Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    Menu
    Natural Sciences
    Health
    History & Humanities
    Space & Astronomy
    Technology
    Culture
    Resources
    Natural Sciences

    Physics

    • Matter and Energy
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics

    Chemistry

    • Periodic Table
    • Applied Chemistry
    • Materials
    • Physical Chemistry

    Biology

    • Anatomy
    • Biochemistry
    • Ecology
    • Genetics
    • Microbiology
    • Plants and Fungi

    Geology and Paleontology

    • Planet Earth
    • Earth Dynamics
    • Rocks and Minerals
    • Volcanoes
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fossils

    Animals

    • Mammals
    • Birds
    • Fish
    • Reptiles
    • Amphibians
    • Invertebrates
    • Pets
    • Conservation
    • Animals Facts

    Climate and Weather

    • Climate Change
    • Weather and Atmosphere

    Geography

    Mathematics

    Health
    • Drugs
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Human Body
    • Mind and Brain
    • Food and Nutrition
    • Wellness
    History & Humanities
    • Anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Economics
    • History
    • People
    • Sociology
    Space & Astronomy
    • The Solar System
    • The Sun
    • The Moon
    • Planets
    • Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Cosmology
    • Exoplanets and Alien Life
    • Spaceflight and Exploration
    Technology
    • Computer Science & IT
    • Engineering
    • Inventions
    • Sustainability
    • Renewable Energy
    • Green Living
    Culture
    • Culture and Society
    • Bizarre Stories
    • Lifestyle
    • Art and Music
    • Gaming
    • Books
    • Movies and Shows
    Resources
    • How To
    • Science Careers
    • Metascience
    • Fringe Science
    • Science Experiments
    • School and Study
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Science → Physics

For one tiny instant, physicists break a law of nature

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
April 4, 2011
in Physics

The LHC isn’t the only particle accelerator doing serious business these days; scientists at Brook­haven National Laboratory on Long Island working at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have managed to achieve something that was previously thought to be impossible. In that way, the title is a bit misleading – you cannot really break a law of nature, because that isn’t possible by definition, but you can expand our knowledge and understanding of the world by doing something that was believed to be impossible – and that’s what they did.

The general belief is that you cannot break parity, which means that the Universe is neither right or left handed, if you take a system and inverse its coordinates, you will get exactly the same thing, but inversed. But the so-called weak force, which is responsible for radioactivity breaks the parity law, at least according to research performed by a dozen particle physicists, including Jack Sandweiss, Yale’s Donner Professor of Physics.

The team created a “quark-gluon plasma”, which has a temperature of over four trillion degrees Celsius (!), and is believed to have existed just after the Big Bang. They smashed together nuclei traveling at 99.999% the speed of light, and the plasma that resulted was so incredibly powerful that a tiny cube of it with sides measuring about a quarter of the width of a human hair has enough energy to power the whole United States for an entire year.

“A very interesting thing happened in these extreme conditions,” Sandweiss says. “Parity violation is very difficult to detect, but the magnetic field in conjunction with parity violation gave rise to a secondary effect that we could detect.”

The results were so unexpected, that they took an entire year to study them before publishing; even so, the results only suggest a break of parity, they don’t prove it beyond the point of doubt.

“I think it’s a real effect, but we’ll know more in the upcoming years,” Sandweiss says.

Hopefully, understanding this will increase our understanding of the Universe even further, as well as answer some questions that have been puzzling scientists for years, including why we don’t see any antimatter.

Was this helpful?


Thanks for your feedback!

Related posts:
  1. Tiny blood testing device inserted under the skin delivers instant results
  2. When robots break the law: bot buys ecstasy pills and fake Hungarian passport online
  3. Self-healing circuits restore electrical conductivity in an instant
  4. Micro-beads based system could allow for instant laboratory analysis
  5. Astronomers detect magnetic star flashing in an instant with the energy produced by the sun in 100,000 years
Tags: antimatterparityparticle acceleratorweak force

ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • More
  • About Us

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t you want to get smarter every day?

YES, sign me up!

Over 35,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. Don’t worry, we never spam. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

✕
ZME Science News

FREE
VIEW