Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00310)

--- In theosophy_talks_truth@y..., "netemara888" <netemara888@y...> 
wrote:
Hello QuarkNetters,

I write to invite your subscriptions to interactions.org. I recently
received the message below from this nascent news service, a
cooperative effort amongst international laboratories studying 
particle
and nuclear physics. You can subscribe as well and receive news 
updates
from the science frontier.

Just go to www.interactions.org and follow the link to "sign up now"

Best regards,
Tom


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Interactions News Wire <newswire@i...>
> Date: Tue Nov 12, 2002 2:56:00 PM America/Chicago
> To: newswire@i...
> Subject: [Interactions News Wire] #13-02 - Brookhaven: Unexpected
> Findings in 'Little' Big Bang
> Reply-To: newsadmin@i...
>
> Interactions News Wire #13-02
> 11/12/02
> 
**********************************************************************
*
> ******
>
>> THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF 
ROCHESTER,
>> IN ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION.
>> (FORWARDING DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL
>> SOCIETY.) Steve Maran, American Astronomical Society
>>
>> CONTACT:
>> Jonathan Sherwood
>> jonathan.sherwood@r...
>> Tel: 585.273.4726
>> Fax: 585.275.0359
>>
>>
>> November 12, 2002
>>
>> Physicists Puzzle Over Unexpected Findings in 'Little' Big Bang
>>
>> Scientists have recreated a temperature not seen since the first
> microsecond
>> of the birth of the universe and found that the event did not 
unfold
> quite
>> the way they expected, according to a recent paper in Physical 
Review
>> Letters. The interaction of energy, matter, and the strong nuclear
> force
> in
>> the ultra-hot experiments conducted at the Relativistic Heavy Ion
> Collider
>> (RHIC) was thought to be well understood, but a lengthy 
investigation
> has
>> revealed that physicists are missing something in their model of 
how
> the
>> universe works.
>>
>> "It's the things you weren't expecting that are really trying to 
tell
> you
>> something in science," says Steven Manly, associate professor of
> physics
> and
>> astronomy at the University of Rochester and co-author of the 
paper.
> "The
>> basic nature of the interactions within the hot, dense medium, or 
at
> least
>> the manifestation of it, changes depending on the angle at which 
it's
>> viewed. We don't know why. We've been handed some new pieces to the
> puzzle
>> and we're just trying to figure out how this new picture fits
> together."
>>
>> At RHIC in Brookhaven, NY., Manly and his collaborators on the 
PHOBOS
>> experiment wanted to probe the nature of the strong nuclear force 
that
>
> helps
>> bind atoms together. They smashed two atoms of gold together at
> velocities
>> near the speed of light in an attempt to create what's called a
> "quark-gluon
>> plasma," a very brief state where the temperature is tens of 
thousands
> of
>> times higher than the cores of the hottest stars. Particles in this
> hot-soup
>> plasma stream out, but not without bumping into other particles in 
the
>
> soup.
>> It's a bit like trying to race out of a crowded room-the more 
people
> in
> your
>> way, the more difficult to escape. The strength of the interactions
> between
>> particles in the soup is determined by the strong force, so 
carefully
>> watching particles stream out could reveal much about how the 
strong
> force
>> operates at such high temperatures.
>>
>> To simplify their observations, the researchers collided the 
circular
> gold
>> atoms slightly off-center so that the area of impact would not be
> round,
> but
>> shaped rather like a football-pointed at each end. This would force
> any
>> streaming particles that headed out one of the tips of the 
football to
>
> pass
>> through more of the hot soup than a particle exiting the side 
would.
>> Differences in the number of particles escaping out the tip versus 
the
>
> side
>> of the hot matter could reveal something of the nature of that hot
> matter,
>> and maybe something about the strong force itself.
>>
>> But a surprise was in store. Right where the gold atoms had 
collided,
>> particles did indeed take longer to stream out the tips of the
> football
> than
>> the sides, but farther from the exact point of collision, that
> difference
>> evaporated. That defied a treasured theory called boost invariance.
>>
>> "When we first presented this at a conference in Stony Brook, the
> audience
>> couldn't believe it," says Manly. "They said, 'This can't be. 
You're
>> violating boost invariance.' But we've gone over our results for 
more
> than
> a
>> year, and it checks out."
>>
>> Aside from revealing that scientists are missing a piece of the
> physics
>> puzzle, the findings mean that understanding these collisions fully
> will
> be
>> much more difficult than expected. No longer can physicists measure
> only
> the
>> sweet spot where the atoms initially collided-they now must measure
> the
>> entire length of the plasma, effectively making what was a
> two-dimensional
>> problem into a three-dimensional one. As Manly says, this
> "dramatically
>> increases the computing complexity" of any model researchers try to
> devise.
>>
>> Modeling and understanding such collisions are extremely important
> because
>> the way that the plasma cools-condensing like steam turning into 
water
>
>> against a shower door-might shed some light on the mechanism that
> gives
>> matter its very mass. Where mass itself comes from has been one of
>> physicists chief conundrums for decades. Manly hopes that if we can
>> understand exactly why the quark-gluon plasma behaves as it does, 
we
> might
>> gain an insight into some of the rudiments of the world we live in.
>>
>> "Understanding all the dynamics of the collision is really critical
> for
>> actually trying to get the information we want," says Manly. "It 
may
> be
> that
>> we have an actual clue here that something fundamental is
>> different-something we just don't understand." Smiling, he adds,
> "Yet."
>>
--- End forwarded message ---