First, let me explain why I named this post "Jumped The Gun!". Approximately two days after I started thinking about this problem, I noticed an article on the Popular Science website (http://www.popsci.com) detailing a new weapon introduced by the military. It is based on the concept that a high-powered laser will ionize the air that it passes through, essentially making it a perfect electrical conduit. The high-powered laser is then immediately followed by a massive release of electrical charge, forming a highly controlled lightning bolt. The bolt's easiest path happens to be the perfect line of ionized air particles, and so the lightning follows the path that the laser took, striking whatever the laser beam ended up on. It uses the same natural principles as lightning, except that lightning follows a randomized pattern and more or less only by coincidence. While fairly impractical, it is a really cool idea, and yet it doesn't quite get to the heart of my idea and the principles it uses. Let me premise my post by saying that I know perfectly well that if my idea had any feasibility, someone else must have thought of it before and discarded it.
So what is the concept behind the problem? Well let's consider one of my previous posts, where I discussed particle-antiparticle creation-annihilation (http://universalranking.blogspot.com/2012/02/continuation-theory-on-dimensional.html). I never fully discussed where the creation comes from beyond "random energy" but there is actually one key point that I should clarify. When I said energy, I really meant small quantized packets of energy, also known as photons! So when I state that particle-antiparticle pairs are spontaneously created from packets of energy, I mean that actual photons spontaneously "turn into" bits of matter. One of the most common of these pairs is an electron and a positron. The positron is basically an antimatter counterpart of an electron. It has the same exact mass, and the same magnitude of charge, but the alignment of the quarks is exactly the opposite of that of the electron and therefore the direction of charge is exactly the opposite (positive). When a positron and an electron come into contact, they annihilate (as stated in the "Continuation" post) and create (usually) a pair of photons. The exceptions to that case include though the annihilation to a single photon, but usually this only happens when the creation comes from a low-energy photon (more on why that is in a bit).
We are going to assume for this post that there is a single photon creating an electron-positron pair that immediately annihilates to another single photon (for simplicity's sake). And now we get to the multimedia!
Cue Diagram 1!
Yes, it's a hand-drawn diagram (only the best for the people that actually read this blog!)!
So before you confuse yourself trying to decipher what this is, let me make it easier. This diagram is known as a Feynman diagram and is used to show the interactions of particles through time. One thing to immediately note is the "Time" axis along the top pointing to the right. This means that the particle is changing as time passes, not necessarily as it "moves to the right". That is pretty much the only really difficult concept to wrap your head around which is not necessarily thinking of the particle moving. Theoretically it could be completely still in space but it would still be diagrammed as above. So what does this diagram show? It shows a photon suddenly turning into an electron and a positron, which then a little later collide together, resulting in another photon. For those who want a little more information, the Electromagnetic Interaction Vertex Strength is how relatively strong or likely the reaction will be compared to the other three fundamental force reactions (Strong Force, Weak Force, and Gravity). So the strength/probability of this electromagnetic interaction is about 1/137th of that of the strongest type of interaction force (the Strong Force). To give some measure of comparison, the strength of gravity relative to the Strong Force is about 1/(10^39) or 1 over 1 with 39 zeros after it!
So back to the point. This diagram shows what actually can happen to a photon randomly, and it is the case I would like you to keep in mind (refer back to the diagram if it gets confusing at any point). One difficulty with this scenario is that the photon has to have enough energy to make this happen (in more technical terms, the Energy of the photon [given by E = h * f , or Energy = Planck's Constant * frequency] must be at least twice the rest mass of an electron for the interaction to occur). The spontaneous creation of an electron-positron pair is not definitively known as of the present, however the annihilation is simply due to the fact that the electron and the positron are attracted to each other intensely due to their opposing charges. They therefore collide fairly quickly after the point of creation due to their close proximity. The only known instances of this principle being violated was detailed in the previous post (when the creation occurred on the very edge of a black hole). The point of all this was to set up and demonstrate what can and does happen in real life and the basis for my idea!
So here's the other part to consider in the idea. Electrons (and positrons), as well as being affected by electric fields, are affected by magnetic fields! However, whereas electrons (and positrons) are attracted usually in straight lines by electric fields, magnetic fields affect electrons in different ways. In this case, a magnetic field going away from the viewer at a 90-degree angle to the path of the electron (or positron) forces the electron in a curve (and eventually in a full circle if the magnetic field is strong enough and large enough to encompass the circular path of the electron) such as in the following way:
The small pluses on the square indicate a magnetic field going away from the viewer. If the pluses were replaced by dots, that would indicate that the magnetic field was going towards the viewer, and consequently the path of the electron would curve in the other direction. The path of an electron in the opposite direction of magnetic field as shown above would accurately represent the path of a positron in the magnetic field shown above. In simpler terms, the path of an electron and the path of a positron are exactly the opposite in the same magnetic field.
Here is where part one of this post ends. If you can catch a glimmer of where I am going with these ideas, feel free to speculate below or ruminate on it by yourself! As always, if you have a comment, a question, a suggestion, or any digression, let me know below or on Facebook! I will be glad to field any of the above (bonus points for rhyming).
If you like the new style of post (me sharing random brainchildren) then definitely let me know! If you hate it, let me know as well! Comments and questions are always appreciated and help me to expound on what I need to or to delve into new and exciting implications!
And finally I have a challenge for each and every one of the people that actually read this post. It is as followed and not meant to be an annoying solicitation. The frequency of my updates generally relates to my readership. I am encouraged when I see a spike in page views and the more I see, the more I feel obligated to update more often. So here's your challenge if you're reading this. Go out and tell one (or more if you want) friend that you think would be interested in this kind of subject matter about this blog. Give them the link to the blog. If you want to help out even more, tell them to tell one (or more) of their friend(s)! The more the merrier (and the more posts)!
As always, thank you all who read this, and I will update with the second part of this post (and the actual meat of my crazy and probably already-discarded idea) once I return from my Eurotrip!
--J
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