Is this the one that makes all the Sci-Fi gadgets do the impossible? I need to know if I should be excited or not. /s
You just need to apply more quantum.
New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
21–30 of 217 posts
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're allowed to use something produced in an accelerator as your fuel you can't beat antimatter, which is as stable as normal matter until Kirk orders warp one.
There's always many considerations. Energy density, stability, what kind of energy can you convert it to, can it be directed easily, how hard is it to store etc...
Antimatter's reputation for being incredibly difficult to store comes from the fact that it's produced as individual particles. A superconducting antimatter hockey puck would be much easier to store than a cloud of antiprotons of the same mass.
And yeah, you'll need a way to build gamma ray mirrors before antimatter reactions will push you in any direction (the energy comes flying out isotropically and we can't presently do anything to stop or direct it), but we can cross that parsec when we come to it. :-)
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#23Is this the one that makes all the Sci-Fi gadgets do the impossible? I need to know if I should be excited or not. /s
[deleted]
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The resonance width is inversely proportional to the lifetime, and if the resonance width is about 400keV, the particle would live for about 10^-21 seconds. For comparison, neutrons decay via the weak force in about 800 seconds, and delta baryons, a randomly chosen strong force decay, live for 10^-24 seconds. That makes this tetraquark long-lived for a strong decay, but that's way, way faster than a weak decay. https…
Are these decays equivalent to drops to a lower energy state where that energy is mass?
The term "lower energy state" is a funny one, because isn't energy conserved? What's happening is a drop to a more spread out state, where you have several particles making great time flying away from each other instead of one high-energy-density locus in the center.
Edit: Just to clarify, the time-variant system exception does not apply in this case. It really is an entropy thing, moreso than an energy thing (which is constant in every particle decay that happens on Earth.)
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's always many considerations. Energy density, stability, what kind of energy can you convert it to, can it be directed easily, how hard is it to store etc...
Antimatter's reputation for being incredibly difficult to store comes from the fact that it's produced as individual particles. A superconducting antimatter hockey puck would be much easier to store than a cloud of antiprotons of the same mass. And yeah, you'll need a way to build gamma ray mirrors before antimatter reactions will push you in any direction (the energy comes flying out isotropically and we can't prese…
Gamma ray mirrors sound like they’d be extremely useful for nuclear power too.
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#26The article points to an ongoing conference as the source, unfortunately (despite having no registration fee) the live-stream is password protected for non-participants :( https://www.eps-hep2021.eu/live_stream/ Edit: It seems the talks may be released, in the end >We would like to record your presentation at the EPS-HEP2021 conference and make it publicly available via the INDICO page and the DESY media streaming se…
They probably don't want internet randos jumping in and flooding the chat with porn.
That makes sense for the zoom sessions.
But, although I've never run a conference, I naively can't see that broadcasting the plenary session's video a little broader (to the three to five latecomers likely to stick around!) would really cause problems.
Not to be a stereotypical "Concerned Facebook Taxpayer", but in general I'm really fond of CERN's transparency, and I appreciate all the work they do to keep science open. They're usually way ahead of the field and it's refreshing to see, I love following what comes out of the LHC data.
So all that to say, maybe I've set my expectations a little high when it comes to physics and public access =)
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#27Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#28What is the charge of a tetraquark? Is it neutral?
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's always many considerations. Energy density, stability, what kind of energy can you convert it to, can it be directed easily, how hard is it to store etc...
Antimatter's reputation for being incredibly difficult to store comes from the fact that it's produced as individual particles. A superconducting antimatter hockey puck would be much easier to store than a cloud of antiprotons of the same mass. And yeah, you'll need a way to build gamma ray mirrors before antimatter reactions will push you in any direction (the energy comes flying out isotropically and we can't prese…
Superconductors pretty notoriously need to be kept cold, which adds another difficulty of cooling the antimatter without touching it
Re: New exotic matter particle, a tetraquark, discovered at CERN
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are these decays equivalent to drops to a lower energy state where that energy is mass?
The term "lower energy state" is a funny one, because isn't energy conserved? What's happening is a drop to a more spread out state, where you have several particles making great time flying away from each other instead of one high-energy-density locus in the center. Edit: Just to clarify, the time-variant system exception does not apply in this case. It really is an entropy thing, moreso than an energy thing (which…
Fun fact: in the most general case, energy is not a conserved quantity.
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2010/02/22/energy-...