Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos

Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030917113X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.

Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos

Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030917113X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Get Book

Book Description
Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.

The Elephant in the Universe

The Elephant in the Universe PDF Author: Govert Schilling
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674248996
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
An award-winning science journalist details the quest to isolate and understand dark matter--and shows how that search has helped us to understand the universe we inhabit. When you train a telescope on outer space, you can see luminous galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets. But if you add all that together, it constitutes only 15 percent of the matter in the universe. Despite decades of research, the nature of the remaining 85 percent is unknown. We call it dark matter. In The Elephant in the Universe, Govert Schilling explores the fascinating history of the search for dark matter. Evidence for its existence comes from a wealth of astronomical observations. Theories and computer simulations of the evolution of the universe are also suggestive: they can be reconciled with astronomical measurements only if dark matter is a dominant component of nature. Physicists have devised huge, sensitive instruments to search for dark matter, which may be unlike anything else in the cosmos--some unknown elementary particle. Yet so far dark matter has escaped every experiment. Indeed, dark matter is so elusive that some scientists are beginning to suspect there might be something wrong with our theories about gravity or with the current paradigms of cosmology. Schilling interviews both believers and heretics and paints a colorful picture of the history and current status of dark matter research, with astronomers and physicists alike trying to make sense of theory and observation. Taking a holistic view of dark matter as a problem, an opportunity, and an example of science in action, The Elephant in the Universe is a vivid tale of scientists puzzling their way toward the true nature of the universe.

Matter, Dark Matter, and Anti-Matter

Matter, Dark Matter, and Anti-Matter PDF Author: Alain Mazure
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 144198822X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
For over ten years, the dark side of the universe has been headline news. Detailed studies of the rotation of spiral galaxies, and 'mirages' created by clusters of galaxies bending the light from very remote objects, have convinced astronomers of the presence of large quantities of dark (unseen) matter in the cosmos. The most striking fact is that they seem to compromise about 95% of the matter/energy content of the universe. As for ordinary matter, although we are immersed in a sea of dark particles, including primordial neutrinos and photons from fossil cosmological radiation, both we and our environment are made of ordinary, 'baryonic' matter. Authors Mazure and Le Brun present the inventory of matter, baryonic and exotic, and investigating the nature and fate of matter's twin, anti-matter. They show how technological progress has been a result of basic research, in tandem with the evolution of new ideas, and how the combined effect of these advances might help lift the cosmic veil.

Matter and Energy

Matter and Energy PDF Author: Paul Fleisher
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN: 0822506742
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
Have you ever seen a magician make something disappear and question if anything could really just vanish? Do you know why the periodic table is set up the way it is? From Lavoisier and Joule to Dalton and Mendeleyev, take a look at the basic principles of matter and thermodynamics in a fun and exciting way.

Dark Matter in the Universe

Dark Matter in the Universe PDF Author: John N. Bahcall
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812567186
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
If standard gravitational theory is correct, then most of the matterin the universe is in an unidentified form which does not emit enoughlight to have been detected by current instrumentation. This book isthe second editon of the lectures given at the 4th Jerusalem WinterSchool for Theoretical Physics, with new material added. The lecturesare devoted to the missing matter problem in the universe, thesearch to understand dark matter. The goal of this volume is to makecurrent research work on unseen matter accessible to students withoutprior experience in this area and to provide insights for experts inrelated research fields. Due to the pedagogical nature of the originallectures and the intense discussions between the lecturers and thestudents, the written lectures included in this volume often containtechniques and explanations not found in more formal journalpublications.

Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Dark Matter and Dark Energy PDF Author: Sabino Matarrese
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048186854
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
This book brings together reviews from leading international authorities on the developments in the study of dark matter and dark energy, as seen from both their cosmological and particle physics side. Studying the physical and astrophysical properties of the dark components of our Universe is a crucial step towards the ultimate goal of unveiling their nature. The work developed from a doctoral school sponsored by the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation. The book starts with a concise introduction to the standard cosmological model, as well as with a presentation of the theory of linear perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background. It covers the particle physics and cosmological aspects of dark matter and (dynamical) dark energy, including a discussion of how modified theories of gravity could provide a possible candidate for dark energy. A detailed presentation is also given of the possible ways of testing the theory in terms of cosmic microwave background, galaxy redshift surveys and weak gravitational lensing observations. Included is a chapter reviewing extensively the direct and indirect methods of detection of the hypothetical dark matter particles. Also included is a self-contained introduction to the techniques and most important results of numerical (e.g. N-body) simulations in cosmology. " This volume will be useful to researchers, PhD and graduate students in Astrophysics, Cosmology Physics and Mathematics, who are interested in cosmology, dark matter and dark energy.

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe PDF Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593186583
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Most appealing... technical accuracy and lightness of tone... Impeccable.”—Wall Street Journal “A porthole into another world.”—Scientific American “Brings science dissemination to a new level.”—Science The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blocks of modern science. Sean Carroll, with his genius for making complex notions entertaining, presents in his uniquely lucid voice the fundamental ideas informing the modern physics of reality. Physics offers deep insights into the workings of the universe but those insights come in the form of equations that often look like gobbledygook. Sean Carroll shows that they are really like meaningful poems that can help us fly over sierras to discover a miraculous multidimensional landscape alive with radiant giants, warped space-time, and bewilderingly powerful forces. High school calculus is itself a centuries-old marvel as worthy of our gaze as the Mona Lisa. And it may come as a surprise the extent to which all our most cutting-edge ideas about black holes are built on the math calculus enables. No one else could so smoothly guide readers toward grasping the very equation Einstein used to describe his theory of general relativity. In the tradition of the legendary Richard Feynman lectures presented sixty years ago, this book is an inspiring, dazzling introduction to a way of seeing that will resonate across cultural and generational boundaries for many years to come.

The Universe as It Really Is

The Universe as It Really Is PDF Author: Thomas R. Scott
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545762
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
The universe that science reveals to us can seem far outside the comfort zone of the human mind. Subjects near and far open up dizzying vistas, from the infinitesimal to the colossal. Humanity, the unlikely product of uncountable coincidences on unimaginable scales, inhabits a tumultuous universe that extends from our immediate environs to the most distant galaxies and beyond. But when the mind balks at the vertiginous complexity of the universe, science unveils the elegance amid the chaos. In this book, Thomas R. Scott ventures into the known and the unknown to explain our universe and the laws that govern it. The Universe as It Really Is begins with physics and the building blocks of the universe—time, gravity, light, and elementary particles—and chemistry’s ability to explain the interactions among them. Scott, with the assistance of James Lawrence Powell, next tours the earth and atmospheric sciences to explain the forces that shape our planet and then takes off for the stars to describe our place in the cosmos. He provides vivid introductions to our collective scientific inheritance, narrating discoveries such as the shape of the atom and the nature of the nucleus or how we use GPS to measure time and what that has to do with relativity. A clear demonstration of the power of scientific reasoning to bring the incomprehensible within our grasp, The Universe as It Really Is gives an engrossing account of just how much we do understand about the world around us.

New Phenomena And New States Of Matter In The Universe: From Quarks To Cosmos

New Phenomena And New States Of Matter In The Universe: From Quarks To Cosmos PDF Author: Cesar Augusto Zen Vasconcellos
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811220921
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
Recent discoveries in astronomy and relativistic astrophysics as well as experiments on particle and nuclear physics have blurred the traditional boundaries of physics. It is believed that at the birth of the Universe, a whirlwind of matter and antimatter, of quarks and exotic leptons, briefly appeared and merged into a sea of energy. The new phenomena and new states of matter in the Universe revealed the deep connection between quarks and the Cosmos. Motivated by these themes, this book discusses different topics: gravitational waves, dark matter, dark energy, exotic contents of compact stars, high-energy and gamma-ray astrophysics, heavy ion collisions and the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in the early Universe. The book presents some of the latest researches on these fascinating themes and is useful for experts and students in the field.

Shadowlands

Shadowlands PDF Author: Robert Foot
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 9781581126457
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In a revolutionary new theory, Dr. Robert Foot of the University of Melbourne argues that meteorites composed of mirror matter could impact with the Earth without leaving any ordinary fragments. Indeed, the theory seems to provide a simple explanation for the puzzling Tunguska event--the blast which destroyed a huge area of Siberian forest in 1908. While scientists have attributed this explosion to an ordinary meteorite, no traces of such an object have ever been found. Moreover, there are frequent smaller such events, occurring on a yearly basis, which are even more puzzling. Foot's new book lays clear the scientific case for mirror matter. It describes the fascinating evidence for its existence including, astronomical observations suggesting that most of our galaxy is made from a new form of matter--dark matter. It explains puzzling Jupiter sized planets only a few million miles from their host star, and the mysterious slowing down of spacecraft in our solar system. Remarkably, it is also possible that Pluto might even be a mirror world, which would explain various anomalous features of its orbit. Perhaps the most important consequence of all this--if true--is the possibility of actually extracting the mirror matter from the Tunguska impact site and other such sites on earth. Invisible asteroids and other cosmic bodies made of a new form of matter may pose a threat to Earth, agrees a noted Australian physicist. But the mirror matter idea has not attracted a huge following among physicists. In a recent UPI article, Howard Georgi of Harvard University says, "Foot's ideas have not attracted a huge following in the community that cares about these things, perhaps because the problems they solve, while interesting, are not the most critical puzzles that we are wrestling with." Nevertheless, mirror matter, if it exists, would be a completely new type of material with a potentially huge commercial value. Its scientific value would be of no less importance. FROM THE BACK COVER Nearly 50 years ago it was discovered that the fundamental particles, such as the electron and proton, have `left-handed' interactions; they do not respect mirror symmetry. This experimental fact motivates the idea that a set of `mirror particles' exist. The left-handedness of the ordinary particles can then be balanced by the right-handedness of the mirror particles. In this way mirror reflection symmetry can exist but requires something profoundly new. It requires the existence of a completely new form of matter called `mirror matter'. Remarkably the mirror matter theory is capable of simply explaining a large number of contemporary puzzles in astrophysics and particle physics. The evidence ranges from observations suggesting that most of the matter in the Universe is invisible, to unexpected properties of ghostly particles called `neutrinos'. This book explains this fascinating theory and its evidence at a level accessible to the non-specialist.