Space Time

Question 1

What is the Higgs Boson?

Answer 1

• a particle sought after by CERN to identify the Higgs Field
• extremely unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately (sec/10^-22)
• has no electric charge, no color charge, and no spin

Question 2

What percent of the mass is the mass of electrons and quarks?

Answer 2

• about 1%
• the rest is the kinetic energy of the particles and the gluon fields holding the particles together

Question 3

What makes up most of mass?

Answer 3

• particles’ kinetic energy and the energy of the fields holding the particles together

Question 4

What does Quantum Field Theory (QFT) say about particles?

Answer 4

• all particles exist as excited states of their underlying physical field, called field quanta
  
  • a photon and an electron are excitations of the electromagnetic field
• all particles move at the speed of light except for the interactions with the fields they are a part of

Question 5

What does it mean if a particle is massless?

Answer 5

• there is no interaction with the underlying field slowing the particle down

Question 6

Does an electron have mass?

Answer 6

• yes, it gains this mass from Weak Hyper Charge it gains when it is in its left spin phase

Question 7

Does a photon have mass?

Answer 7

• no

Question 8

What is the Higgs Field?

Answer 8

• the Higgs Field is a quantum field that whose interaction imparts mass to fundamental particles like electrons and quarks
• exists at all points in the universe
• was at zero state a short amount of time after the Big Bang

Question 9

What does left-handed spinning electrons have that right spinning ones don’t?

Answer 9

• Weak Hyper Charge, giving the electron mass

Question 10

Where does Weak Hyper Charge come from?

Answer 10

• the Higgs Field

Question 11

What values of the Weak Hyper Charge can the Higgs Field take on and what does this mean?

Answer 11

• the Higgs Field takes on all values of Weak Hyper Charge simultaneously

Question 12

How was the Higgs Boson observed?

Answer 12

• by looking at the decay of particles in the LHC and finding one that corresponded to the theoretical properties of the Higgs Boson

Question 13

How quickly does the Higgs Boson decay?

Answer 13

• sec/10^-22

Question 14

What is the speed of causality?

Answer 14

• the speed of light; c
• this is the maximum speed/distance at which elements can interact with each other

Question 15

What is inertial mass?

Answer 15

• the relative mass of an object, it’s resting mass and relative speed and direction

Question 16

Explain the Photon Box and what demonstrates?

Answer 16

• a massless box with massless photons bouncing around in it
• although the box and the photons are massless when they are moved the combination takes on mass
• this is due to the presssure exerted by the photons opposite the direction of motion, the back of the box
• this can describe particles such as protons and neutrons where the gluon field and kinetic energy of the quarks provide most of the mass of the particle

Question 17

How much mass does the Photon Box have?

Answer 17

• none at inertial “rest”
• as much mass as the relative energies of the photons and direction of motion when being accelerated

Question 18

What does E=mc² describe?

Answer 18

• that mass comes from energy
• that the speed of light is an absolute value in all interactions

Question 19

Does a compressed spring have more mass than a loose spring? If so why?

Answer 19

• yes it does
• because it has more potential energy than the relaxed spring due to the energy added as a result of the compression that changed its inertial state
• the same energy compressed to a smaller area

Question 20

How can you think of all particles and fields in the universe in terms of mass?

Answer 20

• all mass and energy are imparted due to interaction with underlying physical fields

Question 21

What is the Equivalence Principle?

Answer 21

• states that there is no real difference between the effect of gravity and the effect of acceleration; there is no way to tell the difference between the two

Question 22

What besides gravity curves spacetime?

Answer 22

• massless particles like the photon can also curve spacetime so mass is not necessary for the curvature

Question 23

Do massless photons bend spacetime?

Answer 23

• yes, the photon is massless and curves spacetime

Question 24

Describe Inertia

Answer 24

• inertia is the value of mass and relative direction of motion

Question 25

What rotational spin of an electron interacts with the Higgs field? What happens when it does?

Answer 25

• left-handed spin
• it takes on weak hypercharge

Question 26

How fast does an electron switch spins?

Answer 26

• faster than the Plank Time
• it essentially becomes a quantum blur so for pratical purposes it is in both states simultaneously