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Friday, 9 January 2009

UNIFIED FIELD THEORY

In physics, a unified field theory is a type of field theory that allows all of the fundamental forces between elementary particles to be written in terms of a single field. There is no accepted unified field theory yet, and this remains an open line of research. The term was coined by Albert Einstein who attempted to unify the general theory of relativity with electromagnetism. A Theory of Everything is closely related to unified field theory, but differs by not requiring the basis of nature to be fields, and also attempts to explain all physical constants of nature.

This attempts to describes unified field theory as it is currently understood in connection with quantum theory.

There may be a reason why the correct description of nature has to be a unified field theory; this has led to a great deal of progress in modern theoretical physics and continues to motivate researchers to derive to find the answer. Unified field theory is only one possible approach to unification of physics.

According to our current understanding of physics, forces between objects (e.g. gravitation) are not transmitted directly between the two objects, but instead go through intermediary entities called fields. All four of the known fundamental forces are mediated by fields, which in the Standard Model of particle physics result from exchange of bosons (integral-spin particles). Specifically the four interactions to be unified are (from strongest to weakest):

Strong nuclear interaction: the interaction responsible for holding quarks together to form neutrons and protons, and holding neutrons and protons together to form nuclei. The exchange particle that mediates this force is the gluon.
Electromagnetic interaction: the familiar interaction that acts on electrically charged particles. The photon is the exchange particle for this force.
Weak nuclear interaction: a repulsive short-range interaction responsible for radioactivity, that acts on electrons, neutrinos and quarks. It is governed by the W and Z bosons.
Gravitational interaction: a long-range attractive interaction that acts on all particles with mass. The postulated exchange particle has been named the graviton.
Modern unified field theory attempts to bring these four force-mediating fields together into a single framework. Quantum theory seems to limit any deterministic theory's descriptive power (in simple terms, no theory can predict events more accurately than allowed by the Planck constant).

The first successful (classical) unified field theory was developed by James Clerk Maxwell. In 1820 Hans Christian Ørsted discovered that electric currents exerted forces on magnets, while in 1831, Michael Faraday made the observation that time-varying magnetic fields could induce electric currents. Until then, electricity and magnetism had been thought of as unrelated phenomena. In 1864, Maxwell published his famous paper on a dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field. This was the first example of a theory that was able to encompass previous separate field theories (namely electricity and magnetism) to provide a unifying theory of electromagnetism. Later, in his theory of special relativity Albert Einstein was able to explain the unity of electricity and magnetism as a consequence of the unification of space and time into an entity we now call spacetime.

In 1921 Theodor Kaluza extended General Relativity to five dimensions and in 1926 Oscar Klein proposed that the fourth spatial dimension be curled up (or compactified) into a small, unobserved circle. This was dubbed Kaluza-Klein theory. It was quickly noticed that this extra spatial direction gave rise to an additional force similar to electricity and magnetism. This was pursued as the basis for some of Albert Einstein's later unsuccessful attempts at a unified field theory. Einstein and others pursued various non-quantum approaches to unifying these forces; however as quantum theory became generally accepted as fundamental, most physicists came to view all such theories as doomed to failure.

In 1963 American physicist Sheldon Glashow proposed that the weak nuclear force and electricity and magnetism could arise from a partially unified electroweak theory. In 1967, Pakistani Abdus Salam and American Steven Weinberg independently revised Glashow's theory by having the masses for the W particle and Z particle arise through spontaneous symmetry breaking with the Higgs mechanism. This unified theory was governed by the exchange of four particles: the photon for electromagnetic interactions, a neutral Z particle and two charged W particles for weak interaction. As a result of the spontaneous symmetry breaking, the weak force becomes short range and the Z and W bosons acquire masses of 80.4 and 91.2 GeV / c2, respectively. Their theory was first given experimental support by the discovery of weak neutral currents in 1973. In 1983, the Z and W bosons were first produced at CERN by Carlo Rubbia's team. For their insights, Salam, Glashow and Weinberg were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979. Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer received the Prize in 1984.

After Gerardus 't Hooft showed the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam electroweak interactions was mathematically consistent, the electroweak theory became a template for further attempts at unifying forces. In 1974, Sheldon Glashow and Howard Georgi proposed unifying the strong and electroweak interactions into a Grand Unified Theory, which would have observable effects for energies much above 100 GeV.

Since then there have been several proposals for Grand Unified Theories, although none is currently universally accepted. A major problem for experimental tests of such theories is the energy scale involved, which is well beyond the reach of current accelerators. Grand Unified Theories make predictions for the relative strengths of the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces, and in 1991 LEP determined that supersymmetric theories have the correct ratio of couplings for a Georgi-Glashow Grand Unified Theory. Many Grand Unified Theories predict that the proton can decay, and if this were to be seen, details of the decay products could give hints at more aspects of the Grand Unified Theory. It is at present unknown if the proton can decay, although experiments have determined a lower bound of 1035 years for its lifetime.


The current state of unified field theories
Gravity has yet to be successfully included in a theory of everything. Simply trying to combine the graviton with the strong and electroweak interactions runs into fundamental difficulties (the resulting theory is not renormalizable). Theoretical physicists have not yet formulated a widely accepted, consistent theory that combines general relativity and quantum mechanics. The incompatibility of the two theories remains an outstanding problem in the field of physics. Some theoretical physicists currently believe that a quantum theory of general relativity may require frameworks other than field theory itself, such as string theory or loop quantum gravity. One promising string theory is the heterotic string which can tie together gravity and the three other forces into a tight connection. Other candidate string theories do not have this feature of unifying the forces and gravity in a compelling manner. Loop quantum gravity does not appear to link the electroweak and strong forces to gravity, and if so, it would fail as a unified field theory. Ultimately, nature may not be best understood in terms of a unified field theory; this conceptualization may not be correct, although it has led to advances in physics.


Non-mainstream theories
Albert Einstein famously spent the last two decades of his life searching for a Unified Field Theory. This has led to a great deal of fascination with the subject and has drawn many people from outside the mainstream of the physics community to work on such a theory. Most of this work typically appears in non-peer reviewed sources, such as self-published books or personal websites. The work that appears outside of the standard scientific channels may or may not be considered pseudoscience by definition.

Examples of "non-mainstream" theories are Heim theory, and Antony Garrett Lisi's "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything"who eventually may come up with the answer to this.

Saturday, 22 November 2008

BBC DRAMA ,EINSTEIN AN EDDINGTON




I watched a brilliant drama about the relationship between Albert einstein and sir arthur eddington around the time of the nineteen teens, the connection between Albert einstein and Sir Arthur eddington in the bbc film. Albert Einstein the most famous scientist of the 20th century, and i would say the most important in all of human history. So great is Einstein’s reputation that it makes that of Arthur Stanley Eddington — a good astronomer and a gifted popularizer of science — seem to pale into insignificance. Yet without Eddington’s 1919 eclipse expedition, which provided early proof of general relativity, Einstein’s discoveries might have stayed hidden for years before becoming known outside of the German scientific community, let alone the public/world.
Einstein and Eddington is about physicists, not physics.Although in the film they do attempt to explain special relativity in a scene using Einstein, his sons, a boat,as an example. and a handful of references to Einstein inventing new symbols,also in the film his first wife (and fellow physicist) Mileva who he is alleged to have neglected , played by Lucy Cohu.they also do the obligatory sheet-and-heavy-object explanation of general relativity using a table cloth an a loaf of bread, the film’s main focus is the parallel lives of the two during the First World War.
With Einstein and Eddington being both pacifists, This caused both of them great emotional difficulties, struggling to rise above the war’s horrible bitterness stand out as some of the films most effective scenes. At the outset of the war, Einstein refuses to sign a letter aligning German science with the German army. Eddington’s decision to correspond in secret with Einstein despite officially not being allowed, took guts.
Einstein and Eddington is a compelling sometimes emotional drama that although covering physics should appeal to non scientific types. Serkis,Tennant and supporting cast ensure the result is a rare drama that brings out the human side of physicists,but still pokes fun at the popular image of Einstein as a disheveled haired eccentric.All things said a brilliant drama.

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORYS


General relativity

General relativity is a theory of gravitation and to understand the background to the theory we have to look at how theories of gravitation developed. Aristotle's notion of the motion of bodies impeded understanding of gravitation for a long time. He believed that force could only be applied by contact; force at a distance being impossible, and a constant force was required to maintain a body in uniform motion.

Copernicus's view of the solar system was important as it allowed sensible consideration of gravitation. Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Galileo's understanding of the motion and falling bodies set the scene for Newton's theory of gravity which was presented in the Principia in 1687. Newton's law of gravitation is expressed by

F = G M1M2/d2

where F is the force between the bodies of masses M1, M2 and d is the distance between them. G is the universal gravitational constant.

After receiving their definitive analytic form from Euler, Newton's axioms of motion were reworked by Lagrange, Hamilton, and Jacobi into very powerful and general methods, which employed new analytic quantities, such as potential, related to force but remote from everyday experience. Newton's universal gravitation was considered proved correct, thanks to the work of Clairaut and Laplace. Laplace looked at the stability of the solar system in Traité du Mécanique Céleste in 1799. In fact the so-called three-body problem was extensively studied in the 19th Century and was not properly understood until much later. The study of the gravitational potential allowed variations in gravitation caused by irregularities in the shape of the earth to be studied both practically and theoretically. Poisson used the gravitational potential approach to give an equation which, unlike Newton's, could be solved under rather general conditions.

Newton's theory of gravitation was highly successful. There was little reason to question it except for one weakness which was to explain how each of the two bodies knew the other was there. Some profound remarks about gravitation were made by Maxwell in 1864. His major work A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field (1864) was written

... to explain the electromagnetic action between distant bodies without assuming the existence of forces capable of acting directly at sensible distances.

At the end of the work Maxwell comments on gravitation.

After tracing to the action of the surrounding medium both the magnetic and the electric attractions and repulsions, and finding them to depend on the inverse square of the distance, we are naturally led to inquire whether the attraction of gravitation, which follows the same law of the distance, is not also traceable to the action of a surrounding medium.

However Maxwell notes that there is a paradox caused by the attraction of like bodies. The energy of the medium must be decreased by the presence of the bodies and Maxwell said

As I am unable to understand in what way a medium can possess such properties, I cannot go further in this direction in searching for the cause of gravitation.

In 1900 Lorentz conjectured that gravitation could be attributed to actions which propagate with the velocity of light. Poincaré, in a paper in July 1905 (submitted days before Einstein's special relativity paper), suggested that all forces should transform according the Lorentz transformations. In this case he notes that Newton's law of gravitation is not valid and proposed gravitational waves which propagated with the velocity of light.

In 1907, two years after proposing the special theory of relativity, Einstein was preparing a review of special relativity when he suddenly wondered how Newtonian gravitation would have to be modified to fit in with special relativity. At this point there occurred to Einstein, described by him as the happiest thought of my life , namely that an observer who is falling from the roof of a house experiences no gravitational field. He proposed the Equivalence Principle as a consequence:-

... we shall therefore assume the complete physical equivalence of a gravitational field and the corresponding acceleration of the reference frame. This assumption extends the principle of relativity to the case of uniformly accelerated motion of the reference frame.

After the major step of the equivalence principle in 1907, Einstein published nothing further on gravitation until 1911. Then he realised that the bending of light in a gravitational field, which he knew in 1907 was a consequence of the equivalence principle, could be checked with astronomical observations. He had only thought in 1907 in terms of terrestrial observations where there seemed little chance of experimental verification. Also discussed at this time is the gravitational redshift, light leaving a massive body will be shifted towards the red by the energy loss of escaping the gravitational field.

Einstein published further papers on gravitation in 1912. In these he realised that the Lorentz transformations will not apply in this more general setting. Einstein also realised that the gravitational field equations were bound to be non-linear and the equivalence principle appeared to only hold locally.

This work by Einstein prompted others to produce gravitational theories. Work by Nordström, Abraham and Mie was all a consequence of Einstein's, so far failed, attempts to find a satisfactory theory. However Einstein realised his problems.

If all accelerated systems are equivalent, then Euclidean geometry cannot hold in all of them.

Einstein then remembered that he had studied Gauss's theory of surfaces as a student and suddenly realised that the foundations of geometry have physical significance. He consulted his friend Grossmann who was able to tell Einstein of the important developments of Riemann, Ricci (Ricci-Curbastro) and Levi-Civita. Einstein wrote

... in all my life I have not laboured nearly so hard, and I have become imbued with great respect for mathematics, the subtler part of which I had in my simple-mindedness regarded as pure luxury until now.

In 1913 Einstein and Grossmann published a joint paper where the tensor calculus of Ricci and Levi-Civita is employed to make further advances. Grossmann gave Einstein the Riemann-Christoffel tensor which, together with the Ricci tensor which can be derived from it, were to become the major tools in the future theory. Progress was being made in that gravitation was described for the first time by the metric tensor but still the theory was not right. When Planck visited Einstein in 1913 and Einstein told him the present state of his theories Planck said

As an older friend I must advise you against it for in the first place you will not succeed, and even if you succeed no one will believe you.

Planck was wrong, but only just, for when Einstein was to succeed with his theory it was not readily accepted. It was the second half of 1915 that saw Einstein finally put the theory in place. Before that however he had written a paper in October 1914 nearly half of which is a treatise on tensor analysis and differential geometry. This paper led to a correspondence between Einstein and Levi-Civita in which Levi-Civita pointed out technical errors in Einstein's work on tensors. Einstein was delighted to be able to exchange ideas with Levi-Civita whom he found much more sympathetic to his ideas on relativity than his other colleagues.

At the end of June 1915 Einstein spent a week at Göttingen where he lectured for six 2 hour sessions on his (incorrect) October 1914 version of general relativity. Hilbert and Klein attended his lectures and Einstein commented after leaving Göttingen

To my great joy, I succeeded in convincing Hilbert and Klein completely.

The final steps to the theory of general relativity were taken by Einstein and Hilbert at almost the same time. Both had recognised flaws in Einstein's October 1914 work and a correspondence between the two men took place in November 1915. How much they learnt from each other is hard to measure but the fact that they both discovered the same final form of the gravitational field equations within days of each other must indicate that their exchange of ideas was helpful.

On the 18th November he made a discovery about which he wrote For a few days I was beside myself with joyous excitement . The problem involved the advance of the perihelion of the planet Mercury. Le Verrier, in 1859, had noted that the perihelion (the point where the planet is closest to the sun) advanced by 38" per century more than could be accounted for from other causes. Many possible solutions were proposed, Venus was 10% heavier than was thought, there was another planet inside Mercury's orbit, the sun was more oblate than observed, Mercury had a moon and, really the only one not ruled out by experiment, that Newton's inverse square law was incorrect. This last possibility would replace the 1/d2 by 1/dp, where p = 2+ε for some very small number ε. By 1882 the advance was more accurately known, 43'' per century. From 1911 Einstein had realised the importance of astronomical observations to his theories and he had worked with Freundlich to make measurements of Mercury's orbit required to confirm the general theory of relativity. Freundlich confirmed 43" per century in a paper of 1913. Einstein applied his theory of gravitation and discovered that the advance of 43" per century was exactly accounted for without any need to postulate invisible moons or any other special hypothesis. Of course Einstein's 18 November paper still does not have the correct field equations but this did not affect the particular calculation regarding Mercury. Freundlich attempted other tests of general relativity based on gravitational redshift, but they were inconclusive.

Also in the 18 November paper Einstein discovered that the bending of light was out by a factor of 2 in his 1911 work, giving 1.74". In fact after many failed attempts (due to cloud, war, incompetence etc.) to measure the deflection, two British expeditions in 1919 were to confirm Einstein's prediction by obtaining 1.98" 0.30" and 1.61" 0.30".

On 25 November Einstein submitted his paper The field equations of gravitation which give the correct field equations for general relativity. The calculation of bending of light and the advance of Mercury's perihelion remained as he had calculated it one week earlier.

Five days before Einstein submitted his 25 November paper Hilbert had submitted a paper The foundations of physics which also contained the correct field equations for gravitation. Hilbert's paper contains some important contributions to relativity not found in Einstein's work. Hilbert applied the variational principle to gravitation and attributed one of the main theorem's concerning identities that arise to Emmy Noether who was in Göttingen in 1915. No proof of the theorem is given. Hilbert's paper contains the hope that his work will lead to the unification of gravitation and electromagnetism.

In fact Emmy Noether's theorem was published with a proof in 1918 in a paper which she wrote under her own name. This theorem has become a vital tool in theoretical physics. A special case of Emmy Noether's theorem was written down by Weyl in 1917 when he derived from it identities which, it was later realised, had been independently discovered by Ricci in 1889 and by Bianchi (a pupil of Klein) in 1902.

Immediately after Einstein's 1915 paper giving the correct field equations, Karl Schwarzschild found in 1916 a mathematical solution to the equations which corresponds to the gravitational field of a massive compact object. At the time this was purely theoretical work but, of course, work on neutron stars, pulsars and black holes relied entirely on Schwarzschild's solutions and has made this part of the most important work going on in astronomy today.

Einstein had reached the final version of general relativity after a slow road with progress but many errors along the way. In December 1915 he said of himself

That fellow Einstein suits his convenience. Every year he retracts what he wrote the year before.

Most of Einstein's colleagues were at a loss to understand the quick succession of papers, each correcting, modifying and extending what had been done earlier. In December 1915 Ehrenfest wrote to Lorentz referring to the theory of November 25, 1915. Ehrenfest and Lorentz corresponded about the general theory of relativity for two months as they tried to understand it. Eventually Lorentz understood the theory and wrote to Ehrenfest saying I have congratulated Einstein on his brilliant results . Ehrenfest responded

Your remark "I have congratulated Einstein on his brilliant results" has a similar meaning for me as when one Freemason recognises another by a secret sign.

In March 1916 Einstein completed an article explaining general relativity in terms more easily understood. The article was well received and he then wrote another article on relativity which was widely read and went through over 20 printings.

Today relativity plays a role in many areas, cosmology, the big bang theory etc. and now has been checked by experiment to a high degree of accuracy.

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Solve Mathematical Equations Automatically
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LIFE METAPHYSICALLY IS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

"Law Of Attraction And Energy Waves"
If you go into the details you will see that the Law of Attraction can be made clear in a systematic way with the help of Quantum Physics. According to Quantum physicists the atom is not made up of elements. Until earlier last century, subatomic particles that comprise atoms, such as protons, neutrons, and electrons, were considered the smallest, most fundamental units of matter. But science has since determined that these subatomic particles are comprised of even smaller, more basic constituents called quarks. And what are quarks made of? Quarks come in different varieties, but as yet no constituent smaller parts have been found, although theories such as string theory suggest a more basic substructure. You know the famous equation, E=MC2? It was discovered by Albert Einstein, who made several other groundbreaking contributions to science and mathematics. He explains the origins of the equation and how it relates to what we know about the universe. What else do we know about energy? Physical laws tells us that energy can't be created or destroyed, but it can change forms. Energy is never still, it is constantly vibrating. "Frequency" is the term used to describe this vibration, referring to the waves that energy travels in. Different types of energy pulsate at different speeds, causing them to have different frequencies. If you delve further into the Law of Attraction you'll find that energy waves of similar frequencies are actually drawn toward each other. Everything in the universe is constructed from a core of energy, even solid objects. And remember that all energy vibrates and therefore has a frequency - even if the objects appear totally solid and immobile. When success or failure happens in your life, energy frequencies are at work there, too. The Law of Attraction is a hypothetical theory that is ordinarily connected to new age thinking. It holds that you must not fixate on negative events, because the meaning of life metaphysically is exemplified by the Law of Attraction. The secret is simply that you will obtain whatever you focus on. To sum it up, your fate is decided by your thoughts.
About the Author: In case you examine the specifics, you will observe that the law of attraction can be illustrated in a methodical manner with the aid of quantum physics. Until recently, electrons, protons and neutrons were considered the smallest units of matter. But now it is common knowledge that they break down into still smaller components called quarks. Thinking positively to bring about positive things and events in your life is the secret to universal success. It's a breakthrough even bigger than Einstein's renowned formula, E=MC squared. Einstein made a number of contributions in this field, and how it relates to our understanding of the universe.

Collider repairs top 20 million dollers


Hadron collider repairs to cost over twenty million dollers after damage caused just several days after start up.

Saturday, 1 November 2008

FUTURE OF PHYSICS UNDER THREAT

Leading physicists have said that long term research is suffering because of a shortage of funding.
they have concluded that because of a 25%cut in funding for research grants is threatening the future of the field and has prompted many young promising physicists to leave and study in other diciplines .they say that many university physics departments are shrinking ,some thing that goverment denies.