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What could explain the gallium anomaly?

quantamagazine.org

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Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#71

Post by bosco_mcnasty »

geuis wrote: post #45
bawolff wrote: post #29

> While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has complicated things,” Elliott said, the collaboration between the U.S. and Russia on BEST is still ongoing, for now. Nice to hear in these uncertain times.

How is that "nice"? The fact that 3 years in we are still collaborating with Russia on the ISS and in other scientific programs is deeply disturbing. I get that the ISS is a special circumstance and a difficult knot to unravel. That's an extremely unique situation and it's not worth digging into at length for this situation. Life support onboard for all occupants relies on a continuing collaboration. Beyond the ISS s…

I see it more simplistically. If there's two guys love neutrinos, neutrinos is they passion, one happens to be born in Russia, one in US (neither one chose to be born there), and they want to work together to understand life, the universe, everything, then so what? What matters more, life, the universe, everything, or some years-long dramatic squabble, years long on the scale of a 5 billion year old planet and millions year old species and perhaps tens of thousands of years old civilization.

The "ideal" of science is that there should be this purity, this honesty, etc. Deviations do occur, politics are common in science itself, data falsification, etc, but we must not let that deny the purity ideal. In the same way, I believe the idea here is to acknowledge that purity over political differences as something transcendent to politics. But yes, such collaborations do have political value in terms of being a "relationship". And yes of course I don't want to poo-poo politics. Whereas it's true that politics is as inescapable to the human condition as say language, perhaps we shouldn't let political constraints guide and dictate scientific work just as we shouldn't let linguistic barriers limit science, both part of the human condition, both miniscule in the face of the work being done.

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#72

Post by TeMPOraL »

timcobb wrote: post #57
otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) This isn't true, quite the opposite. b) The shilling for "#yolo, let's start nuclear war with Russia" is a bad idea. Trust me. You don't want to go there.

Living in the world as a hostage to nuclear weapon yielding crazies is a fate worse than death for some free-minded people.

Shame about those free-minded people; everyone else understands that it's how the world works and why everything isn't on fire. MAD is the foundation of international politics; everything else is role-playing on top of it.

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#73

Post by baxtr »

keepamovin wrote: post #60

Could the gallium anomaly be explained by something far more prosaic? For example, in water, there are all kinds of species of different anions and cations present, existing in equilibrium with each other. Water forms complex semi-crystalline structures by virtue of hydrogen bonds. Although they are not true crystals, the supramolecular structures of individual water molecules and the valence species create a sophist…

Unfortunately many physicists believe chemistry is just applied physics. In reality most physicists have no clue of chemistry beyond the H2 molecule.

Based on that, your “less prosaic” could be a good candidate for an explanation.

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#75

Post by a3n »

jlarocco wrote: post #66
a3n wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyday Russians, including scientists, should feel consequences for their government's murders. Except for the ISS (complicated, as noted), I'm astounded that anything goes in or out of Russia: people, goods, services, atoms, electrons.

There aren't many "innocent" countries out there. In your opinion we should all focus our energy on shunning and hating each other because of it?

No I don't.

This situation is acute, and will spread.

The only way Germany was stopped in 1945 was by a collective decision to defeat them militarily, by multiple participating countries.

That won't happen this time around, because WWIII is all but unthinkable.

The only thing left is for Russian citizens to be motivated enough to stop it. That's a hard lift, but if they feel it long enough, they might get it.

In any case, after arming Ukraine, it's about all we have.

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#76

Post by tlogan »

Question for experts:

If sterile neutrinos exist, would they be the best candidate for dark matter? Additionally, would it be impossible to detect them since they do not interact with anything and possess only mass?

EDIT:

My reasoning is as follows:

- Low-energy neutrinos might not be relativistic. For example, relic neutrinos from the Big Bang, which have a temperature of around 1.95 K, would travel at approximately 4.5% of the speed of light.

- I've also read that sterile neutrinos are hypothesized to have a large mass (though I'm not sure).

So "slow neutrino" + "not so light like normal neutrino" => dark matter

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#77

Post by TeMPOraL »

sterlind wrote: post #22
CamperBob2 wrote: post #2

Photo caption: In the lab that houses the BEST experiment, fish serve as an early warning system about any leaking radiation. Never change, Russia. Never change.

coal miners carried canaries to warn of CO. chemical weapons workers brought bunnies in cages to monitor nerve gas leaks. it's an old tradition - it's simple, and it works. though why not Geiger counters for radiation? there must be a reason.

> though why not Geiger counters for radiation? there must be a reason.

If a detector fish moves, it works. With Geiger counter, you may not be always able to tell when it malfunctions.

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#78

Post by d_silin »

tlogan wrote: post #76

Question for experts: If sterile neutrinos exist, would they be the best candidate for dark matter? Additionally, would it be impossible to detect them since they do not interact with anything and possess only mass? EDIT: My reasoning is as follows: - Low-energy neutrinos might not be relativistic. For example, relic neutrinos from the Big Bang, which have a temperature of around 1.95 K, would travel at approximately…

All neutrinos are relativistic (moving at almost speed of light) and our current model assumes dark matter is "cold" (moving at relatively slow speeds).

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#79

Post by krick »

jfengel wrote: post #70
booleandilemma wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a US citizen, and I recognize my country has done some terrible things, but I shouldn't have to personally feel the consequences for those things. At the same time, I wouldn't want random Russian citizens to have to feel the consequences for things their government has done. Your bad argument is the same one that spurs Islamic terrorists into stabbing random people.

Our government is doing some terrible things. I voted for this government and I feel I should take some responsibility for it. I accept that there may be consequences, potentially awful ones. I am afraid we are about to vote in a government that will do even more harm -- including to me personally. I think that a lot of people are choosing that harm deliberately. But even worse is a lot of people who are willing to a…

Did you ever consider that USAians are not really a democracy and their understanding of the world is severely warped by their media? It is 100% true, by the way.

Re: What could explain the gallium anomaly?

#80

Post by sho »

geuis wrote: post #47
jpgvm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is these joint scientific efforts were and continue to be effective tools to diffuse more dangerous possibilities. In case you have forgotten Russia is still the 2nd largest nuclear power and their arsenal is enough to eliminate pretty much all life on Earth. The war in Ukraine is terrible but don't underestimate how much worse things could get. If things do get worse it's back channels like space collabo…

Glad we agree on China at least. I highly disagree about Russia being a modern nuclear power. China and Israel are really the only countries that have the modern infrastructure required to maintain significant nuclear presences other than the US. Russia today is mostly living off of the remnants of pre-1985 Soviet energy infrastructure investments. They have some nuclear capability, but it's far, far below what the U…

> I highly disagree about Russia being a modern nuclear power

Look, I'm as pissed at Russia as anyone but it doesn't change the facts. They are indisputably a modern nuclear power, and they have ramped up their spending in recent years. It's practically the only thing in their defense they haven't starved of funds.

> They have some nuclear capability

They don't have "some" nuclear capability. They are equal first or near enough.

> China and Israel are really the only countries that have the modern infrastructure

Israel!?? Now I'm really questioning your source of information. Whoever told you tiny Israel was anything other than dead last was leading you quite astray, I'm afraid. In fact some would say that Israel's nuclear capability is behind some other countries who don't even possess the weapons.

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