Cosmology and the
Origin of Life
So what really is a particle? --> Good Question:
Schematic of a proton:
Now it gets really weird: The Universe at times less than 0.0000000000000000000001 seconds.
The uncertainty principle is important as
the universe is in a quantum state initially (?)
What this all means is that if quantum mechanics holds at very early
times then large energy fluctuations (on which our universe is one)
had no choice but to happen.
So, are these quantum fluctuations supposed to evolve and ask questions?
At very early times:
- Quantum Fluctuations should produce strange hadronic pairs
- A Hadron is any particle which is subject to the strong force
- Hardrons are composed of quarks
- The force between quarks increases with increasing seperation and
decreases as the quarks get closer together (gluon "force" goes down)
- There are no free quarks today: all quarks are in hadrons
- But, when the universe was very small, the quarks were so close to
one another that no Hadrons could exist. Hence, even though U and D
quarks were present the could not form a proton because the quarks can
not be found together. Its the free quark episode and we don't
understand what the physics would be.
Next Page
___________________________________________________________________
The Electronic Universe Project
e-mail: nuts@moo.uoregon.edu
