ZPE and exotic matter form the backbone of the omniverse, defining its structure, keeping it

stable and running smoothly. Exotic matter also keeps black hole worm hole structures stable
and functioning, as it keeps universes from smashing together because of its negative mass. It
also balances out all the positive energy and positive mass with an equal amount of negative
energy and negative mass. Because of the universe's curved structure all points within it touch
the exotic matter supersurface/subsurface (it exists on both ends of this loop geometry-- which
are fractally the same thing and which is why looping through higher and lower universes leads
you back to where you started, just like journeying through the universe itself does, infinite but
self-limited) and so worm holes can not only lead to other universes but also different points
within our own universe. On the subsurface this is in the form of quantum foam and with its
microblack hole worm hole conduits controls quantum properties of nonlocality like entanglement,
teleportation and superposition (this has recently been explained with the AdS/CFT
Correspondence of string theory, which also explains superconductors and black holes, as well
as the liquid phase of quark soup recently discovered) and is also important in the higher
dimensional functioning of human consciousness, such as precognition and other forms of ESP--
because these higher dimensions are only accessible through wormholes. This nonlocality
enables us to journey both within space and time (and entanglement of time has recently been
discovered, which also explains post selection of the present from the future.) Gravity is also
explained, as dark matter existing outside of the universe not only attracts matter but also results
in expansion and contraction cycles (expansion as it pulls the edges of the universe outside and
contraction when the universe encounters the outer periphery of an adjacent universe and
eventually bounces back.) Gravity in its extreme form creates new black holes and worm holes
which create a bridge through exotic matter to other parts of universe, other universes or through
time itself (which also loops much like our space and universe does cyclically.) These serve to
maintain the structure of the omniverse and all its parts because they form the circulatory
"plumbing"-- they redistribute matter and energy, but also protect all conservation laws. This
exouniversal dark matter also accounts for the fractal structure of the omniverse as it sculpts it in
much the same way that our own galaxies, clusters and superclusters are sculpted.

If this dark energy is the great cosmic ocean in which multiple universes are floating then its quite
possible that the whole thing doesnt rip apart and instead a cosmic wave originating from a big
bounce in another universe creates ripples that start our universe's collapse and big bounce.

I agree but the two ideas are interlinked. The ZPE would occupy the space between the
universes and they would be islands floating in it connected by black hole worm hole conduits--
sort of like galaxies and voids-- oh joy, yet another fractal representation.

To make it clear, I envision something along the lines of the "sea" being much further apart if you
could be on the "outside" (that is, within the sea of zpe outside universes) but if youre on the
inside, because of the way the extra dimensions shrink, it enables the black hole worm hole
bridges to connect them very closely.

In this broth of zpe new bubble universes would be bubbling up all the time.

We have had this discussion before and we came up with a fourway arrangement, where you
have a universe, an antiverse, a mirrorverse and a mirror antiverse-- time is reversed in the
antiverse and the mirror antivirus as compared to the other two, and big bounces occur in
opposition to the time reversed universes made with antimatter also. This fourway quadverse
preserves CPT symmetry as well as telling us what happened to the antimatter.

So basically, on the "outside" in the broth of ZPE, the universes existing within it would seem like
vanishingly small particles popping into and out of existence (at each big bounce with greatly
accelerated time-- on their temporal scale), while within a particular universe it would be the
reverse-- the universe would seem immense with the sea of ZPE merely forming the terminal
boundary layer between universes that black hole worm holes bridge to connect universes
together.

Exotic matter is the sea in which the bubble universes of ZPE float and what we need to operate
wormholes also. So making a "hole" through space-time would create a tunnel through exotic
matter to get to the universe on the other side. The next question is, what comprises exotic
matter and can we have a universe made entirely of it?

For example, if you were on the "outside" (hypothetically speaking) and you could "see" both
universes, what would be the medium you would be in? Exotic matter? And what is exotic matter
comprised of? Negative energy? At below absolute zero temperatures?

Hmmmm, then exotic matter could also be dark matter.... which would possibly account for the
origin of gravitation in that case. Which means dark matter could organize the shape of universes
just like they do galaxies, clusters and superclusters. Another fractal representation.

Here's the connection between exotic matter and negative temperatures.....

So, in that article where they talked about attaining negative absolute zero temps, they might
have been on the precipice of finding exotic matter with negative mass.

The intriguing part of that article is the fact that adding energy reduces entropy in a negative
temperature condition-- this illustrates how a low entropy universe can come into existence in a
sea of ZPE and exotic matter. It also mentions pair production as a method of generating
negative temperatures-- it all ties in.

It also shows why negative temperature is important. Collision with other universes (or some
sort of interaction) might be necessary to cause big flow and eventual contraction.

There also needs to be something to keep it all balanced so the universes dont fly apart-- dark
matter might come into play there.

To get the ball rolling you would also need exotic matter because it makes the low entropy
condition possible that lets the ball "roll uphill" so to speak. I can see how it would all be
connected to make the omniverse work "like clockwork."

It should also keep the wormhole tunnel intact by "holding" the universes in place.

You can actually envision a way this balances out the omniverse. Im taking a page from this
paragraph of the wiki article:

Negative mass
Main article: Negative mass

Negative mass would possess some strange properties, such as accelerating in the direction
opposite of applied force. For example, an object with negative inertial mass and positive electric
charge would accelerate away from objects with negative charge, and towards objects with
positive charge, the opposite of the normal rule that like charges repel and opposite charges
attract. This behaviour can produce bizarre results: for instance, a gas containing a mixture of
positive and negative matter particles will have the positive matter portion increase in temperature
without bound. However, the negative matter portion gains negative temperature at the same
rate, again balancing out.

Despite being completely inconsistent with a common-sense approach and the expected
behavior of "normal" matter, negative mass is completely mathematically consistent and
introduces no violation of conservation of momentum or energy. It is used in certain speculative
theories, such as on the construction of wormholes. The closest known real representative of
such exotic matter is the region of pseudo-negative pressure density produced by the Casimir
effect.

Let's say negative mass is equivalent to negative energy. The way it creates an energy balance
across the omniverse is as follows-- the total amount of negative mass/energy of all the exotic
matter in the omniverse should be enough to cancel out all the positive matter and positive
energy of the omniverse-- what this does is keep the whole omniverse stable. As a matter of fact,
the omniverse itself might have originated in a pair production of a parent positive mass and a
parent negative mass and the positive mass became positive energy-- that is ZPE that provided
the seedlings of the individual universes and the negative mass was of course exotic mass. The
function of the ZPE was to create new universes and the function of exotic mass was to maintain
their stability and connections via worm holes. The question is where does gravity come in and
where did all the forces and dimensions originate from. Perhaps they originated from interactions
between the parent positive mass/energy and the parent negative mass/energy. This is what we
must work out.

This connection between the Casimir effect (ZPE) and negative mass is something I find
particularly intriguing since right here we see that ZPE and exotic matter are connected.

Almost sounds male/female...... exotic matter (male) ZPE (female).

The whole yin/yang thing comes to mind. Its just a huge balancing act on a cosmic scale.

I dont consider "space" and "time" fundamental either, they are just constructs of the universe
one is in. I'm open to the idea of other spatial and temporal dimensions in which our space-time
is nested within, that is (for example) the big bang, although it occurred at time zero in our
universe, in the overall scheme of things was not the point of origin of a multilayered "verse" in
which it is just one of a multitude of universes that go "bang." As a point of fact, there might not
have even been an original big bang, but a continuous cycle of bounces that dont ever get to time
zero, but "hop" over from negative to positive and back again.

Some interesting stuff pertaining to exotic matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_cloning_theorem

The no-cloning theorem is a result of quantum mechanics that forbids the creation of identical
copies of an arbitrary unknown quantum state. It was stated by Wootters, Zurek, and Dieks in
1982, and has profound implications in quantum computing and related fields.

The state of one system can be entangled with the state of another system. For instance, one can
use the Controlled NOT gate and the Walsh-Hadamard gate to entangle two qubits. This is not
cloning. No well-defined state can be attributed to a subsystem of an entangled state. Cloning is a
process whose end result is a separable state with identical factors.

No-cloning in a classical context

There is a classical analogue to the quantum no-cloning theorem, which we might state as
follows: given only the result of one flip of a (possibly biased) coin, we cannot simulate a second,
independent toss of the same coin. The proof of this statement uses the linearity of classical
probability, and has exactly the same structure as the proof of the quantum no-cloning theorem.
Thus if we wish to claim that no-cloning is a uniquely quantum result, some care is necessary in
stating the theorem. One way of restricting the result to quantum mechanics is to restrict the
states to pure states, where a pure state is defined to be one that is not a convex combination of
other states. The classical pure states are pairwise orthogonal, but quantum pure states are not.
[edit]
Consequences
The no-cloning theorem prevents us from using classical error correction techniques on quantum
states. For example, we cannot create backup copies of a state in the middle of a quantum
computation, and use them to correct subsequent errors. Error correction is vital for practical
quantum computing, and for some time this was thought to be a fatal limitation. In 1995, Shor and
Steane revived the prospects of quantum computing by independently devising the first quantum
error correcting codes, which circumvent the no-cloning theorem.
Similarly, cloning would violate the no teleportation theorem, which says classical teleportation
(not to be confused with entanglement-assisted teleportation) is impossible. In other words,
quantum states cannot be measured reliably.
The no-cloning theorem does not prevent superluminal communication via quantum
entanglement, as cloning is a sufficient condition for such communication, but not a necessary
one. Nevertheless, consider the EPR thought experiment, and suppose quantum states could be
cloned. Assume parts of a maximally entangled Bell state are distributed to Alice and Bob. Alice
could send bits to Bob in the following way: If Alice wishes to transmit a "0", she measures the
spin of her electron in the z direction, collapsing Bob's state to either or . To transmit "1", Alice
does nothing to her qubit. Bob creates many copies of his electron's state, and measures the spin
of each copy in the z direction. Bob will know that Alice has transmitted a "0" if all his
measurements will produce the same result; otherwise, his measurements will have outcomes
+1/2 and −1/2 with equal probability. This would allow Alice and Bob to communicate across
space-like separations.
The no cloning theorem prevents us from viewing the holographic principle for black holes as
meaning we have two copies of information lying at the event horizon and the black hole interior
simultaneously. This leads us to more radical interpretations like black hole complementarity.
[edit]
Imperfect cloning

Even though it is impossible to make perfect copies of an unknown quantum state, it is possible
to produce imperfect copies. This can be done by coupling a larger auxiliary system to the system
that is to be cloned, and applying a unitary transformation to the combined system. If the unitary
transformation is chosen correctly, several components of the combined system will evolve into
approximate copies of the original system. Imperfect cloning can be used as an eavesdropping
attack on quantum cryptography protocols, among other uses in quantum information science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible#In_reality
In reality
Main article: Superluminal communication

There is no currently-known way to build an ansible. The theory of special relativity predicts that
any such device would allow communication from the future to the past, which raises problems of
causality, unless said device used general relativistic curved spacetimes as an integral part.

The quantum non-local connection is often proposed as a mechanism for superluminal

communication[10] (a 2008 quantum physics experiment performed in Geneva, Switzerland has
determined that the "speed" of the quantum non-local connection has a minimum lower bound of
10,000 times the speed of light[11]). Practical applications are made impossible due to the no
cloning theorem, and the fact that quantum field theories preserve causality, so quantum
correlations cannot be used to transfer information.

Nevertheless, consider the EPR thought experiment, and suppose quantum states could be
cloned. Assume parts of a maximally entangled Bell state are distributed to Alice and Bob. Alice
could send bits to Bob in the following way: If Alice wishes to transmit a "0", she measures the
spin of her electron in the z direction, collapsing Bob's state to either |z+> or |z->. To transmit "1",
Alice does nothing to her qubit. Bob creates many copies of his electron's state, and measures
the spin of each copy in the z direction. Bob will know that Alice has transmitted a "0" if all his
measurements will produce the same result; otherwise, his measurements will have outcomes
+1/2 and −1/2 with equal probability. This would allow Alice and Bob to communicate across
space-like separations.

See time travel and faster-than-light for more discussion of these issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyonic_antitelephone

Tachyonic antitelephone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A tachyonic antitelephone is a hypothetical device in theoretical physics that could be used to

send signals into one's own past. Such a device was first contemplated by R. C. Tolman in
1917[1] in a demonstration of how faster-than-light signals can lead to a paradox of causality
(also known as Tolman's paradox).

The example of the antitelephone is a thought experiment intended to demonstrate how any
faster-than-light communications capability could lead to causality violations. According to the
current understanding of physics, no such faster-than-light transfer of information is actually
possible. For instance, the hypothetical tachyon particles which give the device its name do not
exist even theoretically in the standard model of particle physics, due to tachyon condensation,
and there is no experimental evidence that suggests that they might exist. Nevertheless, science
fiction writer Gregory Benford and others have treated the problem of detecting tachyons via
causal contradictions scientifically.[2]
Sending signals into one's own past

Suppose Alice is on a spacecraft moving away from the Earth in the positive x-direction with a
speed v, and she wants to communicate with Bob back home. Assume both of them have a
device that is capable of transmitting and receiving faster-than-light signals at a speed of ac with
a > 1. Alice uses this device to send a message to Bob, who sends a reply back. Let us choose
the origin of the coordinates of Bob's reference frame, S, to coincide with the reception of Alice's
message to him. If Bob immediately sends a message back to Alice, then in his rest frame the
coordinates of the reply signal (in natural units) are given by:
(t,x) = (t,at)

To find out when the reply is received by Alice, we perform a Lorentz transformation to Alice's
frame S' moving in the positive x-direction with velocity v with respect to the Earth. In this frame
Alice is at rest at position x' = L, where L is the distance that the signal Alice sent to Earth
traversed in her rest frame. The coordinates of the reply signal are given by:

The reply is received by Alice when x' = L. This means that and thus:

Since the message Alice sent to Bob took a time of to reach him, the message she receives back
from him will reach her at time:

later than she sent her message. However, if then T < 0 and Alice will receive the message back
from Bob before she sends her message to him in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cloning

Quantum cloning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quantum cloning is the process that takes an arbitrary, unknown quantum state and makes an
exact copy without altering the original state in any way. In Dirac notation, the process of
quantum cloning is described by:
,

where U is the actual cloning operation, is the state to be cloned, and is the initial state of the
copy.

Quantum cloning is forbidden by the laws of quantum mechanics as shown by the no cloning
theorem, which proves that there is no U that can perform the cloning operation for any arbitrary
state . Though perfect quantum cloning is not possible, it is possible to perform imperfect cloning,
where the copies have a non-unit fidelity with the state being cloned.

The quantum cloning operation is the best way to make copies of quantum information therefore
cloning is an important task in quantum information processing, especially in the context of
quantum cryptography. Researchers are seeking ways to build quantum cloning machines, which
work at the so called quantum limit. The first cloning machine relied on stimulated emission to
copy quantum information encoded into single photons. Teleportation, nuclear magnetic
resonance, quantum amplification and superior phase conjugation have been some other
methods utilized to realize a quantum cloning machine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superluminal_communication
Superluminal communication is the term used to describe the hypothetical process by which one
might send information at faster-than-light (FTL) speeds.

Some theories and experiments include:

Group velocity > c experiments
Evanescent wave coupling
Tachyons
Quantum non-locality

According to the currently accepted theory, three of those four phenomena do not produce
superluminal communication, even though they may give that appearance under some
conditions. As for tachyons, their existence remains hypothetical; even if their existence were to
be proven, attempts to quantize them appear to indicate that they may not be used for
superluminal communication, because experiments to produce or absorb tachyons cannot be
fully controlled [1].

If wormholes are possible, then ordinary subluminal methods of communication could be sent
through them to achieve superluminal transmission speeds. Considering the immense energy
that current theories suggest would be required to open a wormhole large enough to pass
spacecraft through it may be that only atomic-scale wormholes would be practical to build, limiting
their use solely to information transmission. Some theories of wormhole formation would prevent
them from ever becoming "timeholes", allowing superluminal communication without the
additional complication of allowing communication with the past.[citation needed]

The no cloning theorem prevents superluminal communication via quantum cloning. However,
this does not in itself prevent faster-than-light or superluminal communication, since it is not the
only proposed method of such communication[1]. But, consider the EPR thought experiment, and
suppose quantum states could be cloned. Alice could send bits to Bob in the following way:

If Alice wishes to transmit a '0', she measures the spin of her electron in the z direction, collapsing
Bob's state to either |z+>B or |z->B. If Alice wishes to transmit a '1', she measures the spin of her
electron in the x direction, collapsing Bob's state to either |x+>B or |x->B. Bob creates many
copies of his electron's state, and measures the spin of each copy in the z direction. If Alice
transmitted a '0', all his measurements will produce the same result; otherwise, his
measurements will be split evenly between +1/2 and -1/2. This would allow Alice and Bob to
communicate across space-like separations, potentially violating causality. But violation of
causality is not sufficient as proof of no superluminal communication. So superluminal
communication remains an open issue [2].

Exotic matter

Exotic matter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In physics, exotic matter is a term which refers to matter which would somehow deviate from the
norm and have "exotic" properties. There are several uses of the term.
Hypothetical particles which have "exotic" physical properties that would violate known laws of
physics, such as a particle having a negative mass.
Hypothetical particles which have not yet been encountered, such as exotic baryons, but whose
properties would be within the realm of mainstream physics if found to exist.
States of matter which are not commonly encountered, such as Bose–Einstein condensates and
quark–gluon plasma, but whose properties are perfectly within the realm of mainstream physics.
States of matter which are poorly understood, such as dark matter.Contents [hide]
1 Negative mass
2 Imaginary mass
3 See also
4 References

[edit]
Negative mass
Main article: Negative mass

Negative mass would possess some strange properties, such as accelerating in the direction
opposite of applied force. For example, an object with negative inertial mass and positive electric
charge would accelerate away from objects with negative charge, and towards objects with
positive charge, the opposite of the normal rule that like charges repel and opposite charges
attract. This behaviour can produce bizarre results: for instance, a gas containing a mixture of
positive and negative matter particles will have the positive matter portion increase in temperature
without bound. However, the negative matter portion gains negative temperature at the same
rate, again balancing out.

Despite being completely inconsistent with a common-sense approach and the expected
behavior of "normal" matter, negative mass is completely mathematically consistent and
introduces no violation of conservation of momentum or energy. It is used in certain speculative
theories, such as on the construction of wormholes. The closest known real representative of
such exotic matter is the region of pseudo-negative pressure density produced by the Casimir
effect.
[edit]
Imaginary mass
Main article: Tachyon#Mass

A hypothetical particle with imaginary rest mass would always travel faster than the speed of light.
Such particles are called tachyons. There is no confirmed existence of tachyons.

If the rest mass is imaginary, then the denominator must be imaginary since the total energy must
be real; therefore the quantity under the square root must be negative, which can only happen if v
is greater than c. As noted by Gregory Benford et al., among others, special relativity implies that
tachyons, if they existed, could be used to communicate backwards in time[1] (see Tachyonic
antitelephone article). Since time travel is considered to be non-physical, tachyons are believed
by physicists either to not exist, or else to be incapable of interacting with normal matter.[citation
needed]

In quantum field theory, imaginary mass would induce tachyon condensation.

Negative Mass

Negative mass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In theoretical physics, negative mass is a hypothetical concept of matter whose mass is of

opposite sign to the mass of the normal matter. Such matter would violate one or more energy
conditions and show some strange properties such as being repelled rather than attracted by
gravity. It is used in certain speculative theories, such as on the construction of wormholes. The
closest known real representative of such exotic matter is a region of pseudo-negative pressure
density produced by the Casimir effect.Contents [hide]
1 Inertial versus gravitational
2 Forward's analysis
3 In general relativity
4 Gravitational interaction of antimatter
5 References

[edit]
Inertial versus gravitational

Ever since Newton first formulated his theory of gravity, there have been at least three
conceptually distinct quantities called mass: inertial mass, "active" gravitational mass (that is, the
source of the gravitational field), and "passive" gravitational mass (that is, the mass that is evident
from the force produced in a gravitational field). The Einstein equivalence principle postulates that
inertial mass must equal passive gravitational mass; while the law of conservation of momentum
requires that active and passive gravitational mass must be identical. All experimental evidence
to date has found these are indeed always the same. In considering hypothetical particles with
negative mass, it is important to consider which of these concepts of mass are negative;
however, in most analyses of negative mass, it is assumed that the equivalence principle and
conservation of momentum continue to apply.

In 1957, Hermann Bondi suggested in a paper in Reviews of Modern Physics that mass might be
negative as well as positive [1]. He pointed out that this does not entail a logical contradiction, as
long as all three forms of mass are negative, but that the assumption of negative mass involves
some counter-intuitive form of motion.

From Newton's second law:

Thus it can be seen that an object with negative inertial mass would be expected to accelerate in
the opposite direction to that in which it was pushed, which is arguably a strange concept. If the
"push" is based on the electromagnetic force, this would simply mean the mass accelerates in the
opposite direction than what one would expect based on its charge; for example, an object with
negative inertial mass and positive charge would accelerate away from objects with positive mass
and negative charge, and accelerate towards objects with positive mass and positive charge, the
opposite of the normal rule that like charges repel and opposite charges attract.

If one were to treat inertial mass mi, passive gravitational mass mp, and active gravitational mass
ma distinctly, then Newton's law of universal gravitation would take the form

(where a is the acceleration of an object with inertial mass mi and passive gravitational mass mp
in the gravitational field generated by a different object with active gravitational mass Ma, with r
as the distance between the two objects and G as the gravitational constant)

Thus objects with negative passive gravitational mass, but with positive inertial mass, would be
expected to be repelled by positive active masses, and attracted to negative active masses.
However, any difference between inertial and gravitational mass would violate the equivalence
principle of general relativity. For an object where both the inertial and gravitational masses were
negative and equal, we could cancel out mi and mp from the equation, and conclude that its
acceleration a in the gravitational field from a body with positive active gravitational mass (say,
the planet Earth) would be no different from the acceleration of an object with positive passive
gravitational and inertial mass (so a small negative mass object would fall towards the Earth at
the same rate as any other object). On the other hand, if we have a small object with equal
inertial and passive gravitational masses falling in the gravitational field of an object with negative
active gravitational mass (a small mass dropped above a negative-mass planet, say), then
canceling out mi and mp would indicate that the acceleration a of the small object is proportional
to the negative active gravitational mass Ma of the object creating the gravitational field, so the
small object would actually accelerate away from the negative-mass object rather than towards it
(and this is true regardless of whether the small object's inertial and passive gravitational masses
were both positive or both negative). So, as long as inertial mass and gravitational mass are
always equal as required by the equivalence principle, positive active gravitational mass would be
universally attractive (both negative-mass and positive-mass objects would be pulled towards an
object with positive active gravitational mass), while negative active gravitational mass would be
universally repulsive (both negative-mass and positive-mass objects would be pushed away).
[edit]
Forward's analysis

Although no particles are known to have negative mass, physicists (primarily Hermann Bondi and
Robert L. Forward) have been able to describe some of the anticipated properties such particles
may have. Assuming that all three concepts of mass are equivalent it would produce a system
where negative masses are attracted to positive masses, yet positive masses are repelled away
from negative masses. Negative masses would produce an attractive force on one another, but
would move apart because of their negative inertial masses.

For a negative value of mp with positive value of ma, F is negative (repulsive); thus it would
appear that a negative mass would accelerate away from a positive mass. But because such an
object would also possess negative inertial mass it would accelerate in the opposite direction to
F. As Bondi pointed out, it can be shown that if both masses are of equal but opposite mass, the
combined system of positive and negative particles will accelerate indefinitely without any
additional input into the system.

This behavior is completely inconsistent with a common-sense approach and the expected
behaviour of 'normal' matter; but is completely mathematically consistent and introduces no
violation of conservation of momentum or energy. If the masses are equal in magnitude but
opposite in sign, then the momentum of the system remains zero if they both travel together and
accelerate together, no matter what their speed:

And equivalently for the kinetic energy Ke:

Forward extended Bondi's analysis to additional cases, and showed that even if the two masses
m(-) and m(+) are not the same, the conservation laws remain unbroken.

This behaviour can produce bizarre results: for instance, a gas containing a mixture of positive
and negative matter particles will have the positive matter portion increase in temperature without
bound. However, the negative matter portion gains negative temperature at the same rate, again
balancing out. Geoffrey A. Landis pointed out other implications of Forward's analysis,[2]
including noting that although negative mass particles would repel each other gravitationally, the
electrostatic force would be attractive for like-charges and repulsive for opposite charges.

Forward used the properties of negative-mass matter to create the diametric drive, a design for
spacecraft propulsion using negative mass that requires no energy input and no reaction mass to
achieve arbitrarily high acceleration.

Forward also coined a term, "nullification" to describe what happens when ordinary matter and
negative matter meet: they are expected to be able to "cancel-out" or "nullify" each other's
existence. An interaction between equal quantities of positive and negative mass matter would
release no energy, but since the only configuration of such particles which has zero momentum
(both particles moving with the same velocity in the same direction) does not produce a collision,
all such interactions would leave a surplus of momentum, which is classically forbidden.
[edit]
In general relativity

In general relativity, negative mass is generalized to refer to any region of space in which for
some observers the mass density is measured to be negative. This can occur due to negative
mass, or could be a region of space in which the stress component of the Einstein stress-energy
tensor is larger in magnitude than the mass density. All of these are violations of one or another
variant of the positive energy condition of Einstein's general theory of relativity; however, the
positive energy condition is not a required condition for the mathematical consistency of the
theory. (Various versions of the positive energy condition, weak energy condition, dominant
energy condition, etc., are discussed in mathematical detail by Visser[3].)

Morris, Thorne and Yurtsever[4] pointed out that the quantum mechanics of the Casimir effect
can be used to produce a locally mass-negative region of space-time. In this article, and
subsequent work by others, they showed that negative matter could be used to stabilize a
wormhole. Cramer et al. argue that such wormholes might have been created in the early
universe, stabilized by negative-mass loops of cosmic string[5]. Stephen Hawking has proved that
negative energy is a necessary condition for the creation of a closed timelike curve by
manipulation of gravitational fields within a finite region of space;[6] this proves, for example, that
a finite Tipler cylinder cannot be used as a time machine.
[edit]
Gravitational interaction of antimatter
Main article: Gravitational interaction of antimatter

Virtually every modern physicist suspects that antimatter has positive mass and should be
affected by gravity just like normal matter, although it is thought that this view has not yet been
conclusively empirically observed.[7][8] It is difficult to directly observe gravitational forces at the
particle level: at such small scales, electric forces tend to overwhelm gravitational interactions,
especially since the methods of antimatter production currently in use typically generate very
energetic particles. Furthermore, antiparticles must be kept separate from their normal
counterparts or they will quickly annihilate. It is hoped that the ATRAP antimatter experiments will
be able to make direct measurements.

Bubble chamber experiments are often cited as evidence that antiparticles have the same inertial
mass as their normal counterparts, but a reversed electric charge. In these experiments, the
chamber is subjected to a constant magnetic field which causes charged particles to travel in
helical paths; the radius and direction of which correspond to the ratio of electric charge to inertial
mass. Particle/antiparticle pairs are seen to travel in helices with opposite directions but identical
radii, implying that the ratios differ only in sign; but this does not indicate whether it is the charge
or the inertial mass which is inverted. However, particle/antiparticle pairs are observed to
electrically attract one another, often as the prelude to annihilation. This behavior implies that
both have positive inertial mass and opposite charges; if the reverse were true, then the particle
with positive inertial mass would be repelled from its antiparticle partner.

Here's the connection between exotic matter and negative temperatures.....

So, in that article where they talked about attaining negative absolute zero temps, they might
have been on the precipice of finding exotic matter with negative mass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_temperature
In physics, certain systems can achieve negative temperatures; that is, their thermodynamic
temperature can be a negative quantity. Negative temperatures can be expressed as negative
numbers on the kelvin scale.

Temperatures that are expressed as negative numbers on the familiar Celsius or Fahrenheit
scales are simply colder than the zero points of those scales. By contrast, a system with a truly
negative temperature is not colder than absolute zero; in fact, temperatures colder than absolute
zero are impossible by definition. Rather, a system with a truly negative Kelvin temperature is
hotter than any system with a positive temperature (in the sense that if a negative-temperature
system and a positive-temperature system come in contact, heat will flow from the negative- to
the positive-temperature system).

Most familiar systems cannot achieve negative temperatures, because adding energy always
increases their entropy. Some systems, however (see the examples below), have a maximum
amount of energy that they can hold, and as they approach that maximum energy their entropy
actually begins to decrease. Because temperature may be formally defined by the relationship
between energy and entropy, such a system's temperature becomes negative, even though
energy is being added -- implying that the system's heat capacity is negative.Contents [hide]
1 Heat and molecular energy distribution
2 Temperature and disorder
3 Examples
3.1 Nuclear spins
3.2 Lasers
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Heat and molecular energy distribution

Negative temperatures can only exist in a system where there are a limited number of energy
states (see below). As the temperature is increased on such a system, particles move into higher
and higher energy states, and as the temperature increases, the number of particles in the lower
energy states and in the higher energy states approaches equality. (This is a consequence of the
definition of temperature in statistical mechanics for systems with limited states.) By injecting
energy into these systems in the right fashion, it is possible to create a system in which there are
more particles in the higher energy states than in the lower ones. The system can then be
characterised as having a negative temperature. A substance with a negative temperature is not
colder than absolute zero, but rather it is hotter than infinite temperature. As Kittel and Kroemer
(p. 462) put it, "The temperature scale from cold to hot runs:
+0 K, . . . , +300 K, . . . , +∞ K, −∞ K, . . . , −300 K, . . . , −0 K."

Generally, temperature as it is felt is defined by the kinetic energy of atoms (heat). Since there is
no upper bound on momentum of an atom there is no upper bound to the number of energy
states available if enough energy is added, and no way to get to a negative temperature.
However, temperature is more generally defined by statistical mechanics than just kinetic energy
(see below). The inverse temperature β = 1/kT (where k is Boltzmann's constant) scale
runs continuously from low energy to high as +∞, . . . , −∞.
Temperature and disorder

The distribution of energy among the various translational, vibrational, rotational,

electronic, and nuclear modes of a system determines the macroscopic temperature.
In a "normal" system, thermal energy is constantly being exchanged between the
various modes.
However, for some cases it is possible to isolate one or more of the modes. In
practice the isolated modes still exchange energy with the other modes, but the time
scale of this exchange is much slower than for the exchanges within the isolated
mode. One example is the case of nuclear spins in a strong external magnetic field.
In this case, energy flows fairly rapidly among the spin states of interacting atoms,
but energy transfer between the nuclear spins and other modes is relatively slow.
Since the energy flow is predominantly within the spin system, it makes sense to
think of a spin temperature that is distinct from the temperature due to other modes.

A definition of temperature can be based on the relationship:

(See here for discussion)

The relationship suggests that a positive temperature corresponds to the condition

where entropy, S, increases as thermal energy, qrev, is added to the system. This is
the "normal" condition in the macroscopic world, and is always the case for the
translational, vibrational, rotational, and non-spin related electronic and nuclear
modes. The reason for this is that there are an infinite number of these types of
modes, and adding more heat to the system increases the number of modes that are
energetically accessible, and thus increases the entropy.
Examples
Nuclear spins

In the case of electronic and nuclear spin systems there are only a finite number of
modes available, often just two, corresponding to spin up and spin down. In the
absence of a magnetic field, these spin states are degenerate, meaning that they
correspond to the same energy. When an external magnetic field is applied, the
energy levels are split, since those spin states that are aligned with the magnetic
field will have a different energy from those that are anti-parallel to it.

In the absence of a magnetic field, such a two-spin system would have maximum
entropy when half the atoms are in the spin-up state and half are in the spin-down
state, and so one would expect to find the system with close to an equal distribution
of spins. Upon application of a magnetic field, some of the atoms will tend to align so
as to minimize the energy of the system, thus slightly more atoms should be in the
lower-energy state (for the purposes of this example we'll assume the spin-down
state is the lower-energy state). It is possible to add energy to the spin system using
radio frequency (RF) techniques[citation needed]. This causes atoms to flip from spin-
down to spin-up.

Since we started with over half the atoms in the spin-down state, initially this drives
the system towards a 50/50 mixture, so the entropy is increasing, corresponding to a
positive temperature. However, at some point more than half of the spins are in the
spin-up position. In this case, adding additional energy reduces the entropy, since it
moves the system further from a 50/50 mixture. This reduction in entropy with the
addition of energy corresponds to a negative temperature.
Lasers

This phenomenon can also be observed in many lasing systems, wherein a large
fraction of the system's atoms (for chemical and gas lasers) or electrons (in
semiconductor lasers) are in excited states. This is referred to as a population
inversion.
The Hamiltonian for a single mode of a luminescent radiation field at frequency ν is

The density operator in the grand canonical ensemble is

For the system to have a ground state, the trace to converge, and the density
operator to be generally meaningful, βH must be positive semidefinite. So if hν < μ
and H is negative semidefinite, then β must itself be negative, implying a negative
temperature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_hot

Absolute hot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Absolute hot is a concept of temperature that postulates the existence of a highest

attainable temperature of matter. The idea has been popularized by the television
series Nova.[1] In this presentation, absolute hot is assumed to be the high end of a
temperature scale starting at absolute zero, which is the temperature at which
entropy is minimized and classical thermal energy is zero.

Current cosmological models posit that the highest possible temperature is the
Planck temperature, which has the value 1.416785(71)×1032 kelvin.[2] The Planck
temperature is assumed to be the highest temperature in
conventional physics because conventional physics breaks down at that temperature. Above
~1032K, particle energies become so large that the gravitational forces between them become as
strong as any other force and are identical in the Grand Unified Theory.[citation needed]

Some forms of string theory allow a temperature of 1030K, known as Hagedorn temperature.
[citation needed]

Quantum physics formally assumes infinitely positive or negative temperatures in descriptions of

spin system undergoing population inversion from the ground state to a higher energy state by
excitation with electromagnetic radiation. The temperature function in these systems exhibits a
singularity, meaning the temperature tends to positive infinity, before discontinuously switching to
negative infinity.[3] However, this applies only to specific degrees of freedom in the system, while
others would have normal temperature dependency. If equipartitioning were possible, such
formalisms ignore the fact that the spin system would be destroyed by the decomposition of
ordinary matter before infinite temperature could be reached uniformly in the sample.

The Hagedorn temperature in theoretical physics is the temperature above which the partition
sum diverges in a system with exponential growth in the density of states. It is named after
German physicist Rolf Hagedorn. Phase transitions (e.g. from a solid state of matter to that of a
liquid one) are in general possible only when the system has a higher number of particles than is
thought possible. Such behavior surprised many in the world of elementary particle systems.
However, as signaled by abundant particle production present in strong interactions, the quark
structure of strongly interacting particles allows an infinite number of "degrees of freedom" to be
present in finite volume. In other words, a highly relativistic system can produce pairs and thus
effectively be of infinite size.

Because of the divergence, it seemed at first impossible to have temperatures above the
Hagedorn temperature, which would make it the absolute hot temperature, because it would
require an infinite amount of energy. In equations:

This line of reasoning has been improved in work of Hagedorn and Johann Rafelski[1], where it
was shown that instead a phase transition to quark matter occurs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagedorn_temperature

The Ads/CFT correspondence lives! This is highly interesting because it also connects
superconductors and black holes under the umbrella of gauge gravity duality. It's also been used
to explain quantum entanglement. So this is yet another verification. No surprises here, but a
very interesting result.

iii. Real Gains

Regardless of whether they mysteries of the elusive dark matter or the Higgs boson are solved,
CERN researchers are already offering up profound and intriguing discoveries.

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Washington,
the CERN physicist supervising the LHC's ALICE detector, Yves Schutz, announced the creation
of the hottest, densest form of matter on Earth yet. States Mr. Schultz, "We have produced in the
laboratory the hottest matter ever, the densest matter ever."

Nicknamed Quark Soup (officially know as Quark-Gluon Plasma or QGP), the exotic form of
matter created by bombarding lead ions with proton beams. Quark Soup had only been
successfully created once before on Earth ever, at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider in New
York.

Many physicists had challenged the RHIC's data as the Quark Soup behaved like a super-dense
liquid -- an unexpected result for some. Some physicists had theorized that Quark Soup would act
as a gas at hotter temperatures. But it did not. Instead the Quark Soup remained a "perfect liquid,
which flows without resistance and is completely opaque."

The properties of the Quark Soup precisely match those predicted by a particular superstring
theory variant, dubbed AdS/CFT correspondence. AdS/CFT addresses such arcane mysteries as
quantum gravity and higher dimensions.

String theories predict 11 dimensions, including the familiar three dimensions of space and the
fourth dimension, time. Under most string theory models, the titular strings are what compose
matter. These vibrating vector trails snake through space weave complex nets and giving rise to
matter, fundamental forces, and everything else in the universe.

Traditional physicists have attacked string theory as being overly hypothetical and unverifiable in
its vague predictions. But certain refined string theories, such as AdS/CFT could lend credibility to
the field, by offering discrete, testable conclusions.
The fact that the LHC verified one of those conclusions is noteworthy. Mr. Schultz remarks, "I'm
surprised that [string theorists] can make a prediction and that it matches what we measured."

Gas rich galaxies confirm prediction of modified gravity theory

February 23rd, 2011 in Physics / General Physics

The star dominated spiral galaxy UGC 2885. Image by Zagursky & McGaugh

(PhysOrg.com) -- Recent data for gas rich galaxies precisely match predictions of a modified
theory of gravity know as MOND according to a new analysis by University of Maryland
Astronomy Professor Stacy McGaugh. This -- the latest of several successful MOND predictions
-- raises new questions about accuracy of the reigning cosmological model of the universe, writes
McGaugh in a paper to be published in March in Physical Review Letters.

Modern cosmology says that for the universe to behave as it does, the mass-energy of the
universe must be dominated by dark matter and dark energy. However, direct evidence for the
existence of these invisible components remains lacking. An alternate, though unpopular,
possibility is that the current theory of gravity does not suffice to describe the dynamics of cosmic
systems.

A few theories that would modify our understanding of gravity have been proposed. One of these
is Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), which was hypothesized in 1983 by Moti Milgrom a
physicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. One of MOND's predictions
specifies the relative relationship between the mass of any galaxy and its flat rotation velocity.
However, uncertainties in the estimates of masses of stars in star-dominated spiral galaxies (such
as our own Milky Way) previously had precluded a definitive test.

To avoid this problem, McGaugh examined gas rich galaxies, which have relatively fewer stars
and a preponderance of mass in the form of interstellar gas. "We understand the physics of the
absorption and release of energy by atoms in the interstellar gas, such that counting photons is
LIKE counting atoms. This gives us an accurate estimate of the mass of such galaxies,"
McGaugh said.

Using recently published work that he and other scientists had done to determine both the mass
and flat rotation velocity of many gas rich galaxies, McGaugh compiled a sample of 47 of these
and compared each galaxy's mass AND rotation velocity with the relationship expected by
MOND. All 47 galaxies fell on or very close to the MOND prediction. No dark matter model
performed as well.

"I find it remarkable that the prediction made by Milgrom over a quarter century ago performs so
well in matching these findings for gas rich galaxies," McGaugh said. "

MOND vs. Dark Matter - Dark Energy

Almost everyone agrees that on scales of large galaxy clusters and up, the Universe is well
described by dark matter - dark energy theory. However, according to McGaugh this cosmology
does not account well for what happens at the scales of galaxies and smaller.

"MOND is just the opposite," he said. "It accounts well for the 'small' scale of individual galaxies,
but MOND doesn't tell you much about the larger universe.

Of course, McGaugh said, one can start from the assumption of dark matter and adjust its models
for smaller scales until it fits the current finding. "This is not as impressive as making a prediction
ahead of [new findings], especially since we can't see dark matter. We can make any adjustment
we need." This is rather like fitting planetary orbits with epicycles," he said. Epicycles were
erroneously used by the ancient Greek scientist Ptolemy to explain observed planetary motions
within the context of a theory for the universe that placed the earth in its center.

"If we're right about dark matter, why does MOND work at all?" asks McGaugh. "Ultimately, the
correct theory - be it dark matter or a modification of gravity - needs to explain this."

More information: Preprint of original paper on arXiv.org

Read more about dark energy and dark matter on this NASA Web page

Provided by University of Maryland

"Gas rich galaxies confirm prediction of modified gravity theory." February 23rd, 2011.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-gas-rich-galaxies-gravity-theory.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=particles-that-flock

Particles That Flock: Strange Synchronization Behavior at the Large Hadron Collider

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are trying to solve a puzzle of their own making: why
particles sometimes fly in sync

By Amir D. Aczel | February 11, 2011 | 22

Image: Copyright CERn, for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration

In its first six months of operation, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva has yet to find the
Higgs boson, solve the mystery of dark matter or discover hidden dimensions of spacetime. It
has, however, uncovered a tantalizing puzzle, one that scientists will take up again when the
collider restarts in February following a holiday break. Last summer physicists noticed that some
of the particles created by their proton collisions appeared to be synchronizing their flight paths,
like flocks of birds. The findings were so bizarre that “we’ve spent all the time since [then]
convincing ourselves that what we were see ing was real,” says Guido Tonelli, a spokesperson
for CMS, one of two general-purpose experiments at the LHC.

The effect is subtle. When proton collisions result in the release of more than 110 new particles,
the scientists found, the emerging particles seem to fly in the same direction. The high-energy
collisions of protons in the LHC may be uncovering “a new deep internal structure of the initial
protons,” says Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winner of a Nobel
Prize for his explanation of the action of gluons. Or the particles may have more interconnections
than scientists had realized. “At these higher energies [of the LHC], one is taking a snapshot of
the proton with higher spatial and time resolution than ever before,” Wilczek says.

When seen with such high resolution, protons, according to a theory developed by Wilczek and
his colleagues, consist of a dense medium of gluons—massless particles that act inside the
protons and neutrons, controlling the behavior of quarks, the constituents of all protons and
neutrons. “It is not implausible,” Wilczek says, “that the gluons in that medium interact and are
correlated with one another, and these interactions are passed on to the new particles.”

If confirmed by other LHC physicists, the phenomenon would be a fascinating new finding about
one of the most common particles in our universe and one scientists thought they understood well

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/02-15BuildBigger.asp
Physicists Build Bigger 'Bottles' of
Antimatter to Unlock Nature's Secrets

February 18, 2011

By Kim McDonald
UCSD physicists James Danielson, Clifford Surko and Craig Schallhorn (left to right) inspect the
apparatus they are using to develop the world's largest trap for low-energy positrons, which is
expected to hold a trillion or more antiparticles.
Photo Credit: Kim McDonald, UCSD

Once regarded as the stuff of science fiction, antimatter—the mirror image of the ordinary matter
in our observable universe—is now the focus of laboratory studies around the world.

While physicists routinely produce antimatter with radioisotopes and particle colliders, cooling
these antiparticles and containing them for any length of time is another story. Once antimatter
comes into contact with ordinary matter it “annihilates”—or disappears in a flash of gamma
radiation.

Clifford Surko, a professor of physics at UC San Diego who is constructing what he hopes will be
the world’s largest antimatter container, said physicists have recently developed new methods to
make special states of antimatter in which they can create large clouds of antiparticles, compress
them and make specially tailored beams for a variety of uses.

He described the progress made in this area, including his own efforts, at the annual meeting in
Washington, DC, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His talk, “Taming
Dirac’s Particle,” led off the session entitled “Through the Looking Glass: Recent Adventures in
Antimatter,” at 1:30 pm on February 18.

Surko said that since “positrons”—the anti-electrons predicted by English physicist Paul Dirac
some 80 years ago—disappear in a burst of gamma rays whenever they come in contact with
ordinary matter, accumulating and storing these antimatter particles is no small feat. But over the
past few years, he added, researchers have developed new techniques to store billions of
positrons for hours or more and cool them to low temperatures in order to slow their movements
so they can be studied.

Surko said physicists are now able to slow positrons from radioactive sources to low energy and
accumulate and store them for days in specially designed ”bottles” that have magnetic and
electric fields as walls rather than matter. They have also developed methods to cool them to
temperatures as low as that of liquid helium and to compress
them to high densities.

“One can then carefully push them out of the bottle in a thin stream, a beam, much like squeezing
a tube of toothpaste,” said Surko, adding that there are a variety of uses for such positrons.

A familiar positron technique that does not use this new technology is the PET scan, also known
as Positron Emission Tomography, which is now used routinely to study human metabolic
processes and help design new drugs.

In the new methods being developed by physicists, beams of positrons will be used in other
ways. “These beams provide new ways to study how antiparticles interact or react with ordinary
matter,” said Surko. “They are very useful, for example, in understanding the properties of
material surfaces.”
Surko and his collaborators at UC San Diego are studying how positrons bind to ordinary matter,
such as atoms and molecules. “While these complexes only last a billionth of a second or so,” he
said, “the ‘stickiness’ of the positron is an important facet of the chemistry of matter and
antimatter.”

Surko and his colleagues are building the world’s largest trap for low-energy positrons in his
laboratory at UC San Diego, capable of storing more than a trillion antimatter particles at one
time.

“We are now working to accumulate trillions of positrons or more in a novel ‘multi-cell’ trap—an
array of magnetic bottles akin to a hotel with many rooms, with each room containing tens of
billions of antiparticles,” he said.

“These developments are enabling many new studies of nature. Examples include the formation
and study of antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen; the investigation of electron-
positron plasmas, similar to those believed to be present at the magnetic poles of neutron stars,
using a device now being developed at Columbia University; and the creation of much larger
bursts of positrons which could eventually enable the creation of an annihilation gamma ray
laser.”

“An exciting long-term goal of the work is the creation of portable traps for antimatter,” added
Surko. “This would increase greatly the ability to use and exploit antiparticles in our matter world
in situations where radioisotope- or accelerator-based positron sources are inconvenient to
arrange.”

Professor Surko’s work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of
Energy and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Galaxies like snowflakes are another example of fractal construction.

Giant galaxies akin to snowflakes in space

February 21st, 2011 in Space & Earth / Astronomy

Enlarge

(PhysOrg.com) -- Giant galaxies that contain billions of stars are born in much the same way as
delicate snowflakes, new research from Swinburne University of Technology has shown.

In a paper accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
Professor Duncan Forbes has provided the first direct evidence to support a theory of galaxy
formation that he has likened to the birth of a snowflake.

Forbes, with the help of international collaborators, analysed data from three different telescopes
in order to help confirm this galaxy formation theory proposed last year by German astronomer
Ludwig Oser and his colleagues.

“What we’ve found is that galaxies form in two phases. Firstly, an inner region of stars is formed
from collapsing gas. This region then acts as a core, or `seed’, around which the galaxy grows as
the result of stars which are acquired from other smaller galaxies,” he said.

According to Professor Jean Brodie from the University of California, “our work provides some of
the best evidence for this inside-out build up of giant galaxies.’’

What intrigued the astronomers was the similarity between this inside-out process for giant galaxy
formation and the way that snowflakes are formed.
“Snowflake formation requires a `seed’ to get it started. In the case of snowflakes, that `seed’ is a
microscopic dust grain. Having a core from which to build upon is comparable to the formation of
a giant galaxy,” Forbes said.

“Then, in much the same way as water vapour accumulates to grow the snowflake, small galaxies
and their stars are accreted onto the galaxy core.”

The astronomers based their conclusions on observations of the massive elliptical galaxy
NGC1407, one of the largest galaxies in the southern skies with over 10 billion stars.

They made their observations using two giant telescopes in Hawaii – the 8.2 metre Subaru and
the 10 metre Keck, the largest optical telescope in the world. They also included data collected
from the Hubble Space Telescope.

“Our data came from three of the world’s premier telescopes, and in each case it supported the
‘snowflake theory’ of galaxy formation,” Forbes said. “This means we can be very confident in our
findings.”

Provided by Swinburne University of Technology

"Giant galaxies akin to snowflakes in space." February 21st, 2011.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-giant-galaxies-akin-snowflakes-space.html

http://www.dailytech.com/US+Lab+Recreates+Violent+Big+Bang+Temperatures+Makes+Quark+
Soup/article17699.htm

U.S. Lab Recreates Violent Big Bang Temperatures, Makes Quark Soup
Jason Mick (Blog) - February 16, 2010 12:00 PMPrint
62 comment(s) - last by popopo.. on Feb 23 at 10:26 AM

(Source: Sprouting Sprouts)

A visualization shows the quark gluon plasma "soup" created at the Brookhaven National
Laboratory. The soup reaches temperatures that are as hot as the big bang, melting protons and
neturons. (Source: BNL via YouTube)

Vortices were also observed, a part of a phenomena known as "symmetry-breaking" that runs
counter to the traditional laws of physics. (Apparently you CAN change the laws of physics!)
(Source: BNL via YouTube)

Conditions have likely not been seen in the last 13.7 billion years

While the Large Hadron Collider's record setting performance in particle collisions is certainly
impressive, it's important not to forget about the important contributions that particle physics
centers here in the United States are still making. Fermilab (Batavia, Illinois) was the previous
record holder of the highest energy collision and still has a shot at beating the LHC at finding the
Higgs boson.

Another key lab is the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), home to
the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a slightly different type of collider that impacts larger
particles. Despite being grossly underfunded, both the Brookhaven NL and Fermilab had both
offered stunning research contributions in recent years.
Now BNL can add one more to the list -- achieving temperatures likely not seen since the Big
Bang. The lab produced temperatures of 4 trillion degrees Celsius, 250,000 times hotter than the
Sun's interior, during collisions of gold atoms hurtling at almost the speed of light. To give
another benchmark, the collision produced internal heat approximately 40 times that at the center
of an imploding supernova star.

The collisions produced a stunning "soup" of quarks and gluons. The analyzed data indicates
that record high temperature caused the protons and neutrons of the gold atoms to "melt" into the
quarks and gluons that compose them, which then formed a plasma, known as quark gluon
plasma (QGP). This appears to be the first time man has been able to make such a quark soup.

Dr. William F. Brinkman, Director of the DOE Office of Science, states that the results are
amazing. He comments, "This research offers significant insight into the fundamental structure of
matter and the early universe, highlighting the merits of long-term investment in large-scale, basic
research programs at our national laboratories. I commend the careful approach RHIC scientists
have used to gather detailed evidence for their claim of creating a truly remarkable new form of
matter."

The researchers measured the temperature of the QGP using color and light-based heat analysis
techniques, the advanced derivatives of similar techniques used in industrial applications. And
there were surprises.

States Steven Vigdor, Brookhaven’s Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear and Particle
Physics, "The temperature inferred from these new measurements at RHIC is considerably higher
than the long-established maximum possible temperature attainable without the liberation of
quarks and gluons from their normal confinement inside individual protons and neutrons.
However, the quarks and gluons in the matter we see at RHIC behave much more cooperatively
than the independent particles initially predicted for QGP."

The biggest challenge in the research, perhaps, was convincing skeptics in the research field that
the quark soup was real. Previously, physicists had predicted that it would have a gas-like form,
but results from the BNL, starting in 2005, suggested it was actually a remarkable liquid with no
frictional resistance or viscosity.

The verifications was very challenging; whereas the QGP existed for microseconds after the Big
Bang, in the lab it existed for a mere billionth of a trillionth of a second (10^-21 s). In order to
detect what happened in that sliver of time, researchers had to capture the handful of high-energy
photons that were thrown off and told exactly how hot the mix got. The results seem to
conclusively indicate that the QGP is indeed a liquid, at least at some temperatures.

Another interesting result was the "symmetry-breaking" behavior observed in the collision
bubbles. In fundamental terms, the phenomena involves the charged particles immersed in the
powerful magnetic field within the bubbles moving in directions opposite to what is seen in today's
universe.

The results are published in two papers appearing in the journal Physical Review Letters [1] [2].

Following the success, the researchers plan to within a year or two upgrade the RHIC to improve
its collision rate and detector capabilities. Better collisions could reveal other exotic particles like
Higgs bosons or their theoretical alternative preons (point particles that some have theorized
make up quarks and gluons.

"Bound neutrons pave way to free ones." February 7th, 2011.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-bound-neutrons-pave-free.html
> Some experiments seem to show that the building blocks of protons and neutrons inside a
nucleus are somehow different from that of free ones (the EMC Effect). Other experiments show
they behave differently when they pair up (Short-Range Correlations): they move faster and
frequently overlap. Combining the data from experiments addressing these two effects, nuclear
physicists showed that the two were connected. This connection has allowed scientists, for the
first time, to extract information through experimentation about the internal structure of free
neutrons, without the assistance of a theoretical model. Credit: DOE's Jefferson Lab

>

> A study of bound protons and neutrons conducted at the Department of Energy's Thomas
Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has allowed scientists, for the first time, to extract
information through experimentation about the internal structure of free neutrons, without the
assistance of a theoretical model. The result was published in the Feb. 4 issue of Physical
Review Letters.

> The major hurdle for scientists who study the internal structure of the neutron is that most
neutrons are bound up inside the nucleus of atoms to protons. In nature, a free neutron lasts for
only a few minutes, while in the nucleus, neutrons are always encumbered by the ubiquitous
proton.

> To tease out a description of a free neutron, a group of scientists compared data collected at
Jefferson Lab and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory that detail how bound protons and
neutrons in the nucleus of the atom display two very different effects. Both protons and neutrons
are referred to as nucleons.

> "Both effects are due to the nucleons behaving like they are not free," says Doug Higinbotham,
a Jefferson Lab staff scientist.

> Nucleons appear to differ when they are tightly bound in heavier nuclei versus when they are
loosely bound in light nuclei. In the first effect, experiments have shown that nucleons tightly
bound in a heavy nucleus pair up more often than those loosely bound in a light nucleus.