Scientists verify that parallel time and space, science fiction plot really want to enter the real world? The scientific community does not reject even the most bizarre conjecture, but it must pass the test before it can become a scientific theory. In fact, scientists are not optimistic.
In science fiction and film culture, netizens make complaints about their love life: they are logical and parallel. I can't make it up, quantum suit. Just like mieba can destroy the world with a snap of his fingers and reload the process, parallel space-time and quantum uncertainty, these elusive science fiction settings give the protagonist of science fiction stories' super power '.
But you know what? When scientists who are usually rigorous to meticulous are forced to be helpless by scientific problems, they will also sacrifice the less reliable setting of "parallel space-time", hoping to explain the unsolved mysteries that have plagued scientists in cutting-edge science for decades.
Recently, according to a report in New Scientist magazine, LIA & bull, a physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (Oak Ridge is the birthplace of the first atomic bomb in human history); Leah Broussard and her team tried to detect the existence of mirror parallel universe in the laboratory to solve a problem that has existed in the field of neutron decay research for 40 years.
What is it about solving scientific problems with science fiction settings?
What is a mirror parallel universe
In fact, the so-called science fiction setting is originally used for scientific discovery. For example, the mirror parallel universe actually involves two basic concepts of quantum physics, parity (mirror symmetry), and the 'parallel spacetime' extended by probability interpretation.
In our life, we can see many simple mirror images, that is, left-right symmetrical graphics. In the field of classical physics, the left and right directions are also completely consistent. The world in the mirror and the world outside the mirror can exist perfectly. However, in the field of quantum mechanics, this symmetry was broken by the 'parity non conservation' discovered by Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao, thus revealing the famous' & theta-& tau; That is, parity is not conserved in the nuclear reaction process involving weak forces (one of the four basic forces).
Moreover, Yang and Li also designed experiments to prove the effect caused by this non conservation. Ms. Wu Jianxiong, a Chinese scientist, soon made one of the experiments, which proved that Yang and Li's theory was right, overturned the long-standing default 'parity conservation', and shocked the physical theory circle-- In quantum mechanics, the world inside the mirror is different from the world outside the mirror.
Therefore, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao published their papers in October 1956. Wu Jianxiong then gave experimental verification. The Nobel Prize Committee immediately awarded the Nobel Prize to Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao, who were only 35 years old at that time and 31 years old at that time, in 1957.
As for the parallel universe, science fiction fans are already familiar with it. In the quantum probability wave interpretation, the poor 'Schrodinger's cat' locked in the box is both dead and alive before being observed. It is a superposition of two states. After being observed, it is understood that there is only one state, either dead or alive.
So, where's the other state? There is an explanation that another state still exists, because our universe has split. In parallel time and space, the cat has become another state. This change and explanation of the quantum world is completely inconsistent with our life experience and classical physics. But the law of the quantum world is exactly the same. For this explanation of the 'parallel universe', those who agree cannot prove it, and those who oppose it cannot falsify it. Then & hellip& hellip; Let him go. Look, the familiar science fiction hypothesis comes from the original whimsical of scientists.
Neutron decay problem for 40 years, forcing the 'mirror parallel universe experiment'
The protagonist in the report, Leia bull; Leah Broussard studies neutron physics at the famous Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Neutrons are uncharged particles that exist in almost all atomic nuclei. It has a strange property. It is very stable in the atomic nucleus and can exist for a long time. Although it is sometimes dishonest, it will decay, change from neutrons to protons, and throw out an electron and a neutrino by the way (such a nuclear decay is what made Yang and Li Tihua win the first Nobel Prize).
But once neutrons are free, they immediately enter the aging period and decay, and half of them will be lost every about 15 minutes (this time is called 'half-life').
The problem lies in the accurate measurement of 'about 15 minutes' of free neutrons. Neutron physicists have two methods to measure it. One method is to isolate them in a 'bottle trap', let them stay quiet, decay freely, and count the remaining quantity after a certain time; Another method is to take a bunch of running neutrons from the nuclear reactor and set cards on the running route to count the number of protons produced after neutron decay. But the half-life results obtained by these two methods are always similar - the former is 14 minutes and 39 seconds and the latter is 14 minutes and 48 seconds. In other words, about 900 seconds, the difference between the two results is 9 seconds.
Whether scientists from the birthplace of the atomic bomb or scientists from other countries repeat these two kinds of experiments countless times, the difference always exists - it's not a scientist's careless mistake, or the problem of experimental instruments. For 40 years, neutron physicists have racked their brains to find out what went wrong and led to the inconsistent results - whether Newton or Einstein patted us on the chest and assured us that the laws of particles, whether quiet or running, should be the same.
Just like in science fiction stories, in the face of our world, according to rigorous scientific logic, we can't kill the 'plot', LIA & bull of Oak Ridge National Laboratory; BRUSAL and his colleagues were forced to sacrifice the magic weapon commonly used by science fiction writers: parallel time and space, and mirror image.
This explanation is that there may really be a mirror parallel universe. 1% of neutrons in the running neutron beam have the ability to pass through the mirror parallel universe, and they also decay. However, if it does not happen in our universe, the decaying protons are lost, and the observation results' seem 'to have a longer half-life. (this conjecture was mentioned in a paper in 2012.)
The experiment has not been carried out, and the results are not optimistic
How to prove that neutrons pass through the mirror parallel universe? BRUSAL's experimental design looks a bit 'whimsical': she envisions allowing neutrons to cross back. Therefore, we should set up a thick wall, which can not be penetrated by neutrons in our universe.
According to the 'mirror parallel universe' hypothesis, in that running neutron beam, some neutrons do not need to be trapped in the wall. When other neutrons hit the wall head-on and fall in the wall, they strolled around another universe, which is equivalent to bypassing the wall, then crossing back and appearing behind the wall.
Therefore, the idea of scientists is to set up a detection device behind the wall to catch these 'cunning' neutrons that successfully climb the wall by using the mirror parallel universe. In this way, the two experiments for measuring neutron half-life can obtain consistent results.
However, it is still too early to make any evaluation. Because although this experimental assumption is completed, when to carry out it still needs to wait for the analysis of the results of another preliminary experiment. The scientist who presided over the experiment and was still analyzing the data said: "although it is very unlikely to get any results, this is a simple and inexpensive experiment. If a physics revolution may produce good results, we must try."
Listen, the probability of success is very small, so why do you do these experiments? Because 'it's simple and not expensive'. In other words, because neutron physicists have explored this problem for 40 years, they are desperate to find that there seems to be no answer in our universe. Therefore, those sci-fi ideas have entered the vision of scientists. And because the cost is really cheap, the idea of big brain holes can be put into practice.
In other words, it may be a great experiment to change the scientific process, but the probability is too small. It is more likely to be an interesting anecdote that will come to mind only after we joke with scientists a few years later.
How to understand scientists testing 'science fiction settings'
In his popular science book evolution of physics, Einstein once compared scientific research to a detective solving a case. However, unlike ordinary detective stories, scientists can't turn to the end to see the final answer first. In the process of solving the case, no one can know in advance what the final answer is and when it will appear. Even more embarrassing, scientists like Hawking believe that we may not have the final answer.
However, on a scientific problem that everyone is helpless, scientists will not refuse any possibility, even the explanation of 'mirror parallel space-time', which even designers may not really believe. However, scientists will not stay in science fiction. If they want to admit or deny (confirm or falsify), they must find experiments that can explain the problem.
In fact, it can also help us understand the relationship between theoretical interpretation and experimental verification in science. In modern science, scientific experiment is to test (confirm or falsify) some scientific theoretical conjecture. In other words, before any scientific experiment is carried out, there must be sufficient basis to explain that it is valuable. In theory, the assumption of mirror parallel space-time is not very reliable, but one advantage of this experimental design is that its cost is very low and the technology is ready-made, so the experiment can smoothly enter the implementation stage.
Another inspiration is that the conclusion of scientific experiment design must be open, and any scientist must accept any possible result given by scientific experiment: confirmation or falsification. If this experiment really detects the neutron signal behind the 'wall that cannot be penetrated', then physicists will be surprised, there will be more similar experiments to test, and a large number of theoretical scholars will enthusiastically discuss the parallel space-time hypothesis, setting off a new revolution in physics.
Of course, there is also a possibility that even the designers believe that this experiment did not detect any neutron signal. In other words, at least this experiment will reduce the possibility of the hypothesis of 'mirror parallel space-time' - will future science fiction writers be more cautious about using this concept?
Of course, this dual possibility is precisely the most attractive place of scientific experiment. For many world-famous large scientific devices, such as the Large Hadron Collider at the European nuclear center, some scientific reviews wrote that if it can make some scientific discoveries according to theoretical expectations, we can cheer, which is a great victory of modern physics.
But deep down, scientists may expect them to give different results. This will make scientists more excited, because it means that the experiment points out now