9 ms·
There was a nice explanation of the finding in comic format from APS & PhD Comics: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/47 https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/
by nyc640 6y ago
There was a nice explanation of the finding in comic format from APS & PhD Comics: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/47 https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/47
- BlueTemplar 6y agoOh, so it's a bit like electron screening, but with virtual particles ? Fine structurally neat !
- lgrebe 6y agoThis sound like the hypothesized „subtle-matter“ as proposed by Dr. Klaus Volkamer [1]? - still looking for a better link than the Book… I’ll update this later [1] https://amzn.to/3mvvsWW https://amzn.to/3mvvsWW
- dan-robertson 6y agoBut if muons are inanimate, why would they be affected by this hypothesised “subtle matter” which makes up the soul of living things?
- lgrebe 6y agoheres is a paper [1] from 1994 here the results of weighing thermodynamically closed reactions are "interpreted to reveal the existence of a heretofore unknown kind of non-bradyonic, cold dark matter with two different forms of interaction with normal matter" [1] http://klaus-volkamer.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1994-Volkamer-Journal-of-Scientific-Exploration.pdf http://klaus-volkamer.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1994-Vol...
- gct 6y agolol
- kjs3 6y agoMaybe the muons are hitting the angels at a good fractions of the speed of light and the difference is the angel-splat. Maybe FERMI can contract Dr Klaus to come up the an experiment to measure the angel-goo and true the difference right up. Thanks for the link to an 'authoritative source'. :-)
- lgrebe 6y agoAbsolutely. there's this Paper from 1999[1] "Experimental Evidence of a New Type of Quantized Matter with Quanta as Integer Multiples of the Planck Mass" about how the weight of a closed system with a chemical reaction changes, violating the conservation of mass. [1] https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1.4184&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1....
- fsloth 6y ago"Weightable soul". Sounds like a con-man, who wants only the most foolish of marks to make his job as easy as possible, and hence begins his script "I am about to hoax you...but I have something very important to tell you" - and those that remain after that are proven suckers and can be taken to any sort of ride.
- lgrebe 6y agoI totally agree. Id be great to have a peer review of his papers[1][2] and either confirm something interesting or just shut him up. Seems like all he was initially doing in the 80’s was dig into the 2 out of 10 experiments from Landolt that failed to confirm a conservation of mass [1] http://klaus-volkamer.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1994-Volkamer-Journal-of-Scientific-Exploration.pdf http://klaus-volkamer.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1994-Vol... [2] https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1.4184&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1....
- jhoutromundo 6y agoLet me say that this is the best thing that I ever saw in science: people using art to explain extremely complex findings that might change the future in a bit. I laughed a bit on 'I don't know you anymore'. When I was younger, I remember to read cyberpunk comics quite a lot. They explain a vision of the future that is improbable, but in many ways it get stuff right. Imagine aligning this with real word science. Imagine hearing from a superhero how his powers came to him. Imagine having a scientist name on the movie credits. It doesn't need to make everything scientifically accurate, but explaining the fundamentals can engage more people to enter science. Yesterday I was watching a new movie from Netflix called 'hacker'. The movie is awful, but it starts showing how Stuxnet should work, and that is pretty awesome. This is cool because I know the fundamentals of Stuxnet. If they break the 4th wall and show something that could happen for real, it could bring more emotions to the movie.
- gct 6y agoI used to read the Cartoon Guide to... books as a kid: https://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Guide-Physics/dp/0062731009 https://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Guide-Physics/dp/0062731009. They were great.
- astrange 6y agoCartoon History of the Universe is probably the best "nonfiction" comic ever made. (it's not inaccurate but it's kind of psychedelic and retells more than one religious founding text as if it actually happened)
- doctorwho42 6y agoBest part that most people don't realize... There are 3 parts to it... All massive. I still remember finding part 1 in the used books store with my dad around the age of 10-11 for like $2. Now I'm in my early 30's and all 3 parts are just a handful of books away from my physics and philosophy books on my book shelf :)
- mikelevins 6y ago
- Fiahil 6y agowhy did they move the magnet from Brookhaven to Chicago?
- nyc640 6y agoFrom what I understand the Magnet is extremely specialized and it would cost millions more to manufacture a second one rather than ship the existing one. As to why Fermilab, scientists had exhausted the capabilities of the particle accelerator at Brookhaven and Fermilab already possessed the equipment to generate more intense muon beams.
- gm2 6y agoAll are correct! Also making a new magnet would take at least 3-5 more years.
- devb 6y agoThe NYT sort of explained that repeating the experiment in Brookhaven would have cost a lot of money but wouldn't have resulted in an increase in accuracy that was worth that amount of money. Presumable other equipment exists at Fermilab that made the move cost effective compared to other options.
- kazinator 6y agoThey mystery here is why that comic image that is inlined into the page loads so slowly, but if you click on it while it is loading, you get a pop-up which shows the whole darn thing almost instantly, at what looks like the same resolution, even as the in-line one is still loading. Spooky quantum effect, there!
- loup-vaillant 6y agoNoScript lets you peek at a parallel universe in which the image pretty much instantly. I didn't feel the need to click anything.
- danellis 6y agoWhat's the symbol that looks like a b fell over?
- monocasa 6y agoLowercase Sigma
- nyc640 6y agoJust to expand a bit, the sigma symbol is a standard symbol used to indicate the standard deviation of a measurement, and standard deviation is roughly a measure of how much variation there is within a data set (and consequently how confident you can be in your measurement). So when they say that the theoretical result is now 4.2 sigma (units of standard deviation) away from the experimental result instead of 2.7 sigma, that is because the new experiment provided more precise data that scientists could use to lower the perceived variance. Assuming that there were no experimental errors, you can use the measure of standard deviation to express roughly what % chance a measurement is due to a statistical anomaly vs. a real indication that something is wrong. To put some numbers to this, a measurement 1 sigma from the prediction would mean that there is roughly a 84% chance that the measurement represented a deviation from the prediction and a 16% chance that it was just a statistical anomaly. Similarly: > 2 sigma = 97.7%/2.3% chance of deviation/anomaly > 3 sigma = 99.9%/0.1% chance of deviation/anomaly > 4.2 sigma = 99.9987%/0.0013% chance of deviation/anomaly Which is why this is potentially big news since there is a very small chance that the disagreements between measurement and prediction are due to a statistical anomaly, and a higher chance that there are some fundamental physics going on that we don't understand and thus cannot predict. edit: Again, this assumes both that there were no errors made in the experiment (it inspires confidence that they were able to reproduce this result twice in different settings) and that there were no mistakes made in the predicition itself, which as another commenter mentions eleswhere, is a nontrivial task in and of itself.
- anyfoo 6y ago> Again, this assumes both that there were no errors made in the experiment This is worth repeating a lot when explaining sigma (even in a great and comprehensive explanation such as yours): Statistical anomalies are only relevant when the experiment itself is sound. Imagine you are trying to see whether two brands of cake mix have different density (maybe you want to get a good initial idea whether they could be the same cake mix). You can do this by weighing the same amount (volume) of cake mix repeatedly, and comparing the mean value for weight measurements of either brand. That works well, but it totally breaks down if you consistently use a glass bowl for one brand, and a steel bowl for the other brand. You will get very high units of sigma, but not because of the cake mix.
- megablast 6y agoThe creation of new particles, is that bremsstrahlung?? I’m trying to find more info on it.
- eigenhombre 6y agoBremsstrahlung is not the creation of virtual particles, though it does involve a virtual photon. It is rather the radiation of (real) photons by electrons when they suddenly "decelerate" (i.e. collide with other charged particles). In fact the name "bremsstrahlung" means "braking radiation," if memory serves.
- codethief 6y ago> when they suddenly "decelerate" (i.e. collide with other charged particles) I think it'd be more accurate to say "interact" instead of "collide" – the electron could still be far away from the charged particle. More generally, bremsstrahlung also occurs when an electron's velocity vector (not necessarily its modulus) changes, i.e. when the electron changes direction, like in a synchroton. > In fact the name "bremsstrahlung" means "braking radiation," if memory serves. That's correct :)
- NL807 6y agoBasically the change of momentum for the electron sheds some of energy used to accelerate it.
- manspacetar 6y agoit is also important to note that due to experimental constraints and the nature of quantum mechanics different possible processes interfere with eachother. eg: (a+b)^2 = a^2 + b^2 + 2ab That 2ab is an interference term so a different process can get mixed in (quantum mechanically speaking). And we may not experimentally be able to disentangle it.
- gigama 6y agoAlso concisely covered in Fermilab's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnK5exNhZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnK5exNhZ0