Of Particular Significance

Tag: IceCube

A quick note today about developments here at the website. The Reader Resources section of the site is slowly coming into being. These resources will supplement the book Waves in an Impossible Sea, providing answers to questions, opportunities to explore topics more deeply, access to endnotes (convenient for the upcoming audiobook and for readers who hate flipping back and forth between main text and endnotes), and access to figures (also convenient for the audiobook.)

First and foremost, though: readers’ questions!

  • If you’re confused about something in the book, ask about it here.
  • If you have a question that is related to the book but goes somewhat beyond its topics, consider asking about it here. (That will help me keep things better organized.)

I’ll be collecting questions and answering the most common in the reader resource materials. Those materials will be organized by book chapter. As an example, the post from last week on standing waves, which focuses on a central ingredient in the book, is already linked from the Chapter 17 section of the Reader Resources.

It’s going to take the better part of a year to fill out this new section of the website. I’ll be posting about it here on the blog as stuff comes available, so that you can check it out when it arrives.

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON March 18, 2024

Recently, the first completed search for what is nowadays known as SUEP — a Soft-Unclustered-Energy Pattern, in which large numbers of low-energy particles explode outward from one of the proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider [LHC] — was made public by physicists working at the CMS experiment. As a theoretical idea, SUEP has its origin in 2006-2008, but it was this paper from 2016 that finally brought the possibility to widespread attention. (However, the name they gave it was unfortunate. To replace it, the acronym “SUEP” was invented.)

How can SUEP arise? If a proton-proton collision produces currently-unknown types of particles that

  • do not interact with ordinary matter directly (i.e. they are immune to the electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces),
  • but do interact with each other, via their own, ultra-powerful force,

they can cause that collision to turn to SUEP.

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON March 15, 2024

On April 8th, 2024, a small strip of North America will witness a total solar eclipse. Total solar eclipses are amazing, life-changing experiences; I hope you have a chance to experience one, as I did.

Everyone else from Central America to northern Canada will see a partial solar eclipse. What good is a partial solar eclipse?

Astonishingly, the best thing about a partial solar eclipse seems to have essentially disappeared from public knowledge. We’ve got three weeks to change that, and I hope you’ll help me — especially the science journalists and science teachers among you.

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON March 14, 2024

Already I’ve had a few people ask me for clarification of a key point in the book, having to do with a certain type of unusual “standing wave.” It’s so central to the story that I’ve decided to address it right away.

The point that there are two quite different types of standing waves; the familiar ones you may know from musical instruments or from physics class, and less familiar ones that play a key role in the book. You can jump right to my new webpage comparing these two types of standing waves, or you can read the post below, which provides more context.

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON March 12, 2024

About a month ago, there was a lot of noise, discussion and controversy concerning CERN‘s proposal to build a giant new tunnel and put powerful new particle accelerators in it. This proposal is collectively called the Future Circular Collider (“FCC”). (The BBC reported on it here.)

Some scientists made arguments that FCC is a great idea, based on reasoning that I somewhat disagree with. Others said it would be a waste of money, based on reasoning that I again disagree with. But any decision on whether to actually fund the building of the FCC’s tunnel is still some years off, so I was reluctant to get involved in the debate, especially since my nuanced opinion seemed likely to be drowned out amid the polemics.

But I did eventually write something in response to a reporter’s questions, and looking back on it, I think it may be of interest to some readers. So here it is.

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POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON March 8, 2024

I’m aiming to get the blog back to science as soon as possible, but I need to answer some questions that I’ve been receiving about the book and website.

  • Yes, there will be an audiobook. It’s coming. A few weeks. I’ll let you know.
  • Yes, there will be a page on this website where book-readers can ask questions about the subjects covered in the book. No later than next week. I doubt I’ll be able to answer all questions individually, but I’ll be collecting them and answering the most common… see below.

In fact, there will soon be a whole wing of this website devoted to the book, which will have

(more…)
POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON March 7, 2024

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A decay of a Higgs boson, as reconstructed by the CMS experiment at the LHC