Its official: matter is flaky

Posted by Olly Robinson on 21 January 2009 | 1 Comments

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It is common knowledge to non-physicists such as myself that matter is mostly empty space. At school we are taught how the nucleus of an atom is a tiny fraction of its overall size, and that between the nucleus and the 'orbiting' electrons there is a whole lot of nothing. This recent article in the New Scientist reports a new study that has looked at the next level down and has found that even in protons there is a remarkable amount of emptiness:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16095-its-confirmed-matter-is-merely-vacuum-fluctuations.html

The three quarks in a proton account for just 1% of its mass, and are held together by a force, which in turn stems from virtual particles called gluons, which in turn stem from Higgs bosons (aka the God Particle), which in turn are fluctuations in the quantum vaccuum. And not of these have ever been observed, but scientists are hoping some day to find them. Whoever said scientists don't have faith?

Olly Robinson


Comments

  • I've been reporting on particle physics for years and never twigged how low the quark mass was as a proportion of hadrons. Forgive me for doubting you! I checked and the up and down quarks only contibute 11 MeV of the proton's 938 MeV rest mass! The rest is gluons and binding energy. Well well!

    Posted by Oldmanbeaver, 22/01/2009 11:29am (2 years ago)

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