The confusing building blocks of nature. (article 2/3 of “The building blocks of Nature.”

Introduction.

This is the second (2) of three articles where  I’ll try to give a simple overview of what seems to be the names, character and relations between the building blocks of nature, so far. (The articles starts with our everyday life or with a parable so to avoid making the stuff too heavy for non-phycisists . The first article is: The Forces of the Universe (1) The second article is this one(2), and the third is: The Building Blocks of Nature(3) )

Always try to go further on these topics with famous scientists, if you like to deepen your undertsanding. On psychological Universe we occupy ourselves with physics on a very low level, just to show how our extremely complex psyche and organism are dependent on and lean on all the other levels of living matter in the universe.

As we have already shown, the solar system and the endless universe above us, represent an almost unimaginable macro cosmos. http://www.selvuniverset.com/your-five-speeds-in-the-universe/

But there seems to be just as complex a micro cosmic universe inside of each atom of our material world. Not to mention inside each cell, molecule and atom in our own bodies.

We will humbly try to look into this micro world with the common man and woman’s eyes. We will try to structure this seemingly chaotic, unpredictable and dramatic, almost phantasy like scene of subatomic particles, where quarks, leptons, bosons, and mesons are the main actors.

We will however start with a story, or more like a parable. I will kindly ask you to just make believe you’re listening to a fairytale. Listening to this tale please give yourself a license to make up pictures of it in your head, like when you were a child and had lots of imagination.

A PECULIAR STORY

“Very far away in a beautiful place with an almost breathtaking harmony of light and colors, father and son starts a conversation.”

– Where are you my Son? – I am here, daddy, playing with my small and big beads, you know. – Yes, of course you are! The son looking a little reproachful at his father: – Why haven’t I got more toys than these, daddy? Father smiling at him: – Well that’s because you can make anything and everything out of them!

– Even more than with Lego? The Father is whispering, with his index finger over his mouth. – Hush, hush, Lego has not been invented yet, and you cannot interfere with time. The son watches his father with astonishment. – But why do I know about Lego then, and about the existence of more types of toys than my beads?

It takes some time before his father can answer. – Hmm….. He sighs, wrinkling his eyebrows. -That’s because somebody far away from here has started to reconstruct how it all began. And they have also given you and me names, words and sentences so to express ourselves. Father opens his eyes wide, signaling that this is somewhat nice.

– I am rather confused, Daddy. Aren’t we real, then? – As real as can be, when matter and mind interact, the father replies. Then he straightens his back and speaks solemnly to his son. – My dear Son and friend, before you and I plunge into a confusing philosophical dispute about these matters, this is my advice to you: – Just continue the supposed ongoing dialogue between us, – the lively dialogue those far out there have been trying to reconstruct some billions of light years ahead.

– I don’t mind that at all, father. But I don’t like the thought of being projected and invented as me and you, by somebody else. It’s like losing control. It’s like being created by an author, as characters in a novel. And at the same time being supposed to live your own life and have free will, even if you only exist between two covers of a book.

The father’s eyebrows rise high as gothic arches. – Here we go again then Son! He points down at him with his index finger. – It’s not any book, that must be sure, he claims. – If it’s a book, it is the book itself, my son!

The son somewhat irritated and short. – However, it’s a story, and I am in it!

– Yes, you are, father replies, – and I am in it too, he adds! – But at least you are free to doubt, son, – and that means also freedom not to believe. Or else you could not hesitate like this. Isn’t that right, eh? Son answers with a reluctant nod.

– Are you ready then, the father asks.

Son is shrugging his shoulder. He looks a bit confused, but suddenly he seems to waken up: – Yeah, yeah, Ok. – It’s ok for me, if  we get some more action in this Introverse.

– Then shut your eyes, daddy whispers, – and We’ll soon be making crucial preparations for starting an Extroverse, or shall I say, – the very beginning of a Universe.

“Now I have shut my eyes,- daddy. Go on with your story!”

 

Some 13.7 billion light years ago.…

Son: – I am bored! I want some action. This place is dark and dull, daddy.

Father: – Then go and get your toys, and be seated up here on the bench at my right side. Then let’s play together! Let’s make something interesting with your beads.                                                           Son:  – Make me a Universe, then!

                

Father asks while searching in the big black box: – Where are the quarks, Son?

– I have them here in this strange box inside the black box,- beside the leptons.

                   

 

– Ok. They are very important! These “up” and “down” quarks, and these two leptons, the “Electron” and the “electron neutrino”, that’s probably all we need! Because all ordinary matter belongs to this small group of quarks and leptons.

– Hm.. Father hesitates, still looking for something in the toy box: – I am searching for the user’s manual. Have you seen it?

The son says: – Yes, but I didn’t read it. Then father finds it at the bottom of the black box. – Ok, here it is. Let’s see: CERN document server; “The standard model” he mutters while scrutinizing the document.

– Aha, aha,……..aha, yes, yes, he continues, constantly nodding and commenting aloud the content of the manual. – Of, course, of course! – First we must gather the elementary particles, the building blocks of all matter. – Then…, father stops himself.

The most common particles in all matter.

– No, we take one group of elementary beads at a time. – There are two types, look here. He picks up all the quarks and the leptons.

– Daddy, there are so many of them, and they are of different types, not only quarks. He picks up another box with the name ”bosons” on, and yet another with he name “fermions”.

– It’s too advanced for me, daddy, this is for professors and researches in particle physics. He looks a bit lost in all this. – It’s difficult for me only to line up what we have and get a picture of the content of the box. I guess we had an easier job with this IKEA bench we’re sitting on, when it arrived in hundred pieces last summer.

The father: – Yes I know, I know. So let’s make it as simple as possible: Here! There are 6 types of quarks and 6 types of leptons.

– Yeah,- the son replies. -But they seem to stick together two and two. Anyway, I can’t find more than 3 pairs of quarks and 3 pairs of leptons. – That’s ok, they come in pairs, according the manual.

– Aren’t these red, green and blue beads cute! The son picks up a pair with the names up-quark and down-quark.  Hey, they spin in my hand, halv way around themselves, he says somewhat puzzled.

Father can tell him that both the quarks and the electrons have half spin. (1/2 spin). This is unlike the Universe’s force carriers, the bosons, he can tell, – they have a whole spin around themselves.(1/1 spin)

While his father continues reading aloud from the manual, his son seems buzy handling the tiny quarks. – Oops here comes another pair called charm-quark and strange -quark. The boy responds to their weight in his hand.

– They are much heavier than the up and down quarks, he can tell.

– Take care, Son, they will crumble in your hand! The Son looks back into his right hand. – Wow, where did they go?

His father points at his sons other hand. – Check your other hand where you have the ups and down quarks.

The son astonished: – But, hello, now suddenly we have two pairs of up and down quarks, we only had one pair a second ago.

– What did I say, the father continues. -They decay faster than you say “d” in decay. And I admit you can say “d” faster than anyone else in the Universe.    -You mean faster than yourself then, the Son replies with a shrewd smile.

– Then take this cup with the lid on, and be as quick as ever, the father says while still scrutinizing the CERN user’s manual. – Inside here are the very heavy top and bottom quarks. He opens the lid carefully. – Oh no, too late, they crumbled and jumped!

– I have them here, the son cries out, – in my charm- hand. I can feel them. – Hey, no, leave it… they decay in front of me even before me seeing them. – Now they are already gathering in my hand with the ups and down quarks.

Father: – Don’t bother. Find the leptons now. Together they unpack the 6 colorless leptons and arrange them in pairs starting with the “electron” and the “electron neutrino”. They continue with the “muon” and the “muon neutrino” and finish the lepton family with the “tau”, and the “tau neutrino”.

– Ouch, they always tickle, and prickle when handling them, the son exclaims. – That’s because of the electric charge of the electron, muon and tau, the father assures. – It’s ok and quite necessary to make the so-called atom with its nucleus of quarks, and the orbiting electrons. Together they make a small universe of itself.

The four different forces in the Universe

– Let’s continue with the next step: – Now we need four different forces to interact with these fundamental particles to start a universe. And we also need some beads or structures to carry these forces exactly where they are supposed to go!

I Gravitation

– We start with the weakest force of all, gravity. Its range is endless, but the force is however the weakest in the whole universe to come.

You wouldn’t believe it, but everything is relative, my Son. You’ll soon see it yourself. The Son: – I can’t find the carrier bead in the Black Box! I mean the bead that, referring to your manual, is supposed to transport gravitational force all over the future universe.

– We won’t find it, father says. – The anticipated graviton is not to be found. It’s not included in this Standard Model. He shakes the manual as if it was totally useless. And I think I know why! -The Son: – Tell me why!

– Not yet, first we must arrange the other 3 forces.

II Electromagnetism

Father takes his hand out of the black box and waves it around his head. The son sees a rolling curtain of green and blue light following his father’s hand.

– Amazing, is that electromagnetic waves?  The father nods eagerly. – This force is also rather weak, but many times stronger than gravity, and it is almost infinite in its range.

It works inside the atom by forcing the electrons into orbit around the nucleus of protons. It works binding atoms into molecules, and by that enabling molecules to build into bigger and bigger structures.

And it enables evolution from rural societies into modern electro industrial societies. The reason why this floor doesn’t crumble and this bench can sustain our bodies, is the electromagnetic force.

III  The weak nuclear power.

It seems that the son has almost fallen asleep during daddy’s lecture. Noticing this, the father rises his voice dramatically:

                                                              – The weak nuclear power, –

can be observed in events of beta-radiation, he shouts.

His son jumpes when hearing his father’s voice. – This radiation occurs when there is a sufficient surplus of energy in the nucleus, and a neutron transforms into a proton and electron, while emitting, plus an anti-electron-neutrino. This is the so called beta-radiation. You know the unstable elements, like radium, plutonium 239, polonium…, .

– Is it true that everything has it’s opposite side, daddy? I mean like antineutrino, there is anti-quarks, anti-leptons, anti,anti…anti? Father seems a bit lost, getting this question. – It is so, according to this standard model manual, he hesitates. – All matter we create, seem to have an antimatter counterpart, – hm…like an inversed mirror image, I guess.

The son very upset: – Then you and I have a counterpart, an opposite somewhere. Somebody totally inversed! He trembles with horror mixed joy! – But that can be dangerous, daddy, having a counterforce against us like this. I mean,-they look like us but is quite the opposite, the anti-father with his anti-son!

Father is shaking his head. – No, no, I don’t think it’s dangerous at all! Father scratches his beard. – May be it is necessary for the balance?  Only if we collide, there is a chance of damage, explosion and extinction. They call it “annihilation of matter”, in the manual.

The son is still confused, but his father persuades him to carry on, making the preparations for their Universe.

IV.  The strong nuclear force.

And at last, inside all this in the nucleus, you have the strongest force of all, in the Universe. The strong nuclear force, is provided by the mighty gluons. They so to speak, glue the quarks together so to manage to bind together protons and neutrons to form atom nuclei. And to separate protons and neutrons in the nucleus you need an enormous amount of counterforce.

God’s particle?

The son is almost loosing his patience, and rises from the bench. Standing there beside his father he takes a deep breath. He spreads his shining white wings going from on top of his shoulders along his slender arms to his small hands.

– I wanna fly to mummy, I haven’t seen her for a while!

Daddy seems a bit sad and resigned. – She has not materialized yet, you know. Son looks up at his father almost angry. – That’s impossible, and please use your logic. – I am here, because of her, don’t deny that. She’s the reason for my existence, she’s the force that holds me up!

He looks at the magnificent silvery white and seemingly endless floor they are sitting on, and the beautiful heaps of shining golden clouds that makes the walls of this vast hall.

Then he sighs and says: – She’s here, I can feel it! She is in all this, and I can see it in your eyes daddy, that she is there too. The father astonished, opens his eyes wide. – Can you see her in my eyes? Well, I think it is a wonderful piece of thought, he continues. – However, I don’t know if it is possible, since nobody has detected a love-particle yet.

But listen daddy. – In the Extensive Users Manual, not that easy one in your hand, the other one! That black book, under the box with the bosons! It refers too a Higg’s-boson, called “Gods particle”, anticipated in 1964 by Higgs, and detected in CERN in 2012.

The very end or just the beginning.

– I was bored when reading that manual, the son admits. -It seemed like a complex history of chaos, and confusion with only loose ends. But if the nucleus of an atom, cannot exist without leptons, like electrons and neutrinos, and this nucleus not only consists of protons and neutrons, but all these up and down quarks, charm and strange quarks, top and bottom quarks and so on, and not to forget the jumping down charm and strange, top and bottom…

If one unit consists of so many different sub-units, the God’s particle may contain both you and her, and me and my sister, all of it.The love, hate, indifference, and combining particles, so to say.

Father: -That is pure speculation and psychological physics! Let’s just assume that the scientists are right with the Higg’s boson, as a matter particle. – Yes, yes, the son exclaimes. -Matter – Mather, – Mother.

Suddenly something happens with the material lined up outside the black box. It starts to vibrate and whirl, and before the father and son manages to understand what’s going on, the son says:

-Something is pulling  my body very strongly.  – I feel so “strange”. – You still look “charm”ing, his father says.  No I am not at the “top” any longer!- Are you “down”, then?  – No I am “up”, “up”…

-At least I am “down”, father shouts, – sucked down, into the black box!

At this moment father and son both dissappears. Like long and thin spaghetti treads  they’re sucked into the box, mixed together with all the quarks, leptons,bosons they were trying to capture. 

                 

And  this ends the story…..or is it just the beginning……?

GO!

See also:The Building Blocks of Nature