lead the expedition?!

only if I can take my pocket handkerchiefs.

I think you just put the whole high energy particle physics epic neatly in perspective.

here to help

Maybe matter is just tougher.... early examples of survival of the fittest.

Or maybe there wasn't matter and anti-matter. Maybe it was pro-matter and anti-matter and the side effect of their troubled co-existence was the creation of matter.

Or maybe matter was Switzerland and didn't get involved?

That shows how hot it is here, I only just got Chris's joke, doh!

Lance maybe it was Vicky Pollard, yeah but no but yeah but no shaaaaaaaatap!

I wish I could comment on the subtleties of the analogy, but I don't have much to say since I'm at about the same level of understanding as far as Higgs Bosons go. I could never really follow the more advanced quantum mechanics: the 'classical' theories are symmetrical and pure; the modern theories always have a wrench thrown in them...hence the matter-antimatter imbalance among other things.

However, I can draw parallels to the properties of the electron and other particles, for which the increased electric field density nearby provides enough energy for extra particles to pop in and out of existence (typically annihilating with their antimatter twin), which means the electron can be polarized (charge separation) and have a moment of inertia (resistance to rotation), both not possible for the theoretically pure single charge point particle electron. Properties are added by the bunching together effect.

i lost you at however..

I lost him at I wish.

I have a better explenation of the Higg particle. The person was originally Justin Bieber but I'm gonna use a person I like better. Benedict Cumberbatch. When he walks into a room all the fangirls clutter around him. He will then have mass. The ones on the outer side wants to get to him, but can't, it creates movements. It is harder to stop and make him move now than it is if there was no fangirls.

Things with funny names bunch around other things with funny names, and everything would be simpler if they didn't.

How's that?

And speaking of things with funny names, you might say that as a result Benedict Cumberbatch has a nice mass.