Quantum World-2

Hai friends,

       Welcome to Quantum World-2. Thank you for your kind support (but still no comments??). Kindly post your comments. Ok. Let’s dive in… We have posed a question that if Planck length is the smallest predicted distance what might be the fabric material of the Universe. Scientists assumed a particle called quantum foam also called as the space time foam whose dimension is of the order of Planck length which is assumed to be the building block of the Universe. How the universe would be born is the question man has been asking since he started admiring at the nature. While the big bang explains how the universe has expanded and cooled, the nature still holds the key what triggers the process. How it is all empty a minute ago is filled with the baby universe the next minute? We need virtual particles to come into play to predict the past, indeed paaaaaaasst, first what are these virtual particles? Consider an electron hitting another electron and scatter, a photon is emitted during this process. On calculating, we will find that the photon has mass! Since the photons are massless particles, it seems to invalidate the whole data. But it doesn’t. We need another quantum axiom to continue the journey.  Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle! This principle states a loop hole in the energy-momentum conservation. It pointed out that the energy and momentum need not be conserved provided that this unbalanced stat doesn’t exist for long. Consider a simple example to make things simpler. You give Rs.2000 to your friend and told him to give it back to you a week later. In simple terms, he will keep the amount for a week and give it back to you. Seems easy right? But it doesn’t., within the week he is free to lend the money to anyone and temporarily have wrong amount and later get it back. The larger the amount he lends, the quicker he will get back the money. Similarly in quantum realm, the energy and momentum can be momentarily wrong, but larger the discrepancy, the shorter the time for which it is allowed. So in our example of electrons scattered by exchanging photons, the photon can briefly have the “wrong” amount of energy and momentum.

     The life of an electron is much more complex than what we thought. In addition to the usual quantum craziness, where an electron is both a particle and a wave and the position of the electron is generally indeterminate, electrons are surrounded by virtual particles. For instance, an electron can briefly emit a photon. That photon will be reabsorbed quickly in such a way that the energy and momentum conservation laws aren’t violated. But it gets crazier than that. The virtual photon can also turn into a virtual electron/positron pair. Thus, for a brief moment, what was once just an electron becomes an electron plus an additional electron and positron. As long as the virtual particles coalesce before the universe notices, it’s all within the rules. Indeed an electron never exists as a single “bare” electron. Rather, it is always enshrouded in an ephemeral cloud of virtual particles, flickering in and out of existence, and vastly complicating what an electron “really”is. The space that we thought to contain nothing- no matter, no energy, no charge, nothing -is actually filled with writhing, active population of virtual particles that physicists call "the quantum foam", with bubbles appearing and popping in wild abandon. At this sub atomic level, the space is never truly empty. So in short, Perfection simply doesn't exist.. Without imperfection neither you nor I would exist. The quantum foam, virtual particles are really the craziest phenomena in quantum mechanics. What is non-sense in classsical physics forms the basement of the quantum physics. Yet it builds the Universe, the Sun, rthe Planets, yes inded our home Earth which exactly follow classical physics. The nature mother is kind enough to provide us the home, food,  perfect place to live in, to admire at her beauty, her mystery but never let us to enter into her kitchen to know the secrets.

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Baluu