Re: [math-fun] Stupid antimatter questions
I suspect you are correct -- anything on the boundary would have disappeared within microseconds, hence the possibility of pretty darn empty space for mucho light-years between matter & antimatter. However, this doesn't eliminate the possibility of relatively large pockets of antimatter. Even if the ratio of anti-matter to matter is only 1%, that's one heck of a lot of anti-matter, including the possibility of entire stars/galaxies of the stuff. The only thing I could think of would be a telescope sufficiently powerful to see a CPT experiment in action, but what would be necessary to convince one's self that it was the same experiment that one could conduct locally? I.e., since you don't have physical access to the particles involved in the experiment, how can you tell whether they are made of matter or antimatter? In other words, we've just begged the question. A related question: how close does a particle have to get to its anti-particle before it annihilates it? E.g., if one has a proton & an anti-proton, what length scale is safe, and what length scale is unsafe? I assume that uncertainty is at work here, so there is some non-zero probability of annihilation that goes up as the particles get closer? At 12:06 PM 6/30/2010, Joshua Zucker wrote:
On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
"How do we know whether something we're looking at in a telescope is matter or anti-matter?"
I think the main answer is that space isn't empty, and if there were a boundary between matter and antimatter anywhere we would see all the gamma rays coming from the annihilations at the boundary.
There aren't many other asymmetries!
--Josh
On Wed, 30 Jun 2010, Henry Baker wrote:
eliminate the possibility of relatively large pockets of antimatter. Even if the ratio of anti-matter to matter is only 1%, that's one heck of a lot of anti-matter, including the possibility of entire stars/galaxies of the stuff.
For 1% antimatter, we'd expect to see huge energy bursts from regions where, for example, galaxies are colliding. I wonder if our astronomy is good enough to rule that out. I love the idea that some advanced civilization might be able to find an anti- star system somewhere and go harvest it for fuel. But it's so volatile that it's hard to imagine any of them being nearby.
On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Jason <jason@lunkwill.org> wrote:
For 1% antimatter, we'd expect to see huge energy bursts from regions where, for example, galaxies are colliding. I wonder if our astronomy is good enough to rule that out.
Yeah, the gamma ray emissions would be awfully easy to see. --Joshua
On occasion, anti-matter particles, somewhere in the universe, form a very "uncertain" sock. Through quantum tunneling into a home centrifuge (dryer), the anti-sock can merge with a normal sock, annihilating both. The frequency of this well-documented phenomenon is the basis for current estimates of the distribution of anti-matter. Hilarie
A careful experimental measurement of the number of left & right sox has led to a small but significant difference in left & right sock/antisock annihilations. This difference cannot be explained by the Standard Model, and work is proceeding in multiple laboratories to better understand this phenomenon. Since additional data would help sharpen the current estimates of this discrepancy, an open source project known as SETX (Search for Extra Terrestrial soX) enables PC's and dryers from all over the world to participate in this project. If you would like to participate, and your dryer is connected via 10Gbit Ethernet to your PC, please contact www.setx.org. It is essential that your dryer be completely free of lint, as the presence of excess lint masks the phenomenon (see the "No Lint Theorem"). At 04:52 PM 6/30/2010, Hilarie Orman wrote:
On occasion, anti-matter particles, somewhere in the universe, form a very "uncertain" sock. Through quantum tunneling into a home centrifuge (dryer), the anti-sock can merge with a normal sock, annihilating both. The frequency of this well-documented phenomenon is the basis for current estimates of the distribution of anti-matter.
Hilarie
A similar experiment is scheduled for September 3rd, to be repeated on the 4th and 5th, conducted in a large but non-dryer containment vessel with a flat field. The Red Sox will attempt to annihilate the White Sox, but the error rate will likely be high due to significant lint in the vessel (Fenway Park). Standing waves are anticipated. Seriously, if there were an antimatter galaxy, and the radiation pressure from annihilations at its boundary had long ago swept the surrounding space very clear of matter and antimatter, is the flux of matter through such vast voids sufficient that we could detect the glow when random particles from each domain strayed into the opposite and annihilated? I have no idea, but Henry's question seems valid. -- Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Henry Baker" <hbaker1@pipeline.com> To: "Hilarie Orman" <ho@alum.mit.edu>; "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:26 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Stupid antimatter questions
A careful experimental measurement of the number of left & right sox has led to a small but significant difference in left & right sock/antisock annihilations. This difference cannot be explained by the Standard Model, and work is proceeding in multiple laboratories to better understand this phenomenon.
Since additional data would help sharpen the current estimates of this discrepancy, an open source project known as SETX (Search for Extra Terrestrial soX) enables PC's and dryers from all over the world to participate in this project.
If you would like to participate, and your dryer is connected via 10Gbit Ethernet to your PC, please contact www.setx.org. It is essential that your dryer be completely free of lint, as the presence of excess lint masks the phenomenon (see the "No Lint Theorem").
At 04:52 PM 6/30/2010, Hilarie Orman wrote:
On occasion, anti-matter particles, somewhere in the universe, form a very "uncertain" sock. Through quantum tunneling into a home centrifuge (dryer), the anti-sock can merge with a normal sock, annihilating both. The frequency of this well-documented phenomenon is the basis for current estimates of the distribution of anti-matter.
Hilarie
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participants (5)
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Michael Beeler