Topic: =/\= Quantum physicists rejoice! yeah i would call this a "wow!" moment

[stoneyface]

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/06/cern-lhc-creates-temperatures-1000-times-hotter-than-center-of-sun.html

 quark gluon plasma has been created! so rare that thought to be made only when two neutron stars collide and the only thing more dense than it is a black hole! i'd call that amazing! present at the moment of the big bang as well and helped create - everything...

way to awesome for words!

[762_XC]

BNL already did it? Using gold ions as I recall.

[stoneyface]

they had indications it could be made, from what i understand. the earlier tests were able to get almost complete formation but they needed more power. hence, now that CERN is operational, they were able to fully create the quark gluon plasma. at least that is how it was explained to me. hope that helps.

[Bonk]

Yeah, I read the article, which IIRC stated that the plasma was created by colliding Pb⁺ ions in the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where previously they were just colliding protons. The problem that I have with it is a pedantic one. I don't know particle physics well enough to really "believe in" quarks and gluons, nor do I quite get billing it as something for quantum physicists to rejoice over, as far as I can tell, it is not a quantised state (plasma - free particles - no quantisation of energy levels but rather a continuum of energies, part of the definition of a plasma).

The developments from the LHC I look forward to are antimatter production and storage spinoff technologies. Storing that much energy I think may be the key to reaching the stars.

What the heck is a hadron anyway? (I think it may be a generic term for charged particles?)

edit: yeah... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadron

Hadrons are categorized into two families: baryons (made of three quarks) and mesons (made of one quark and one antiquark).
The best-known hadrons are protons and neutrons (both baryons), which are components of atomic nuclei

Protons & neutrons I get, but smaller than that and I am lost.

[762_XC]

A friend of a friend was a researcher at BNL. Extremely smart guy.

I remember at the time there were all these doomsday scenarios regarding the formation of QGP and how some of the armchair scientists in the media were freaking out about it. He explained them all to me in astonishing detail (I can follow Hawking's more basic stuff pretty well, but most of this was over my head).

One of them involved making a mini-black hole which sucked up the earth. Another was somehow reversing the vector of the liberated gluons, creating a cascading effect which would basically unmake every hadron in the universe and cause them to reform with other quarks. Basically it was all a crock, but the scenarios provided for some amusement.

I was like, "Uh huh....uh huh...cool" *drinks beer and tries not to look lost*

[stoneyface]

bonk, it is not about a "quantized state" , the quantum in quantum physics simply refers to the subatomic sized world. the "particle zoo" of the myriad of subatomic particles.

[Bonk]

Oh. I'm very literal and precise about my science and it often causes confusion. It is why I left science for good. (Inter-analyst variance does not exist in the CFIA... Must be some kind of localised micro-alternate-universe...)

I think of it as particle physics and quantum physics. Quantum happens mostly on paper. Particle happens mostly in accelerators and cyclotrons. Though the two crossover.

P.S. I am a pedantic bastard. But you already know this. 

[stoneyface]

well yes. but you know thru our discussions the passion i have for quantum physics, quantum mechanics and altered mental states

the argument for particle physics vs quantum physics is something i would actually say is a somewhat legit argument. you could very easily say that particle physics is the science of the particles in a non experimental state or the math. and then quantum physics is the science of particles in an experimental state in an accelerometer or in  theoretical concepts. personally i find that too confusing and i lump them all in one term "quantum physics" like most involved in the field.

[Lono]

Very very awesome!

(how did i miss this!)

Thanks Stoney!

 

[stoneyface]

you are most welcome! thank you for reading and supporting my threads!