IknewitIknewitIknewitIknewit!
Yes! I have discussed this possibility with many of you. And now, we see...
Skewed Starlight Suggests Particle Masses Changed Over Eons
by Adrian Cho
New measurements suggest that the ratio of the proton's mass to the electron's mass has increased by 0.002% over 12 billion years, a team of astronomers and physicists reports. If so, the ratio and other fundamental "constants" of nature may not be constant after all.
"If this small variation exists, it's a revolution in science," says Victor Flambaum, a theoretical physicist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and a member of a different team that 7 years ago reported that another constant may have changed. But some theorists say inconstant constants may clash with well-established physics.
To spot the change, two groups joined forces to compare starlight to laser light. Using the Very Large Telescope in Atacama, Chile, Alexandre Ivanchik, a theoretical physicist at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Patrick Petitjean, an astronomer at the Institute for Astrophysics of Paris, France, and colleagues studied light from two quasars, the hearts of ancient galaxies. The light filtered through clouds of molecular hydrogen billions of light-years away when the universe was in its youth. Meanwhile, physicists Wim Ubachs and Elmar Reinhold of the Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues shined laser light through molecular hydrogen in the lab.
I will now summarize my discussions.
The implications of the above are, of course, enormous. I will list a couple of my favorite ones:
1. The Theory of Everything
Imagine a four-dimensional mesh of elements (ie. the "space-time" mesh). This mesh is discreetized, or quantized, to elements shaped like four-dimensional platonic solids having "sides" of the Planck length. Consider an element u0, and a neighboring element u1. Find some relationship between u0 and u1. Extend this relationship to a generalized relationship between u0 and un, for any positive integer n.
This relationship should, ideally, explain the four fundamental forces, and perhaps be predictive of other phenomena. The implication here is, then, that this relationship will be independent of our universal constants. Neat!
2. Dark Matter
By now, I suppose, everyone I know is familiar with my annoyance at the Dark Matter theory. This may be yet another nail in its coffin. If particle masses have in fact changed, then the currently observed rate-of-rotation of galaxies is not the result of Dark Matter, but instead disagrees with our models as a result of this change.
When I get some time, I will attempt to write a quick-and-dirty strange-attractor based simulation. Any suggestions regarding where data may be found for such simulations would be great. Specifically, what data was used in making rate-of-rotation calculations in the first place? It should be trivial to make particle mass time-dependent, and then use different decay methods of values of these constants. The results will be qualitative at best, but for better or for worse, they will be instructive.
Skewed Starlight Suggests Particle Masses Changed Over Eons
by Adrian Cho
New measurements suggest that the ratio of the proton's mass to the electron's mass has increased by 0.002% over 12 billion years, a team of astronomers and physicists reports. If so, the ratio and other fundamental "constants" of nature may not be constant after all.
"If this small variation exists, it's a revolution in science," says Victor Flambaum, a theoretical physicist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and a member of a different team that 7 years ago reported that another constant may have changed. But some theorists say inconstant constants may clash with well-established physics.
To spot the change, two groups joined forces to compare starlight to laser light. Using the Very Large Telescope in Atacama, Chile, Alexandre Ivanchik, a theoretical physicist at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Patrick Petitjean, an astronomer at the Institute for Astrophysics of Paris, France, and colleagues studied light from two quasars, the hearts of ancient galaxies. The light filtered through clouds of molecular hydrogen billions of light-years away when the universe was in its youth. Meanwhile, physicists Wim Ubachs and Elmar Reinhold of the Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues shined laser light through molecular hydrogen in the lab.
I will now summarize my discussions.
The implications of the above are, of course, enormous. I will list a couple of my favorite ones:
1. The Theory of Everything
Imagine a four-dimensional mesh of elements (ie. the "space-time" mesh). This mesh is discreetized, or quantized, to elements shaped like four-dimensional platonic solids having "sides" of the Planck length. Consider an element u0, and a neighboring element u1. Find some relationship between u0 and u1. Extend this relationship to a generalized relationship between u0 and un, for any positive integer n.
This relationship should, ideally, explain the four fundamental forces, and perhaps be predictive of other phenomena. The implication here is, then, that this relationship will be independent of our universal constants. Neat!
2. Dark Matter
By now, I suppose, everyone I know is familiar with my annoyance at the Dark Matter theory. This may be yet another nail in its coffin. If particle masses have in fact changed, then the currently observed rate-of-rotation of galaxies is not the result of Dark Matter, but instead disagrees with our models as a result of this change.
When I get some time, I will attempt to write a quick-and-dirty strange-attractor based simulation. Any suggestions regarding where data may be found for such simulations would be great. Specifically, what data was used in making rate-of-rotation calculations in the first place? It should be trivial to make particle mass time-dependent, and then use different decay methods of values of these constants. The results will be qualitative at best, but for better or for worse, they will be instructive.