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Fifth Force
In physics, there are four observed fundamental interactions (also known as fundamental forces) that form the basis of all known interactions in nature: gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear forces. Some speculative theories have proposed a fifth force to explain various anomalous observations that do not fit existing theories. The characteristics of this fifth force depend on the hypothesis being advanced. Many postulate a force roughly the strength of gravity (''i.e.'', it is much weaker than electromagnetism or the nuclear forces) with a range of anywhere from less than a millimeter to cosmological scales. Another proposal is a new weak force mediated by W′ and Z′ bosons. The search for a fifth force has increased in recent decades due to two discoveries in cosmology which are not explained by current theories. It has been discovered that most of the mass of the universe is accounted for by an unknown form of matter called dark matter. Most phys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fundamental Interaction
In physics, the fundamental interactions, also known as fundamental forces, are the interactions that do not appear to be reducible to more basic interactions. There are four fundamental interactions known to exist: the gravitational and electromagnetic interactions, which produce significant long-range forces whose effects can be seen directly in everyday life, and the strong and weak interactions, which produce forces at minuscule, subatomic distances and govern nuclear interactions. Some scientists hypothesize that a fifth force might exist, but these hypotheses remain speculative. Each of the known fundamental interactions can be described mathematically as a '' field''. The gravitational force is attributed to the curvature of spacetime, described by Einstein's general theory of relativity. The other three are discrete quantum fields, and their interactions are mediated by elementary particles described by the Standard Model of particle physics. Within the Standard Mode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypercharge
In particle physics, the hypercharge (a portmanteau of hyperon, hyperonic and charge (physics), charge) ''Y'' of a subatomic particle, particle is a quantum number conserved under the strong interaction. The concept of hypercharge provides a single charge (physics), charge operator that accounts for properties of isospin, electric charge, and flavour (particle physics), flavour. The hypercharge is useful to classify hadrons; the similarly named weak hypercharge has an analogous role in the electroweak interaction. Definition Hypercharge is one of two quantum numbers of the Eightfold way (physics) #SU(3), SU(3) model of hadrons, alongside isospin . The isospin alone was sufficient for two quark flavours — namely and — whereas presently 6 flavour (particle physics), flavours of quarks are known. SU(3) weight diagrams (see below) are 2 dimensional, with the coordinates referring to two quantum numbers: (also known as ), which is the component of isospin, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extra Dimensions
In physics, extra dimensions are proposed additional space or time dimensions beyond the (3 + 1) typical of observed spacetime, such as the first attempts based on the Kaluza–Klein theory. Among theories proposing extra dimensions are: * Large extra dimension, mostly motivated by the ADD model, by Nima Arkani-Hamed, Savas Dimopoulos, and Gia Dvali in 1998, in an attempt to solve the hierarchy problem. This theory requires that the fields of the Standard Model are confined to a four-dimensional membrane, while gravity propagates in several additional spatial dimensions that are large compared to the Planck scale.For a pedagogical introduction, see * Warped extra dimensions, such as those proposed by the Randall–Sundrum model (RS), based on warped geometry where the universe is a five-dimensional anti-de Sitter space and the elementary particles except for the graviton are localized on a (3 + 1)-dimensional brane or branes. * Universal extra dimension, prop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Very-long-baseline Interferometry
Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometer, astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telescopes on Earth or in space. The distance between the radio telescopes is then calculated using the time difference between the arrivals of the radio signal at different telescopes. This allows observations of an object that are made simultaneously by many radio telescopes to be combined, emulating a telescope with a size equal to the maximum separation between the telescopes. Data received at each antenna in the array include arrival times from a local atomic clock, such as a hydrogen maser. At a later time, the data are correlated with data from other antennas that recorded the same radio signal, to produce the resulting image. The resolution achievable using interferometry is proportional to the observing frequency. The VLBI technique e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nordtvedt Effect
In theoretical astrophysics, the Nordtvedt effect refers to the relative motion between the Earth and the Moon that would be observed if the gravitational self-energy of a body contributed differently to its gravitational mass than to its inertial mass. If observed, the Nordtvedt effect would violate the strong equivalence principle, which indicates that an object's movement in a gravitational field does not depend on its mass or composition. No evidence of the effect has been found. The effect is named after Kenneth L. Nordtvedt, who first demonstrated that some theories of gravity suggest that massive bodies should fall at different rates, depending upon their gravitational self-energy. Nordtvedt then observed that if gravity did in fact violate the strong equivalence principle, then the more-massive Earth should fall towards the Sun at a slightly different rate than the Moon, resulting in a polarization of the lunar orbit. To test for the existence (or absence) of the Nord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bending Of Starlight
Tests of general relativity serve to establish observational evidence for the theory of general relativity. The first three tests, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, concerned the "anomalous" precession of the perihelion of Mercury, the bending of light in gravitational fields, and the gravitational redshift. The precession of Mercury was already known; experiments showing light bending in accordance with the predictions of general relativity were performed in 1919, with increasingly precise measurements made in subsequent tests; and scientists claimed to have measured the gravitational redshift in 1925, although measurements sensitive enough to actually confirm the theory were not made until 1954. A more accurate program starting in 1959 tested general relativity in the weak gravitational field limit, severely limiting possible deviations from the theory. In the 1970s, scientists began to make additional tests, starting with Irwin Shapiro's measurement of the relativistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scalar Field
In mathematics and physics, a scalar field is a function associating a single number to every point in a space – possibly physical space. The scalar may either be a pure mathematical number ( dimensionless) or a scalar physical quantity (with units). In a physical context, scalar fields are required to be independent of the choice of reference frame, meaning that any two observers using the same units will agree on the value of the scalar field at the same absolute point in space (or spacetime) regardless of their respective points of origin. Examples used in physics include the temperature distribution throughout space, the pressure distribution in a fluid, and spin-zero quantum fields, such as the Higgs field. These fields are the subject of scalar field theory. Definition Mathematically, a scalar field on a region ''U'' is a real or complex-valued function or distribution on ''U''. The region ''U'' may be a set in some Euclidean space, Minkowski space, or more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curvature
In mathematics, curvature is any of several strongly related concepts in geometry. Intuitively, the curvature is the amount by which a curve deviates from being a straight line, or a surface deviates from being a plane. For curves, the canonical example is that of a circle, which has a curvature equal to the reciprocal of its radius. Smaller circles bend more sharply, and hence have higher curvature. The curvature ''at a point'' of a differentiable curve is the curvature of its osculating circle, that is the circle that best approximates the curve near this point. The curvature of a straight line is zero. In contrast to the tangent, which is a vector quantity, the curvature at a point is typically a scalar quantity, that is, it is expressed by a single real number. For surfaces (and, more generally for higher-dimensional manifolds), that are embedded in a Euclidean space, the concept of curvature is more complex, as it depends on the choice of a direction on the surfa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metric Tensor
In the mathematical field of differential geometry, a metric tensor (or simply metric) is an additional structure on a manifold (such as a surface) that allows defining distances and angles, just as the inner product on a Euclidean space allows defining distances and angles there. More precisely, a metric tensor at a point of is a bilinear form defined on the tangent space at (that is, a bilinear function that maps pairs of tangent vectors to real numbers), and a metric tensor on consists of a metric tensor at each point of that varies smoothly with . A metric tensor is ''positive-definite'' if for every nonzero vector . A manifold equipped with a positive-definite metric tensor is known as a Riemannian manifold. Such a metric tensor can be thought of as specifying ''infinitesimal'' distance on the manifold. On a Riemannian manifold , the length of a smooth curve between two points and can be defined by integration, and the distance between and can be defined ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Degrees Of Freedom (physics And Chemistry)
In physics and chemistry, a degree of freedom is an independent physical parameter in the formal description of the state of a physical system. The set of all states of a system is known as the system's phase space, and the degrees of freedom of the system are the dimensions of the phase space. The location of a particle in three-dimensional space requires three position coordinates. Similarly, the direction and speed at which a particle moves can be described in terms of three velocity components, each in reference to the three dimensions of space. If the time evolution of the system is deterministic (where the state at one instant uniquely determines its past and future position and velocity as a function of time) such a system has six degrees of freedom. If the motion of the particle is constrained to a lower number of dimensions – for example, the particle must move along a wire or on a fixed surface – then the system has fewer than six degrees of freedom. On the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
