Building Blocks of the Universe 13.75 ± 0.11 billion years in couple of hours Mohammad Ahmed, TUNL

Building Blocks of the Universe

13.75 ± 0.11 billion years in couple of hours

Mohammad Ahmed, TUNL

What are the building blocks of the Universe?

• Building blocks means fundamental units

of a given instance in a multiverse

• A Universe is all that exist and can exist

• A Universe is space, time, matter, energy,

constants, and the governing principle

• A close approximation of the governing

principle is what we call set of universal

laws (e.g., ma = F)

Space, timeMatter, energy

Our understanding of the universe

Laws are formulated from the need to explain the observations and they carry the power of prediction

Constants are special numbers which play a role in formulating laws. We do not know how the constants come into being and why do they have the values they do. Each universe may have its set of constants called universal constants

Space-time, matter, and energy are all knitted in a fabric which defines the past, present, and the future “events”.

Physical Laws as Building Blocks of the Universe

The laws approximating the governing principle

Q1Q2r

q

The laws approximating the governing principle

Symmetries and their consequences

Energy Momentum Angular Momentum

Time Space Angles

Reflection (Parity), Charge Conjugation, Isospin

Conservation Laws

The conservation laws

Hamiltonian invariance under space translation

Is the conservation of momentum

Laws and Theories

• Laws of motion, Coulomb’s Law, Law of Gravitation, etc

• Aggregate of laws paint a picture of a theory

• A theory is a collection of statements (or equations) which are all defined to be true

• All theories unified is the best approximation of the governing principle of this universe

Theories of large and small distance scales

Our current understanding of theories



Electromagnetic Interactions

Q

Weak InteractionsW

Strong InteractionsS

GravityG

Electro-Weak

GUT

TOE

?

?

Energy (q = 1015 GeV)

Constants as Building Blocks of the Universe

Constants

Depending on who do you talk to, you will get a different number of “universal constants”

Dimensional

Dimensionless

NIST accepted number of universal constants is about 8

Constants

An example of dimensional constant

The speed of light c

[c] = [L] / [T]

c = 299792458 m/s

Constants

An example of dimensionless constant

The fine structure constant a

a = 1/137

Constants

The eight universal constants

Constant Value Units

Z0 376.730313461 W

e0 8.854187817 x 10-12 F/m

m0 4p x 10-7 N/A2

G 6.67384 x 10-11 m3/kg s2

h 6.62606957 x 10-34 J s

c 299792458 m/s

e 1.602176565 x 10-19 C

a 7.297352 x 10-3

Constants

Are they really constant, i.e., not changing in time?

Time variability of a over 2 billion years

-0.11< D / a a <0.24 x 10-7

C. R. Gould, Oklo Reactor Data Analysis (1.7 Billion Years, few hundred thousand years life of natural fission reactor near Gabon, Africa.

Constants

Constants and Observational Multiverse

a can be described by e, e, h, c

If e, e, h, c were different in another universe, however, they adjusted their values such that a still comes out to be 1/137, this universe will be observationally similar to our universe

Constants

Different set of fundamentally pure numbers gives rise to different instances of universe within a multiverse

Building blocks of seen and unseen universe: Space-time, matter and energy

Minkowski diagram and Space-time

(ct,x1,x2,x3)

Inside = time-likeAlong = light-lightOutside = space-like

Worldlines and imaginary mass in space-like region

Space-time curves and geodesic

• Light travels along the shortest path

between two points in space-time

• This path is called a geodesic

• If a geodesic is curved, light travels in a

curved space

• Curved space-time is gravity

Curved space-time and orbits



Organization of Matter

Major Events in the history of the universe

Hadron Era 10-6 s 1012 K n/p set

Lepton Era 100 s 1011 K n p + e- + ne

Photon Era 101 s 1010 K kT

BBN Era 102 s 109 K 2H,3He,4He,7Li

CMB Era 1012 s 103 K Transparent Universe

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

WMAP Results


• Age of universe is 13.73 billion yearscto within 1%

• Curvature of space is within 1% of "flat“

• Ordinary atoms make up only 4.6% of the universe (to

within 0.1%)

• Dark Matter makes up 23.3% (to within 1.3%) of the

Universe

• Dark Energy makes up 72.1% of the universe (to within

1.5%), causing the expansion rate of the universe to

speed up


The organization of the visible universe

The organization of the visible universe

N-N Interactions

e

Hydrogen

Can we make a Helium nucleus by adding a proton ?

e

Hydrogen

Electrostatic force will oppose it

Yes you can, but …

You will have to throw the proton at a very high speed

e

Hydrogen

How does this happen ?

Fast

e

EM repulsion increases

Still not within the range for the nuclear force to take over

How does this happen ?

e

EM repulsion still increases

Bosons which mediate nuclear force start to reach the incomingFermion (the other proton) and “catch it”

Bosons for Strong NF Start to Exchange

Short Range NF

A Helium nucleus is formed !

A 2He nucleus is formed !

p

Pions (or more generally mesons) keep two nucleons together in a nucleus

e

Hydrogen

No EM repulsion !

Distance is still too large for strong NF to act, “not in the range to catch”.

How about adding a neutron ?

e

HydrogenYou can bring it in slowly !!!

How about adding a neutron ?

e

Even a neutron at rest will be captured !

p

A 2H nucleus requires less energy to make than a 2He nucelus

How about comparing 3He and 3H?

We know the EM part of the force is different. If we account forIt, can we calculate the binding energies with simple 2-body NF?

No !!

We get the answer wrong, i.e., measured and calculated bindingenergies are different !

There seems to be another typeof NF present 3-NF

Understanding N-N interactions (Fermi’s Golden Rules)

Understanding N-N interactions (Fermi’s Golden Rules)

TME

Physics of Interaction

Cross Section

DOS

Understanding N-N interactions (Feynman)

Time

Space

b) Mfi ~ a

c) Mfi ~ a2

Understanding N-N interactions (Phase)



Understanding N-N interactions (Potential)

Understanding N-N interactions (Mesons)

Understanding N-N interactions (Mesons)

2NF 2NF,3NF 2NF,3NF,4NF

• Can we predict the observables associated with the ground state properties (e.g., binding energies, etc), and the dynamics of their interactions (e.g., cross sections, analyzing powers, etc.)

Ideal Laboratories for Few-Body Studies in NP

Understanding N-N interactions

Duke Free-Electron Laser Lab.(HIGS)

Tandem Laboratory

The Local Accelerator facilities

EeEg

ElLaserElectrons

For example

Man-made – Compton Backscattered g-Ray Sources

How HIGS Works

May 27nd, 2009 REU Lecture 65

Booster Injector

LINAC

RF Cavity

Mirror

Optical Klystron

FEL

The High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source

HIGS Parameters

The Tandem

Tandem Parameters

LENA is another accelerator

Nuclear Physics @ TUNL

• Fundamental understanding of the building

blocks on this universe (Basic Nuclear Physics)

• Greater good of the community (Applied Nuclear

Physics)

Documents

Building Blocks of the Universe 13.75 ± 0.11 billion years in couple of hours Mohammad Ahmed, TUNL