You are a Simulation & Physics Can Prove It: George Smoot at TEDxSalford

                                        



Astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize winner George Smoot studies the cosmic microwave background radiation — the afterglow of the Big Bang. His pioneering research into deep space and time is uncovering the structure of the universe itself. He has also made a cameo appearance (as himself) in an episode of the 'Big Bang Theory.'

George Smoot looks into the farthest reaches of space to the oldest objects in the known universe: fluctuations in the remnants of creation. Using data collected from satellites such as COBE and WMAP, scanning the cosmic microwave background radiation (a relic of the heat unleashed after the Big Bang), he probes the shape of the universe. In 1992 he and his Berkeley team discovered that the universe, once thought to be smooth and uniform at the largest scale, is actually anisotropic — or varied and lumpy. Smoot continues to investigate of the structure of the universe at the University of California at Berkeley, mapping billions of galaxies and filaments of dark matter in hope of uncovering the secrets of the universe's origins.

Time-A mystery that continued from Newton To Einstein

We live in a world which is governed by time,where every tick of the clock takes us into a newer world of uncertainties,where our experiences teach us that our past is different from the future,future seems to present us with a wealth of possibilities and opportunities while our past is bound of things that has already occurred and are immutable.

The Mystery of time 

If I would have asked you to define TIME then I would have got an answer somewhat similar to the above paragraph.But is it all the concept of time???Definitely it's not.Time in itself is a Million Dollar question because everyone of us experience it but only a handful of us can actually say what it is.

Time is among such things which we are most familiar with yet it is the least understood concept which humanity has ever encountered. Time is an illusion,it is not that what it appears.And the reasons why it appears an illusion are Misconceptions.We live in a world full of misconceptions and illusions yet we take all these things as real without trying to find an reason behind it.

              The Major Misconceptions About Time

 1st misconception:

Most of us think that we live in a world of three dimensions (3-D) but there exists an extra dimension other than these three. In reality we live in a world of four dimensions (4-D) i.e. three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. So in a general perspective it is difficult for us to perceive an extra-dimension like time. The very reason for this  is our brain which has the capability of sensing these three dimensions (3-D) i.e. Length, Breadth and Height.

This is what we think we live in Three Dimensions i.e Length,Breadth and Height.

In Reality we live in a world of Four Dimension 

Three Dimensions of Space 

And 

One Dimension of Time

Space and time are interwoven in such a way that they cannot be separated from each other. So, they are combined to form space time. Everyone measures his or her experience on it and everything in our life occurs at a particular moment of time in the three dimensional space. And hence we cannot rule out the importance of time as a dimension. 

2nd misconception :

A common notion of understanding among people is that TIME ticks at a same rate throughout the world but this statement is not true. Time is not absolute in nature. Rather it is relative which means someone moving through space and time will experience it differently.

Let us visualize a scenario where you are travelling by a train to visit your friend’s house for summer vacations. Now if I would ask you a question whether the time on your watch and your friend’s watch is  the same?

An obvious answer would be 'YES' but let me tell you it will not be the same, your watch will tick at a slower rate as compared to the watch of your friend. It sounds a bit odd but it is the reality. So let us understand the reason for such a peculiar behavior, how does time slow down???

Now the answer to this riddle is 'MOTION' ,"motion affects Time". When we are in motion, our clock will tick at a slower rate as compared to a clock which is at rest. Motion causes the time inside the on board of the train to flow at a slower rate than for those people who are waiting at the station.

To visualize this let’s take a 'Light Clock’ which bounces a beam of light from one mirror to another mirror and one cycle makes one tick of the clock.

Lets analyse the light clock in two frame of references

• Firstly from the frame of reference of someone inside a moving vehicle.i.e.inside a moving train

            -For someone inside the running train it will appear as if the light beam is bouncing vertically up and  down.

Light beam bouncing vertically up and down

                                                       

• Secondly from the frame of reference of someone who is standing outside on embankment and watching that 'Light clock' which is inside the moving train.

             -For someone outside on the embankment it will appear as if the light beam traces a V shaped path  due to the vertical moment of light beam along with the horizontal movement of train. 

Light beam follows a V shaped path covering some extra distance

So both these observers, one who is inside the train and the one outside the train will experience time at different rates which infers one thing that both clocks are not ticking at a same rate. This means any one of the clock is running slower, now if we see we will find that clock in motion ticks slower because it has to cover a greater distance to complete one tick of the clock as compared to a clock which is at rest. As a result we find that TIME doesn't tick at the same rate throughout the world.


The whole concept has been explained in this documentary "A journey Through Space & Time"

What Actually is “Higgs Boson” Or “The God Particle”.

Higgs Boson

The Higgs Boson and the Higgs Mechanism became a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics. The Higgs boson is the particle associated with the Higgs field, an energy field that transmits mass to the things that travel through it.This theory may be a little hard to digest if you’re totally unfamiliar with particle physics,so lets get familiar with some of the basic fundamentals about this particle:-

·         To know this we must examine one of the most prominent theories describing how the "cosmos works" which is given by the standard model.

·         we know that there are 4 fundamental forces –gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces out of these four the weak force and the electromagnetic forces can be described within the same theory, which forms the basis of the standard model which implies that electricity, magnetism, light and some types of radioactivity are all manifestations of a single underlying force known as the electroweak force.

·         There are also 12 fundamental particles of matter  these 12 fundamental particles of matter describes the 12 fermions that make up the basic set of particles. These 12 fermions are further divided into two sets of six quarks and six leptons. Hence Lepton and Quarks are called as the basic building block.

·         The Quarks make up protons and neutrons while members of the Lepton family include the electron and the electron neutrino, its neutrally charged counterpart.

·         The six Quarks are called up, down, strange, charm, top and bottom.

·         The Six Leptons are called the electron, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau and tau neutrino.

·         There are also the force carrying particles called bosons. They are photons which responsible for the electromagnetic force, W and Z bosons that cause the weak force and gluons that result in the strong force. There may also be a boson caused the Higgs boson that would help to explain gravity.

·         In particle physics, the Higgs mechanism is a kind of mass generation mechanism, a process that gives mass to elementary particles. According to this theory, particles gain mass by interacting with the Higgs field that permeates all space

The four fundamental forces has a corresponding carrier particle, or boson, that acts upon matter .Now think each of the four fundamental ones has its own specific bosons. Electromagnetic fields, for instance, depend on the photon to transit electromagnetic force to matter. Physicists think the Higgs boson might have a similar function -- but transferring mass itself.

Think for a moment of time if all particles have no inherent mass, but instead gain mass by passing through a field? This field, known as a Higgs field, could affect different particles in different ways. Photons could slide through unaffected, while W and Z bosons would get bogged down with mass. In fact, assuming the Higgs boson exists, everything that has mass gets it by interacting with the all-powerful Higgs field, which occupies the entire universe. Like the other fields covered by the standard model, the Higgs one would need a carrier particle to affect other particles, and that particle is known as the Higgs boson.To test the existence of Higgs particle and Higgs Field the particle accelerators came into picture which are known as the Large Hadron collider which shoots beams of protons into each other. When they collide, they create super-high-energy mash-ups that spew out subatomic particles. From time to time, a Higgs boson might be one of those particles.

 Just after the big bang the Higgs field was zero, but as the universe cooled and the temperature fell below a critical value, the field grew spontaneously so that any particle interacting with it acquired a mass. The more a particle interacts with this field, the heavier it is. Particles like the photon that do not interact with it are left with no mass at all. Like all fundamental fields, the Higgs field has an associated particle – the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is the visible manifestation of the Higgs field, rather like a wave at the surface of the sea.

According to Einstein Theory Of General Relativity mass is connected to gravitation. The Higgs Boson Mechanism solves the mass enigma but totally ignores gravitation and General Relativity.From this we can say that Higgs Field is nothing but a "Newtonian Field in Spacetime.