Physics

This is the fourth part of Chapter 3 of the book "Anomaly! Collider Physics and the Quest for New Phenomena at Fermilab". The chapter recounts the pioneering measurement of the Z mass by the CDF detector, and the competition with SLAC during the summer of 1989. The title of the post is the same as the one of chapter 3, and it refers to the way some SLAC physicists called their Fermilab colleagues, whose hadron collider was to their eyes obviously inferior to the electron-positron linear collider. For part 1, see here. For part 2, see here. For part 3, see here.--- One PRL…

This is the third part of Chapter 3 of the book "Anomaly! Collider Physics and the Quest for New Phenomena at Fermilab". The chapter recounts the pioneering measurement of the Z mass by the CDF detector, and the competition with SLAC during the summer of 1989. The title of the post is the same as the one of chapter 3, and it refers to the way some SLAC physicists called their Fermilab colleagues, whose hadron collider was to their eyes obviously inferior to the electron-positron linear collider. For part 1, see here. For part 2, see here.---Unfathomable Code The computer…

I have recently been reproached, by colleagues who are members of the competing ATLAS experiment, of misusing the word "see" in this blog, in the context of searches for physics signals. That was because I reported that CMS recently produced a very nice result where we measure the rate of H->bb decays in events where the Higgs boson recoils against a energetic jet; that signal is not statistically significant, so they could argue that CMS did not "see" anything, as I wrote in the blog title. I countered that we do measure the particle rate, in the hypothesis that the Standard Model is…

The complex phase of a quaternion becomes apparent when a (complex) plane is put through its real axis and its imaginary part. In multiplication, quaternions do not commute. Thus, in general a b / a ≠b. In this multiplication, the imaginary part of b that is perpendicular to the imaginary part of a is rotated over an angle that is twice the complex phase φ of a.This fact means that if φ=π/4, then the rotation a b / a shifts b⊥ to another dimension. This result puts quaternions for which the size of the real part equals the size…

The Hilbert Book Model contains a base model that is constructed from a quaternionic infinite dimensional separable Hilbert space and its unique non-separable companion that embeds its separable partner. The quaternionic number system exists in many versions that differ in the way that they are ordered. Cartesian and polar coordinate systems can define these orderings and let these versions act as parameter spaces. These parameter spaces can be represented by eigenspaces of special reference operators that reside in the separable Hilbert space. The operators connect the countable eigenvalues…

With respect to the visual perception, the human optic tract closely resembles the visual tract of all vertebrates. The evolution must have optimized the functionality of the visual tract of vertebrates for efficient operation under low light level conditions. Hubel and Weisel discovered this. They got a Noble price for their work. The duo analyzed the optic tract of many types of vertebrates, including humans. The sensitivity of the human eye covers a huge range. The visual tract implements several special measures that help to extend that range. At high dose rates the…

The Hilbert Book Model impersonates a creator (HBM). At the instant of the creation, the HBM stores all dynamic geometric data of his creatures in a read-only repository that consists of a combination of an infinite dimensional separable quaternionic Hilbert space and its unique non-separable companion that embeds its separable partner. The storage applies quaternionic eigenvalues of operators. The quaternionic containers hold a scalar real number valued time stamp and a three-dimensional spatial location vector that represents the imaginary part of the quaternion. Mechanisms that apply…

Quantum entanglement is a well observed but not well understood phenomena.  The frontier in this area has been to entangle systems at greater and greater distances.  Theoretically however it is poorly understood.  Susskind and Maldacena proposed the ER=EPR conjecture, which to oversimplify, states that entangled particles are connected by tiny wormholes(Maldacena and Susskind)  In this brief blog post I present a simple proof that the “non-locality” that experimentalist write of, and Susskind conjectured about solving via wormholes, can be explained with standard quantum…

The base model of the Hilbert Book Model consists of an infinite dimensional separable Hilbert space and it's unique non-separable companion Hilbert space that embeds its separable companion. The version of the quaternionic number system that specifies the values of the inner product of these Hilbert spaces also defines the background parameter space of the base model. The rational values of this background parameter space form the eigenspace of a special reference operator that resides in the separable Hilbert space, and the full background parameter space is the continuum eigenspace of the…

The Hilbert Book Test Model is a purely mathematical model of the lower levels of the structure of physical reality. Its base consists of an infinite dimensional separable Hilbert space and its unique non-separable companion Hilbert space. Both Hilbert spaces use members of a version of the quaternionic number system to deliver the values of their inner products. Thus also the eigenvalues of the operators that map Hilbert spaces onto themselves are quaternions. A special reference operator applies the rational members of the selected quaternionic number system to enumerate an orthonormal base…