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Dark Energy via a fifth force on neutrinos.

Dark energy is the biggest mystery in modern cosmology. When observations of distinct supernova...

An experiment to detect currents due to an Axial Force

In last weeks post,I introduced the Axial force, a force interacting between neutrinos, left handed...

Russians find new Particle, E(38) at 38 MeV

Russians at the JINR Nuclotron believe they have found a new particle, the E(38), as reported in...

A Fifth Force to explain the Handedness of the Weak Force

The weak force is the most mysterious force in the standard model, it is the only force thatisn't...

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Barry AdamsRSS Feed of this column.

Barry Adams is a PhD in Theoretical Physics, he left science for many years to work as a programmer, but remained a keen amateur, reading arXiv's daily to keep up with the phenomenology of physics... Read More »

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Why Dark Matter isn't what we thought it was

Why Dark Matter isn't what we thought it was

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

Although for at least 10 years, since the WMAP satellite first measured the amounts of dark matter in the universe, scientists have known the recipe for the universe (4.5% Matter,22.5% Dark Matter, 73% Dark Energy) but really didn't have a clue as to what the Dark Matter and Energy of the universe actually is. One theory of dark matter is a WIMP, a weakly interacting massive particle left over from the big bang, is the lightest super-symmetric particle, LSP. That theory fit in well with the prevailing super-string and super-symmetry theories of particle physics, and the numbers actually worked out when physicists tried predicating how much dark matter the big bang might make. But recently three separate observations in astronomy seem to have ruled this model out.
The Strangest Experiment Result of The Year

The Strangest Experiment Result of The Year

Mar 11 2012 | comment(s)

If 2011's strangest result was seeing neutrinos moving in excess of the velocity of light, how could 2012 top that. But an even stranger experimental result has come from Berezhiani and Nesti from the University of Aquila in Italy , who claim to have found neutrons oscillate into Mirror Neutrons, and thus disappear from the ultra cold neutron traps. Mirror Matter is a theory of dark matter, in which every particle from the standard model is has Mirror Matter copy with left and right reversed, in order to return to parity conservation. Matter Matter has is own copy of each of the standard model strong and electroweak forces, and Mirror Matter interacts only with its own copies of the forces.
Favorite ArXiv Articles Of The Day

Favorite ArXiv Articles Of The Day

Jan 24 2012 | comment(s)

I read ArXiv regularly. It's not easy because most of the latest publications of physics go there before print. Apart from pedagogical articles (for teaching purposes), all the articles are aimed at other scientists working at the state of art in the subject. I try read the principles at the beginnings of the paper, skim the maths, and see if the conclusion match the rest of physics. So apologies to the authors if I accidentally misquote them.

Today there were enough fascinating articles that I wanted to write about them. This might become an occasional series so let me know if you find this useful.
A Theory of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos

A Theory of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos

Jan 14 2012 | comment(s)

I was going to talk about neutrinos today, as the results of MiniBoone looking at how muon neutrinos mix into electron neutrinos had just been published earlier this week, and wanted to write about CP violation and a possible 1-2eV right handed neutrino mixing or decaying with/into the left handed neutrinos that the weak nuclear can turn electrons into. However, I think for most readers the faster than light results from CERN in September would be more interesting. 
Could Dark Matter Be Technologically Useful?

Could Dark Matter Be Technologically Useful?

Jan 11 2012 | comment(s)

  Following on my last article, I'd like to ask the question, weither some day, dark matter might be useful or even vital to a civilisation. 
This depends on the properties of the stuff, which of course we haven't found yet. But it seems the standard lightest super-symmetric particle dark matter, most likely wouldn't be much use even to an highly advanced inter stellar civilisation. The lightest super-symmetric particle doesn't do much, it interacts by gravity, and by the weak nuclear force only and sometimes it annihilate with other particles like itself. 
Dark Atoms and Mirror Matter

Dark Atoms and Mirror Matter

Jan 06 2012 | comment(s)

  Over in print media today, New Scientist's cover article was on a "new" idea for what dark matter is. Apparently, dark matter should be composed of Dark Atoms, in a theory introduced by Christopher Wells, et al. In fact, astronomers and particle physicists have been studying many ideas of what dark matter could be for quite a while. Occasionally a summary of the current ideas gets published, such a the 2004 classic, by Silk, even then half the current ideas get left out, such as CHAMP, mirror matter, Q-balls, super weak dark matter and many others.