These later particles are associated with the more familiar gravitational and electromagnetic forces, and the perhaps less familiar strong and weak nuclear forces. Reader’s Note: Based on our current though necessarily incomplete understanding, there are two types of fundamental, or elementary, particles in physics: fermions, associated with matter itself, and bosons, associated with the interactions between matter. elementary) particles happened in the first millionth of one second as the universe cooled down to 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000 = 10 12) Kelvin (K). We don’t know what the very beginning was like, but we can work out what probably happened once things started. Consider all the known energy (and future matter) of the universe confined to an extremely small space. The beginning of the Big Bang was necessarily hot. Did you know that George Lemaître was also a Jesuit priest, who saw no conflict between science and religion? In the beginning according to science was the “Big Bang.” Now this idea may sound like it is against or opposes theology, but I can assure you it does not. (Independent parallel work was done by the Russian mathematican Alexandr Friedman around 1922.) Einstein was cautious about the consequences proposed from these works.Ī few years later Lemaître proposed his “hypothesis of a primordial atom” as he began to consider the consequences of reversing the timeline to ask, “What might cause an expanding universe?” Today we know this idea popularly as the “Big Bang” theory, originally a disparaging name given by an early critic of Lemaître’s theory, fellow astronomer Fred Hoyle. Think of a passing ambulance who siren sounds higher-pitched as it approaches you and then lower-pitched after it passes and is receding away from you.) These observations are consistent with an expanding universe, which Belgian astronomer and mathematical (theoretical) physicist George Lemaître had proposed in the year 1927 when he obtained his Ph.D. (This is essentially a light-version of the more familiar Doppler effect associated with sound. In 1929, Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer, observed the light from newly-discovered galaxies and discovered it was red-shifted, that is to say, the observed energies were less than expected, shifted towards the relatively lower energy red and away from the higher energy violet light. In the 1920’s scientists were working out the implications of Einstein’s work on general relativity from the previous decade. Reflect on how your unbridled anger has prevented your consideration of community!įROM THE “BIG BANG” TO FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES-PARTICLE PHYSICS I.With particle physics, the building blocks did come together, creating exciting possibilities along the way, provided there was enough space and relative calmness (in terms of temperature)! Yes, the order of matter came in stages. Matter needed space to come emerge from energy and organize itself into more complex structures! experience a little expansion), things won’t seem so dense and jumbled. Similarly, have you ever felt “crowded” in a space, or backed into a corner? Again, if you can get a little space (a.k.a.Have you ever been so “hot” (angry) that you can’t see straight? Calming down can make a big difference and allow things to literally settle, right? There is an interesting parallel with the production of the fundamental particles and subsequent generations of matter from itself….Beginnings can be rough, and the start of the Big Bang is a reminder of that:
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