Physics
In particle physics searches (and elsewhere) the word "significance" is associated with the quantitative measure of how discrepant is one observation with a so-called "null hypothesis". That is, one searches for a new effect in some dataset, and defines what one expects to see in the absence of anything discrepant from theoretical predictions: that is the null hypothesis. A new particle in the data will usually manifest itself as an excess of events, and this will cause the data to deviate from expectations.
A significance Z of the observation of more events than predicted can then be…
Recently Leonard Susskind introduced a new type of objects and called them ziggs.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqNg819PiZY
Ziggs are supposed to form a condensate. Massive particles emit and absorb the ziggs, by exchanging them with the condensate.
The HBM a uses a mechanism in which charge carriers are exchanged between the quantum state function of a particle with a second quaternionic probability amplitude distribution (QPAD) that is coupled to the quantum state function. The second QPAD is formed by the superposition of the tails of the quantum state functions of distant…
As my twenty three affectionate readers will probably remember, I enjoyed a very pleasant week in Kolymbari (Crete) last June, attending the first International Conference of Frontier Physics. Now, after you attend a conference and give there a presentation, you are supposed to produce a writeup of your talk for the proceedings book. So while October arrives unannounced with critically important errands to attend to, I find myself in the need to produce a 12-page document describing the most recent and important results of the CMS experiment.
The deadline? September 20th. Yes, I am past…
Dark energy is the biggest mystery in modern cosmology. When observations of distinct supernova finally got good enough to observe the change in the rate of the expansion of the universe, Everyone expected to see, a deceleration due to the effect of gravity, instead astronomers discovered the universe was accelerating its expansion. Some mysterious force is acting like anti-gravity pushing galaxies (actually super clusters of galaxies) ever further about from each other. There are a number of theories explaining dark energy, very few of which are well motivated by particle physics…
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Science writers eagerly disseminate falsehoods about the peer-review system, for example that critiques are published in the same journal as the criticized article. In truth, critical papers are rejected, whistleblowers blacklisted. “Criticism” in academia is a show-dance that increases the citation count of established players. True criticism is silenced; it may land in some very low impact factor journal, like for example with the takedown of the fake 2008 memristor discovery, because insiders know that nobody reads such journals; they are excess dumps stabilizing the publish-or-perish…
The elusive 113th atomic element has been confirmed by researchers at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-based Science (RNC). A chain of six consecutive alpha decays, produced in experiments at the RIKEN Radioisotope Beam Factory (RIBF), conclusively identifies the element through connections to well-known daughter nuclides.
That sets the stage for Japan to claim naming rights for the element, the first Asian country to name an atomic element.
The search for superheavy elements, which do not occur naturally and must be produced through experiments, is painstaking. Since the…
UPDATE: what a difference a small typo makes! In the report below I claimed that the CDF top mass measurement was yet to be stripped of the record of being the most precise in the world, given that the total uncertainty on the mass was 1.01 GeV, while the newest CMS result has a total error of 1.07 GeV... I however realized this morning that the total CDF uncertainty of the quoted measurement is 1.10, not 1.01 ! So the CMS result mentioned at the bottom of this article is indeed the most precise single measurement in the world of the top quark mass !
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The top quark is the heaviest known…
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While many fields realize that modernity comes to an end like any epoch eventually does, the “hard sciences”, especially physics, still rest in relatively naïve stages, still proud of their “modern” status like a teenager loving his first car. Attempts to advance beyond adolescence are countered with references to the Sokal Affair, although that affair has long since been understood in more enlightened ways and even Alan Sokal himself in the end concluded that the affair proved the enormous bias due to pure status in all sciences, news perhaps to the physicist Sokal, but certainly not to…
In a few weeks I will speak in Torino, Italy at Comunicare Fisica 2012, a conference devoted to the communication of Physics in the media, in schools, through web sites, etcetera. And I need your help !
Let me explain. I have submitted an abstract which reads as follows:
The analogy is a powerful tool to explain even apparently hard physics concepts. By substituting a complex system with one closer to one's experience, we allow the listener to construct a mental image which is the basis of a successful understanding of the properties or behaviour of the system being discussed. In this…
If you chance to take part in a conversation with people arguing that they do not want their tax money to go into building huge science gadgets whose utility for humanity is doubtful and null to them in particular, you have better be equipped with a sound way to shut their mouth.
Of course, one way is to explain with patience the importance of basic science, the investment in the future, etcetera. You might like to insert well-learned quotes, such as "Fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza" ("You were not made to live like beasts, but to follow virtue and…