Fucking quantum mechanics
I think I get it
Therefore I know I really don't get it
[QUOTE=subenji99;51239006]Fucking quantum mechanics
I think I get it
Therefore I know I really don't get it[/QUOTE]
This graph from wikipedia helps visualise it:
[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Falsevacuum.svg/419px-Falsevacuum.svg.png[/img]
What we think is the lowest energy state isn't really the lowest energy state. To get to the true lowest energy state (which will release an enormous amount of stored energy) will require a very large amount of energy to get over the "hump".
no I got that - what's confusing me now is that the other quantum particles may already be at their true vacuum states
I'm still wrapping my head around that one
Would make a great plot to a film.
[QUOTE=Sims_doc;51239383]Would make a great plot to a film.[/QUOTE]how, the ending would be super predictable and would resolve nothing (and everything)
[QUOTE=subenji99;51239006]Fucking quantum mechanics
I think I get it
Therefore I know I really don't get it[/QUOTE]
These things are easier to understand without the background if you don't think about it or try to rationalize and just accept what you heard. Eventually it'll click and make sense.
Also this video is pretty much The End of Fire ending for Dark Souls 3. Even the video thumbnail is the High Lord Wolnir boss fight
I always wondered if we could interact with the Higgs Field to simply turn off mass generation, thereby creating anti-gravity drives.
And now I'm worried that if we fuck with the Higgs field, it'd be an astronomical fuck up.
This kind of stuff keeps me up at night. What happens if we could "move the higgs"?
the new source of energy ?
[QUOTE=Sims_doc;51239383]Would make a great plot to a film.[/QUOTE]
[URL="https://www.amazon.com/Poseidons-Wake-Children-Alastair-Reynolds/dp/0425256340"]There's a book about it[/URL], (i think it was, anyway). Part of a trilogy, supposedly pretty good. Haven't read it myself, although I'd like to.
[QUOTE=subenji99;51239006]Fucking quantum mechanics
I think I get it
Therefore I know I really don't get it[/QUOTE]
Isn't there a saying that goes along the lines of "If somebody says they understand quantum physics, they don't"?
so yeah dont worry
Is there any specific reason why the potential energy between the false vacuum and the true vacuum state would be [I]large[/I]? I mean, if it was just a slight drop, wouldn't an event like this just cause a slight energy output (not enough to cause the chain reaction) and one Higgs boson in a lower energy state?
[QUOTE=Sherow_Xx;51239822]Is there any specific reason why the potential energy between the false vacuum and the true vacuum state would be [I]large[/I]? I mean, if it was just a slight drop, wouldn't an event like this just cause a slight energy output (not enough to cause the chain reaction) and one Higgs boson in a lower energy state?[/QUOTE]
Seems to me the real problem would be that physics itself would change.
[QUOTE=Sherow_Xx;51239858]That doesn't sound like a [I]problem[/I], per se... Imagine if we could create an altered Higg's field in a confined space. Literally a whole new world of science in a box.[/QUOTE]
If you could create such a thing, you'd probably have to be careful to never let any part of yourself enter it.
There are a [i]lot[/i] of chemical reactions going on in any given part of your body, and they all kinda' depend on physics being the way it is right now.
[QUOTE=Sherow_Xx;51239822]Is there any specific reason why the potential energy between the false vacuum and the true vacuum state would be [I]large[/I]? I mean, if it was just a slight drop, wouldn't an event like this just cause a slight energy output (not enough to cause the chain reaction) and one Higgs boson in a lower energy state?[/QUOTE]
The idea is similar to an electron emitting/absorbing a photon and raising/dropping an orbital shell. In the videos context, the energy released would be the photon, but larger.
It'd be much larger because the Higg's Field permeates [I]all[/I] of space, in [I]every[/I] direction, [I]forever.[/I]
until someone fucks it up
[QUOTE=Quark:;51240033]The idea is similar to an electron emitting/absorbing a photon and raising/dropping an orbital shell. In the videos context, the energy released would be the photon, but larger.
It'd be much larger because the Higg's Field permeates [I]all[/I] of space, in [I]every[/I] direction, [I]forever.[/I]
until someone fucks it up[/QUOTE]
The video does use the word Higgs[I] field[/I], but it strongly implies at 3:14 that it's one particle that enters a lower state and sends out energy that causes a chain reaction in the others [I]("the space around it")[/I]. Are you saying that's wrong? Since if it's the [I]whole Higgs field[/I] that drops into a lower energy state, wouldn't it all just happen instantaneously everywhere, rather than radiating from a point?
[QUOTE=Lolkork;51239594]Take any movie and cut to black halfway through.[/QUOTE]
Finally the last episode of the Sopranos makes sense
i don't really think this is that terrifying, not like we would have a chance to notice anything happened
[QUOTE=Lolkork;51239393]So are these like big bangs?
Could there be multiple levels of false vacuums, and our universe is just one of them?[/QUOTE]
The big bang expanded at many times the speed of light though
[editline]21st October 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=FluD;51239730]the new source of energy ?[/QUOTE]
Sure you get energy, but you also destroy the universe
[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;51240330]i don't really think this is that terrifying, not like we would have a chance to notice anything happened[/QUOTE]
I still think its spooky, there could be hundreds or even thousands of these speckled across the universe, and we will never know until one hits us.
[QUOTE=Toro;51240352]I still think its spooky, there could be hundreds or even thousands of these speckled across the universe, and we will never know until one hits us.[/QUOTE]
kind of spooky i guess but i see it from this perspective: if there is nothing we can do about it and would never be able to tell when it may hit us or even when it hits us, why get scared by it? it is just a sudden lack of existence. i won't lose any sleep over it
I find it interesting how even a supposedly universe ending event like this can't overcome the expansion of space.
[QUOTE=ZombieWaffle;51240666]I find it interesting how even a supposedly universe ending event like this can't overcome the expansion of space.[/QUOTE]
which makes me wonder if some hyper-advanced race already fucked this up and ended their part of the universe :v:
I'm fine without breaking physics to get faster space travel. The solar system is a neat place, and fusion drives could get us blasting around at practical speeds that don't require us to risk ending the universe
[QUOTE=Toro;51240352]and we will never know until one hits us.[/QUOTE]
well you wouldn't know it even if it [i]did[/i] hit you :v:
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;51239785]Isn't there a saying that goes along the lines of "If somebody says they understand quantum physics, they don't"?
so yeah dont worry[/QUOTE]
That saying and all its variations are bullshit tbh. As much as I don't really like Peter Woit, I [url=https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=7076]agree with him on this.[/url] The structure of quantum mechanics is not that hard. What's hard is interpreting it philosophically, and relating it to our everyday experience, but I don't think being unable to make analogies to everyday experience is the only way to understand something. Plenty of people know a whole fuckton about quantum field theory. That Witten dude is pretty damn smart, for instance.
Like, it's easy to point out specific unsolved problems in quantum field theory, but you can do that for any field, even classical mechanics. The Navier-Stokes problem is a well-known example of this. Nothing extreme about fluid flow.
I probably should have chosen a hill to die on that's more relevant to the thread, but man it gets tiresome seeing that phrase repeated.
[editline]21st October 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Sherow_Xx;51240309]The video does use the word Higgs[I] field[/I], but it strongly implies at 3:14 that it's one particle that enters a lower state and sends out energy that causes a chain reaction in the others [I]("the space around it")[/I]. Are you saying that's wrong? Since if it's the [I]whole Higgs field[/I] that drops into a lower energy state, wouldn't it all just happen instantaneously everywhere, rather than radiating from a point?[/QUOTE]
It's a specific section of the field that looks like it's in the vacuum state and decays, not necessarily the entire field. So no, it doesn't need to happen everywhere. But regardless, fields are local, Just because the field is everywhere doesn't mean spatially separated parts of it can affect each other simultaneously.
[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;51239553]I always wondered if we could interact with the Higgs Field to simply turn off mass generation, thereby creating anti-gravity drives.
And now I'm worried that if we fuck with the Higgs field, it'd be an astronomical fuck up.[/QUOTE]
This would explain the fermi paradox - once intelligent life discovers quantum tunneling, there is always that one idiot who tunnels the higgs field in hopes of that sweet BTTF hoverboard, dooming all nearby time and space.
I've read somewhere that the chain reaction that could bring the whole universe to a true vacuum state could only happen if our vacuum was in an unstable state, and if that were the case, it would probably already have happened by now. But our vacuum is probably "semi-stable", so although the false vacuum could be made to decay in a small space, it wouldn't cause any chain-reaction, at least not the kind that can go on forever and burn the entire universe.
so it's like a worse black hole?
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