The Theory of Nothing

What's up with quantum physics?

What’s up with quantum physics?

Actually, this is also called quantum mechanics and it’s all based on probability because of the dual nature of matter at the quantum level. This is what the physicists call the Uncertainty Principle, which states that the position and momentum of a given particle cannot be known simultaneously. It’s the main theory of quantum physics.

I’m more interested in a branch of quantum mechanics known as particle physics. At one time physicists thought that there were hundreds of different particles, a virtual particle zoo. This idea was deduced from experiments with colliders or what was once called atom smashers. A collider is a large round tube where protons are sent at near light speed in opposite directions so that they collide with high energy. The collision debris that results is detected by surrounding the collision point with detectors that can sense hits from particles at various energies.

Eventually, the physicists decided enough is enough and they agreed on what is now called the Standard Model of particle physics. They boiled all of the particles down to three types, namely Quarks, Leptons and Bosons. There are six quarks and six leptons grouped together as fermions. The four bosons are classed into Gauge Bosons with the Higgs boson (The God Particle) is in a class by itself.

Keep in mind that these particles are the smallest elements of matter and energy that have been detected. When scientists try to resolve these particles to see if they contain smaller elements, they come up empty and resort to theory to explain matter at a level below the particles.

All fermions have a 1/2 spin and respect the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that two fermions can’t occupy the same quantum state simultaneously. There are six Leptons, namely the electron, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau, and tau neutrino.

What the heck is a particle spin? This is analogous to a spinning planet because particles have a tiny magnetic field effect that suggests that they are spinning. Remember, that particles also have an electrostatic charge and spinning would create a magnetic field. The weird thing about particle spin is that it’s quantified. In other words particles can only have specific spins. The other problem is that quantum particles are essentially dots with no volume and trying to imagine them spinning is analogous to trying to count the number of fairies that can sit on a point of a needle.

Quarks, the particles that make up the protons and neutrons that are in atomic nuclei, come in flavors, namely Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, and Bottom. I like those crazy names. Now you know why I titled this: ‘What’s up with quantum physics?’

The Gauge Bosons are the particles that carry forces and they control the strong, weak and electromagnetic fundamental forces. The gauge bosons consist of the Gluon, Photon, Z Boson and W Boson.

All particles in this Standard Model system are identified by spin, charge and mass. Mass is given in terms of electron volts. One Electron Volt is the amount of energy gained or lost by the charge of a single electron that is moved across an electrical potential of one volt. Needless to say that particle charges are mighty small-- such as 1.6 times ten to -19 joules.

Let’s put this crazy stuff into a more familiar prospective. Everyone should know that the nuclei of atoms contain proton and neutrons. A proton, classed as a hadron, is made up of two up quarks and one down quark. A neutron, also classed as a hadron, is composed of two down quarks and one up quark. The only other component of an atom is the electron, which is a sub-atomic particle of the lepton family.

So, what do the other sub-atomic particles do?

Let’s consider the quarks. The up and down flavors of the quark have the lowest mass and are the most stable. The other flavors: strange, charm, top and bottom are not stable and transform into up and down quarks soon after they’re produced in a collider.

The term quark comes from a James Joyce poem:

‘Three quarks for Muster Mark!

Sure he has not got much of a bark

And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.’

How quaint!

The leptons also have flavors and generations. The first generation leptons consist of the electron and electron neutrino. The second generation consists of the muonic leptons: muon and muon neutrino. The third generation is the tauonic leptons: the tau, tau neutrino and the electron neutrino. Most of these particles have strong electrical charges and influence magnetism.

The neutrinos are those mysterious particles emitted from the sun because of radioactive decay. They osculate and were once thought to be massless, but some flavors do have mass. Neutrinos have no volume. One would wonder how they even exist. This is only one of the weird discoveries of quantum physics. All I can is that trying to understand these things gives me a headache.

Thanks for reading.