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'Unparticles' May Hold the Key To Superconductivity
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes One curious property of massless particles like photons is that their energy or momentum can take any value across many orders of magnitude, a property that physicists call scale invariance. By contrast, massive particles like electrons always have the same mass regardless of their energy or momentum. So massive particles are not scale invariant. The concept of unparticles is the idea that some "stuff" may have mass, energy and momentum and yet also be scale invariant. This stuff must be profoundly different from ordinary particles, hence the name: unparticles. Nobody has ever seen an unparticle but now physicists are suggesting that unparticles may hold the key to understanding unconventional superconductivity. Their thinking is that at very low temperatures, ordinary particles can sometimes behave like unparticles. In other words, their properties become independent of the scale at which they're observed. So if an unparticle moves without resistance on a tiny scale, then it must also move without resistance at every scale, hence the phenomenon of superconductivity. That could provide some important insights into unconventional superconductivity which has puzzled physicists since it was discovered in the 1980s.
Is scale invariant.
Their thinking is that at very low temperatures, ordinary particles can sometimes behave like unparticles. In other words, their properties become independent of the scale at which they're observed.
So their properties become independent of scale... When one of their properties falls below a certain value on the scale of temperature?
And dogs can look like lemurs, as long as they don't look too much like dogs.
Are they "massive" particles, or simply "particles with mass"? Massive implies too many things, such as "huge", as opposed to merely "with mass".
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
So their properties become independent of scale... When one of their properties falls below a certain value on the scale of temperature?
As long as it's cold enough, how cold doesn't matter. Why wouldn't that make sense?
Scientist 1: How about we fuck with the public again today?
Scientist 2: What do you have in mind?
Scientist 1: Let's invent a new term "unparticle", give it a scientific sounding description and do a press release.
Scientist 2: You are just evil. I love it.
Scientist 1: I can't wait to log into Slashdot and see the "geniuses" explain how it works.
It gives particles mass. Photons do not interact with the Higgs Field.
Can any moron be a scientist now?
at at very low temperatures, ordinary particles can sometimes behave like unparticles
Temperature is related to the kinetic energy of a group of particles. It determines which way energy will be transfered in interactions between them. The concept of temperature for a single particle is somewhat strange. A particle doesn't know how fast it is moving (and what kinetic energy and temperature it has) until it hits something. So temperature and superconductivity are properties of the system, not each particle.
Have gnu, will travel.
I propose a new particle - the Unexplainon - which is responsible for all currently unexplained phenomenon.
When do I collect my Nobel prize?
First unpersons, now unparticles?
The Party's meddling in physics id doubleplusungood.
Sounds like the uncertainty principle at play. That is, at low enough temperatures you should have very high confidence of the momentum on a particle, but that inversely means you should have very low confidence on its position. Ergo, it has approaching equal probability on being located anywhere in the superconductor--just like in the double slit experiment, where multiple paths can/are taken and the derived "real" path is the result of interference patterns of all those paths.
The only real puzzling part to me would be how high temperature superconductivity works, then. As I don't think the temperature range in question is remotely low enough to have much certainly on the momentum.
unparticles may hold the key to understanding unconventional superconductivity
Should it be called Unresistance?
Would it still follow Ohm's Law? Or would it now be Un's Law?
Sorry, but the mass of particles such as electrons very definitely does change with energy and momemtum.
I never thought I'd see those words used literally like that.
Memo to self: Do NOT, repeat, do NOT call the next skinny woman I see "massive" - being technically correct won't get me a date.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
"By contrast, massive particles like electrons always have the same mass regardless of their energy or momentum."
Physics is a distant memory for me, but doesn't E=mc^2 imply a particle's mass is dependent on its energy? I.e. m = E/c^2
The summary (and the referenced Wikipedia article) are sloppy about the use of the term "mass", sometimes using it when they should use the term "rest mass". Zero rest mass particles, such as photons, always move at the speed of light in vacuum. Moving at that speed, they do have mass. The relationship between their energy (E), mass (m), and momentum (p) is:
E = pc = mc^2,
where c is the speed of light in vacuum. They fit the definition of uniparticles because those three quantities all scale linearly relative to each other; if you double the momentum, you also double the energy and the mass.
In contrast, particles with non-zero rest masses (e.g. electrons) follow the equation:
E^2 = (pc)^2 + ((m0)c^2)^2 = (mc^2)^2,
where m0 is the rest mass of the particle. The rest mass of these particles does not change, but their mass does change when they are accelerated. Because of the presence of the rest mass term, the relationship between energy, momentum and mass is no longer linear.
More unreadable crappy website linkspam!
..on UnSlashdot.
I guess if you want to study un-particles, you have to be un-interested.
And quite possibly un-paid .
Thanks, folks, try the veal.
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