Ok, you two...
Let's go back to the birth of the
universe
Things are hot
REAL HOT !!!
and things are happening fast
REAL FAST !!!
For the tinniest increment of time that is it possible to talk about
ten to the minus forty three seconds
the temperature was ten to thirty two
degrees
and the density
downright indescribable
At that instant
there was only one universal force
and one type of elementary particle
But it wouldn't last...
At the end of this instant
Gravity separates itself
from the union
At ten to the minus thirty five seconds
the Strong nuclear force exits the union as well
and this triggers INFLATION
the event where the universe
instantaneously
grew in size
from tinier than an atom
to an unknown large size
This expansion and subsequent cooling
down
to ten to twenty seven degrees
allows six different types of quarks to form.
At ten to the minus twelve seconds and ten to fifteen degrees
the Weak force
and ElectroMagnetism separate
and we have the four independent
forces
we know today
At this point all six types of leptons have formed
including the electron
At ten to the minus six seconds
up and down quarks have formed protons and neutrons
all heavy quarks have decayed
all heavy leptons have decayed
all anti-matter
has disappeared
and by the time the universe is only one second old
protons and neutrons
are already getting together
to form the lightest atomic nuclei
Wait !!!
Can you slow down and try that again?
Sure, Diana,
Can you tell me the difference between
force and matter?
Well sure...matter is stuff that you can hold in your hand or at least visualize holding in your hand
and a force is something that causes matter to move, change, or react...
an ACTION.
Air is matter, even though you can't see it, unless you're in Los Angeles
Pretty good !
Now consider a piece of matter
and imagine taking it apart down to its
basic constituents
the particles that make it up
down to the atoms and further down to
the protons
neutrons
and finally to the quarks and electrons
If our hands were small enough
we could hold them in our hands as well.
So these particles pass your
"hold-it-in-your-hand" matter test
and are declared matter
but at this level of tiny
things get a little fuzzy
Watch this !!!
As we take apart matter
down to the smallest scales
he must pass through
levels of structure
that are only possible because of forces
that hold these structures together
The proton and electron for example
are attracted to each other
and that force of attraction is what
holds them together in the atom
but what is it really that causes this
attraction?
how does the electron know the proton is
there and what draws it towards the proton?
how does the electron know
NOT to be attracted to the neutron?
The answer is that the electron and the
proton each fill the space around them
with countless millions of other tiny
particles that have only the most
ephemeral existence
Because it is electrically neutral...
the neutron does not
These particles come into existence only
briefly and are gone
only to be replaced by another one thrown out by the parent particle
on this scale
the tiny bit of energy that is needed
for the existence
can be created out of NOTHING !
but they also must disappear in the
briefest instant
because the energy used to create them
can only exist for a very brief instant
You can imagine these virtual particles
as balls
tethered to the parent particle
by a rubber band
and snapping back to the parent
when they disappear
If one or more of them should encroach upon the territory of a virtual particle
tether to another parent particle
they can get entwined and exchanged
such an exchange is felt by the parent particle
as a force
These fields of virtual particles
surrounding a parent particle are
created in very specific patterns
and fill the surrounding space in a
well defined way
and scientists cleverly call them...
FIELDS
The virtual particles are called
carriers or mediators of force
Scientist recognize four distinct kinds of
forces
and they all work through the mechanisms
described above
you're readily familiar with two of these forces...
GRAVITY
and ELECTROMAGNETISM
operate on a scale that we
encounter
in our everyday life
A third force causes quarks to stick
together
in protons and neutrons
and a residuum of this force causes
protons and neutrons
to stick together in the nucleus of atoms
This force is called the STRONG FORCE
or sometimes
the COLOR FORCE
The fourth causes radioactivity
and is called the WEAK FORCE
The virtual particles that make up these fields
and that get exchanged in each force
are called gauge BOSONS
and each of the four forces so has its own
gauge boson
Within limitations, energy and mass can be created out of the nothingness of space-time
but only for a very brief instant, and the more energy and mass these virtual particles have
the shorter must be the time
that they can exist before snapping back to the parent
Lighter gauge bosons can exist for longer time
and these in turn could get further from
the parent before they must return
so the RANGE
of a force
is directly related to the mass of its gauge boson. The Photon is the gauge boson
for the electromagnetic force and the Graviton
is the gauge particle for gravity.
Both of these particles are massless and so the
range of these two forces is unlimited
The strong force is much more
complex
The charge property responsible for the
force between quarks
comes in three distinct states
not just two
like the positive and negative charge
states in electromagnetism
so in a loose analogy to the three primary
colors...
red, green and blue
the three kinds of charges in the strong force
are usually referred to as "color-charge"
and are designated
Red, Green and Blue
since the theory of electric charge
is dubbed "Quantum Electrodynamics"
or Q-E-D
the name for quark theory has become
"Quantum Chromodynamics" or Q-C-D
It is interesting to note
that all observed particles are white
color is never visible
and since the proton and its baryon cousins
each have three quarks
the colors possessed by the three quarts
must be one each of
red, green and blue
which sum to white
and mesons are always a quark
and a anti-quark pair
containing colors of red
anti-red
or blue
anti-blue
or green
anti-green
also combinations that equal "white"
The strong force
of course must have its own gauge boson
and it turns out that there are eight of them
eight different gluons
that carry the color force
and unlike the other force carriers
gluons have a color property themselves
and therefore interact with each other
Every time two quarts interact
and exchange a gluon
they swap colors
also because gluons are attracted to
each other
it is possible to have a gluon collection
which is referred to
as - what else - a glueball
The interactions that result from the weak force
are incredibly short ranging
they're effective over a distance even smaller than a proton's diameter
and this accurately implies that the weak force gauge particles called
the W and the Z
are immensely heavy
Over distances small enough
and at really really high energies
the four forces are indistinguishable
because their respective force particles
are also
indistinguishable
The standard model of physics
combines Q-C-D
with Q-E-D
and the weak force theory
It states that there are six quarks
and six leptons
and twelve gauge bosons
as well as their anti-particles
but only the up and down quarks,
the electron,
and the lightest neutrino
are populous today
In the standard model
the entire system of matter and forces
except gravity
is encapsulated in a few simple equations
and is organized around one core principle
known as local gauge symmetry
AMAZING !!!
Ok,
now, do you want to tell me what you told
me before i told you to tell me slower?
Sure !!! let's go back to the birth
of the universe,
Things are hot
REAL HOT !!!
and things are happening fast
REAL FAST !!!
For the tinniest increment of time that is it possible to talk about
ten to the minus forty three seconds
the temperature was ten to thirty two
degrees
and the density
downright indescribable
At that instant
there was only one universal force
and one type of elementary particle
But it wouldn't last...
at the end of this instant
Gravity separates itself
from the union
At ten to the minus thirty five seconds
the Strong nuclear force exits the union as well
and this triggers INFLATION
the event where the universe instantaneously
grew in size
from tinier than an atom
to an unknown large size
this expansion any subsequent cooling down
to ten to twenty seven degrees
allows six different types of quarks to form
At ten to the minus twelve seconds and ten to fifteen degrees
the Weak force
and ElectroMagnetism separate
and we have the four
independent forces
we know today
At this point all  six types of leptons
have formed
including the electron
At ten to the minus six seconds
up and down quarks have formed protons and neutrons
all heavy quarks have decayed
all heavy leptons have decayed
all anti-matter
has disappeared
and by the time the universe is only one second old
protons and neutrons
are already getting together
to form the lightest atomic nuclei
