PHYSICS in the News

[calikid]

A thread for advances in the world of Physics.

[calikid]

Moscovium?!? Think I might petition for a name change to Serpovium or Lazarovium:D
Looks like Bob's element 115 has finally been added to the Table of Elements.

Hello, Nihonium. Scientists Name 4 New Elements On The Periodic Table
By Richard Gonzales

It's time to update your copy of the periodic table. Four new elements discovered in recent years have now been named, pending final approval by the international group of scientists in charge of the table.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has announced these proposed names:

Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element 113
Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115
Tennessine and symbol Ts, for the element 117
Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118

The new superheavy, radioactive elements were actually added to the periodic table late last year and given these temporary and unremarkable names: ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctoium. Story Continues (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/09/481410462/hello-nihonium-scientists-name-4-new-elements-on-the-periodic-table?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=science)

[whoknows]

Good tread calli!

My eye is turned toward Cern these days. LOL, hard to imagine what a new fundamental force would do to physics. Pretty much turn on it's ear me thinks.

[calikid]

LIGO, for a second time, detects Gravity waves. Been a lot of years since I took Physics 101 back at university. I recall the theory of the Graviton (theoretical particle that Gravity waves are made of) presented in a thought experiment that went something like: "If the sun were to instantly disappear from the solar system, would the earth immediately fly away out of orbit? Or would it continue in orbit for the additional 8+ minutes (assuming the waves travel at or near the speed of light) it would take for gravitational wave 'ripples' to cease holding earth in place?".


For second time, LIGO detects gravitational waves
by Jennifer Chu

For the second time, scientists have directly detected gravitational waves — ripples through the fabric of space-time, created by extreme, cataclysmic events in the distant universe. The team has determined that the incredibly faint ripple that eventually reached Earth was produced by two black holes colliding at half the speed of light, 1.4 billion light years away.

The scientists detected the gravitational waves using the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) interferometers, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington. On Dec. 26, 2015, at 3:38 UTC, both detectors, situated more than 3,000 kilometers apart, picked up a very faint signal amid the surrounding noise.
While LIGO’s first detection, reported on Feb. 11, produced a clear peak, or “chirp,” in the data, this second signal was far subtler, generating a shallower waveform — essentially a faint squeak — that was almost buried in the data. Using advanced data analysis techniques, the team determined that indeed, the waveform signaled a gravitational wave.

The researchers calculated that the gravitational wave arose from the collision of two black holes...
Story continues (http://news.mit.edu/2016/second-time-ligo-detects-gravitational-waves-0615)

[whoknows]

the last few years in physics have been amazing amazing!

Hope you don't mind me throwing this in. I really like Brian Greene. Nova did a pretty good job of visualizing his book "The Elegant Universe."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s06_jRK939I

[calikid]

the last few years in physics have been amazing amazing!

Hope you don't mind me throwing this in. I really like Brian Greene. Nova did a pretty good job of visualizing his book "The Elegant Universe."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s06_jRK939I
Greene is a good man. Did a lot to raise public awareness of physics for the common man.

Back in the day, I had to complete Calculus before tackling college level physics courses, or risk getting lost.
Greene raised concepts above mathematical proofs to involve those who otherwise might have been ill prepared to explore modern theories.

[southerncross]

The universe just keeps yielding up its secrets.

By machine, by calculation, through "revelation"... the Gordion Knot is slowly being untangled.

http://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-just-discovered-an-entire-family-of-new-particles-in-the-lhc

Physicists working with the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment (LHCb) have discovered what appears to be an entire family of new particles that our current physics models can’t explain.

The existence of these new forms of matter, known as tetraquarks, challenges our current understanding of the role they play inside the protons and neutrons that make up atoms - the fundamental building blocks of everything we know and love in the Universe.

[whoknows]

http://www.rdmag.com/news/2016/07/physicist-offers-theory-about-mysterious-large-hadron-collider-excess



In December of last year, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe announced startling results hinting at the existence of an undiscovered subatomic particle—one with a mass six times heavier than the Higgs boson, the particle that made headlines in 2012.

The evidence is still thin, but if more data confirm the finding, it could sharpen humankind's understanding of the building blocks of the universe.

"This was a very surprising announcement and a puzzle at the same time, because the lifetime and mass of the particle could reveal something else beyond simply one extra particle, if it turns out to be a real signal," said Kyoungchul "K.C." Kong, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas. "Yet we do not claim this as a discovery, and we need more data."

Based on the LHC findings, theoretical physicists around the world rushed to offer ideas that could explain the mystery signal and guide further experimentation. Physical Review Letters, the leading peer-reviewed journal in the field, received hundreds of papers purporting to illuminate the LHC results.

"We explore ideas," Kong said of theoretical particle physicists. "Probably most of ideas are wrong—but we learn from them, and we propose better ideas."

Of the mountain of papers tendered to Physical Review Letters about the LHC findings, the journal chose to publish only four—including one co-authored by Kong, who had the original idea behind the submission.

The KU physicist said the enigmatic signal, detected at 750 giga-electron volts, or GeV, suggests "the first hint for new particles beyond the Standard Model." (The Standard Model of particle physics is a longstanding theory used to explain the forces and subatomic particles working in atoms that constitute all known matter in the universe.)

He said, "Every explanation of the 750 GeV excess needs a new particle. Most models assume one around 750 GeV."

But Kong's idea is different than most. Rather than basing his theory on the existence of a "resonance" particle with a straightforwardly corresponding mass to trigger the 750 GeV signal, Kong's paper proposes a sequence of particles at different masses, without one at 750 GeV.

"I was participating in a workshop in Korea, back in December 2015, when there was an announcement on this excess," Kong said. "Everyone was considering a resonance particle, which would have been my first choice. I wanted to interpret this differently and talked to some friends in the workshop, and proposed non-resonance interpretation."

The KU physicist said his concept depends upon a "sequential cascade decay" of a heavier particle into photons that can "fake the resonance signal" at 750 GeV.

Whether he is proven correct remains to be seen, but the promotion of his bold idea in the respected journal is extraordinary to colleagues at KU.

"Fundamental physics discoveries often take years, decades (see under Higgs) or even centuries (see under gravitational waves) to be confirmed," said Hume Feldman, professor and chair of the KU Department of Physics and Astronomy. "However, it is certainly a great honor for KU to have our research published in such a high-impact venue and chosen out of literally hundreds of entries from all over the world and from the most prestigious institutes in the world."

Another paper that proposes a different mechanism to explain the observation was written by KU Foundation Professor Christophe Royon and subsequently accepted by PRL. Assistant Professor Ian Lewis also has written a paper on the subject.

"The fact that independent KU papers were accepted by PRL out of the hundreds submitted is another testament to the high-quality research done at the Department of Physics and Astronomy," Feldman said.

Kong's co-authors were Won Sang Cho, Myeonghun Park and Sung Hak Lim of the Institute for Basic Science in Korea; Doojin Kim and Konstantin T. Matchev of the University of Florida; and Jong-Chul Park of Korea's Chungnam National University.

Currently, Kong is attending a workshop at CERN, the European nuclear agency that operates the LHC. There, his work on the puzzling results will continue.

"Theorists propose ideas, and experimentalists perform experiments to test the ideas, then publish their results—and we try to understand," he said.

Other KU faculty working at the LHC include KU's Distinguished Professor Alice Bean and professors Graham Wilson and Philip Baringer, as well as students and postdoctoral researchers.

An update on the 750 GeV excess will be presented at a conference in Chicago next week, Aug. 3-10.

[calikid]

Looking like that "new family of particles" was just a statistical anomaly. ~

Particle no-show at LHC prompts anxiety
By Adrian Cho

When physicists working with the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), announced last week that much ballyhooed hints of an exotic new particle turned out to be mere statistical fluctuations in the data, many shrugged off the disappointment. Spurious spikes in the data inevitably show up, physicists say, and it's too soon to give up hope for something new and exciting from the LHC, the 27-kilometer-long collider at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. Yet beneath that equanimity runs a deeper current of anxiety. The LHC, which started taking data in 2010 but reached high energies only last year, is generating data at an accelerating pace. But since revealing the previously predicted Higgs boson in 2012, the LHC has failed to unearth a single new particle, and a lack of surprises in the first big batch of high energy data has some physicists concerned. Story Continues (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6300/635)

[aquila]

smashing atoms and particles is an intuitive act of human being

an outgrowth of the toddler tendency to break things

if you really want your scientist to do creative things give him or her a piece of paper

and crayons

to draw the planet of their dreams

[calikid]

smashing atoms and particles is an intuitive act of human being

an outgrowth of the toddler tendency to break things

if you really want your scientist to do creative things give him or her a piece of paper

and crayons

to draw the planet of their dreams

MOD Warning.

aquila, while your recent posts are entertaining and humorous, they do little to advance the topics of discussion. You are bordering on an off-topic posts violation of the ToS agreement.
If you wish to continue making such post, please take advantage of the "For a laugh" thread.
(http://www.theoutpostforum.com/tof/showthread.php?56-For-a-laugh&p=47456&viewfull=1#post47456)

[calikid]

Looks like Bob Lazar was right about Element 115 existing.
Although I have not idea if it exhibits the "island of stability" he talked about.


Four new elements on the periodic table now have names

It’s now time to say hello, officially, to the four new additions to the Periodic Table of Elements. This week, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) approved the names of the four new elements, whose existence was first confirmed to the public back in January.

The names for elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 are: Nihonium (Nh), Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts), and Oganesson (Og), respectively.

The announcement comes after a five-month public review period of the element names, which were proposed by their discoverers, IUPAC said.
Story Continues (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/four-new-elements-periodic-table-names/)

http://d14rj7v0r2qnrv.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/04153923/14laac_periodic_table_iib-1024x548.jpg

[CasperParks]

Looks like Bob Lazar was right about Element 115 existing.
Although I have not idea if it exhibits the "island of stability" he talked about.

I remember how Lazar was mocked over his claims regarding Element 115.

[whoknows]

Just goes to show how much we still have to learn...

Verlinde's new theory of gravity passes first test

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-verlinde-theory-gravity.html

[Sykotronik]

Just goes to show how much we still have to learn...

Verlinde's new theory of gravity passes first test

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-verlinde-theory-gravity.html

Here's a couple more links on the subject (from todays suspicious observers post on you tube )

http://www.uva.nl/en/news-events/news/uva-news/uva-news/uva-news/content/folder-3/2016/12/fluctuations-in-gamma-ray-background-indicate-two-different-source-classes.html

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2116446-first-test-of-rival-to-einsteins-gravity-kills-off-dark-matter/

[A99]

Simply put, in my own words, Verlinde's new theory on dark matter speculates that dark matter does not really exist at all and that it's really something called gravitational entropy that came about as a result of the movement of physical objects in the area where they are seen. Inherent within that gravitational entropy is a force that influences things like planetary rotation. The subatomic particles that exist and operate in gravitational entropy are invisible and cannot be detected by our current state of technology.

Anyway, here's Michio Katu's answer to the following question: (see vid)

Ques: If subatomic particles can be in two or more places at once, could parts
of us be travelling back and forth between parallel universes and
could these particles be dark matter?


Answer: The answer to this question is at the cutting edge of science, but one theory states that dark matter is nothing but ordinary matter in another dimension hovering right above us.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4nnpg4N35o


The answer to this question is at the cutting edge of science, but one theory states that dark matter is nothing but ordinary matter in another dimension hovering right above us.

Michio Kaku: Well there is a theory, David, about what dark matter is. You talk about different universes and let's say that our universe is a sheet of paper. We live our entire life on this sheet of paper, but directly above us there could be a parallel universe, hovering right over us, perhaps inches, centimeters away and objects in this parallel universe would be invisible. Light travels beneath the universe, so we never see this other galaxy. But gravity, gravity goes between universes because gravity is nothing but the bending of space, so if the space between two sheets of paper is bent slightly gravity then moves across.
So think about it. This other galaxy in another universe would be invisible, yet it would have mass. That's exactly what dark matter is. Dark matter is massive—it has gravity—but it's invisible. It has no interactions with light or the electromagnetic force, so there is a theory that says that perhaps dark matter is nothing but matter, ordinary matter in another dimension hovering right above us. We should also point out, however, that there are other theories too. Dark matter is the cutting edge of science. Some people think that maybe it is a higher vibration of the string. All the atoms of our body represent the lowest octave of a tiny rubber band vibrating all over our body, and the rubber band could have a higher octave. That next octave could be dark matter. So that's yet another explanation for what dark matter might be.
So the bottom line is this. There is a shelf full of Nobel Prizes waiting for you, waiting for anyone who can come up with a convincing and experimentally verified explanation of the origin of dark matter.

Michio Kaku: Well there is a theory, David, about what dark matter is. You talk about different universes and let's say that our universe is a sheet of paper. We live our entire life on this sheet of paper, but directly above us there could be a parallel universe, hovering right over us, perhaps inches, centimeters away and objects in this parallel universe would be invisible. Light travels beneath the universe, so we never see this other galaxy. But gravity, gravity goes between universes because gravity is nothing but the bending of space, so if the space between two sheets of paper is bent slightly gravity then moves across.
So think about it. This other galaxy in another universe would be invisible, yet it would have mass. That's exactly what dark matter is. Dark matter is massive—it has gravity—but it's invisible. It has no interactions with light or the electromagnetic force, so there is a theory that says that perhaps dark matter is nothing but matter, ordinary matter in another dimension hovering right above us. We should also point out, however, that there are other theories too. Dark matter is the cutting edge of science. Some people think that maybe it is a higher vibration of the string. All the atoms of our body represent the lowest octave of a tiny rubber band vibrating all over our body, and the rubber band could have a higher octave. That next octave could be dark matter. So that's yet another explanation for what dark matter might be.
So the bottom line is this. There is a shelf full of Nobel Prizes waiting for you, waiting for anyone who can come up with a convincing and experimentally verified explanation of the origin of dark matter.

[whoknows]

Must be said Verlinde's "theory" is holding up pretty well to the rigors of scrutiny. There are few "answers" at this point.

[aquila]

i wish to report that the star betelguese went nova sometime last year and is still in the process of bursting

betelguese has gone bust

it will be approx 500 years from now that the first signs of the bust appear on earth

[calikid]

i wish to report that the star betelguese went nova sometime last year and is still in the process of bursting

betelguese has gone bust

it will be approx 500 years from now that the first signs of the bust appear on earth
If it can't be seen for 500 years, what is your source of information?
Without any proof, Perhaps this would be a more appropriate post for the predictions thread.

[A99]

So there's a thread here for predictions for 2517? :yikes:

[calikid]

Think of all the litter we could save, if my beer bottle was made of beer?!?
Confirmed: New phase of matter is solid and liquid at the same time
The mind-bending material would be like a sponge made of water that's leaking water.
By Adam Mann

Solid, liquid, gas … and something else? While most of us learn about just three states of matter in elementary school, physicists have discovered several exotic varieties that can exist under extreme temperature and pressure conditions.

Now, a team has used a type of artificial intelligence to confirm the existence of a bizarre new state of matter, one in which potassium atoms exhibit properties of both a solid and a liquid at the same time. If you were somehow able to pull out a chunk of such material, it would probably look like a solid block leaking molten potassium that eventually all dissolved away.

“It would be like holding a sponge filled with water that starts dripping out, except the sponge is also made of water,” says study coauthor Andreas Hermann, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Edinburgh whose team describes the work this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Story Continues (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/04/new-phase-matter-confirmed-solid-and-liquid-same-time-potassium-physics/)