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What Does it Take to Make a Universe? - with Harry Cliff

The Royal Institution・59 minutes read

The speaker dives into the origins of matter, tracing an apple pie back to the Big Bang, highlighting the cosmic connections we share as compositions of elements created in stars and the significance of exploring the universe's fundamental questions. Various scientific experiments and discoveries, including those at the Large Hadron Collider and the LHCB experiment, aim to unravel the mysteries of the universe's origins, challenging the standard model while collectively emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in understanding the source of matter and existence.

Insights

The speaker's book traces the origins of an apple pie back to the Big Bang, showcasing our cosmic connection to the universe through the elements created in stars like the sun and supernovae, highlighting the profound link between everyday objects and the cosmos.
The standard model of particle physics, encompassing fundamental particles like quarks and forces like gluons, provides a mechanism for understanding the universe's building blocks, although it is considered incomplete, prompting ongoing exploration for new particles or phenomena beyond the standard model.
Recent experiments at the LHCB and Fermilab have hinted at potential new forces of nature, challenging the standard model and offering insights into fundamental questions about the universe, such as the survival of matter post-Big Bang and the properties of the Higgs field, underscoring the dynamic nature of scientific discovery and the quest for deeper understanding.

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Recent questions

What is the significance of the Big Bang theory?
The Big Bang theory explains the universe's origin.
What are quarks and their role in particle physics?
Quarks are subatomic particles that form protons and neutrons.
How does the Higgs field contribute to particle properties?
The Higgs field gives particles mass.
What is antimatter, and how does it relate to matter?
Antimatter is a mirror image of matter.
What is the role of the Large Hadron Collider in particle physics?
The Large Hadron Collider aims to explore the universe's origins.

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Summary

00:00

"From Big Bang to Apple Pie"

The speaker introduces the topic of his new book, "How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch," which delves into the fundamental question of what the world and humans are made of.
The title of the book is inspired by a quote from Carl Sagan, emphasizing that even an ordinary object like an apple pie traces its origins back to the beginning of the universe.
The speaker embarks on a journey to trace the origins of an apple pie back to the Big Bang, exploring how far back our understanding can reach.
The talk is divided into two parts: the first part covers what we already know about the origins of matter, while the second part delves into the unanswered questions in the scientific narrative.
The speaker conducts a scientific experiment involving heating an apple pie to break down its components, illustrating the process of pyrolysis and the creation of carbon.
The concept of atoms as the building blocks of matter is attributed to John Dalton, who observed fixed proportions in chemical reactions, leading to the atomic hypothesis.
Newton and Dalton's views on atoms as indestructible entities were challenged in the 20th century when physicists discovered the atom's structure with a nucleus containing protons, neutrons, and electrons.
The fusion of protons inside stars, like the sun, is revealed as the process that creates most chemical elements, including carbon, which forms the basis of life on Earth.
The sun's eventual transformation into a red giant and the dispersal of its outer layers into space create planetary nebulae, showcasing the cycle of star formation and the distribution of elements like carbon.
The speaker concludes by highlighting Carl Sagan's famous quote that reminds us that we are all composed of elements created in the hearts of stars, emphasizing our cosmic connection to the universe.

12:53

"Origins of Elements and Universe's Composition"

Oxygen doesn't come from sunlight stars; it originates from more violent processes in heavier stars like Beetlejuice, leading to supernova explosions that disperse various chemical elements, including oxygen, into space.
Visiting the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, with the Sloan telescope and spectrometer, allows for analyzing stars across the Milky Way to uncover the cosmic history of chemical elements.
Astrophysicist Jennifer Johnson's periodic table color-codes elements' origins, revealing that gold and platinum likely come from neutron star collisions, not supernova explosions.
The universe's composition, depicted in a pie chart, shows hydrogen as the majority element, with helium and other elements making up a small fraction, with helium primarily originating from the Big Bang's nuclear fusion.
The Big Bang theory's success is evidenced by the precise calculation of helium production during the universe's early minutes, supporting the theory's validity.
Experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in the 1960s revealed quarks as substructures of protons and neutrons, leading to the understanding that these particles were assembled from quarks.
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven recreates early universe conditions, forming a quark-gluon plasma, aiding in understanding the phase transition to protons and neutrons.
The electron, up quark, and down quark are the fundamental particles composing all visible matter, with quantum fields considered the true building blocks, where particles are vibrations within these fields.
The Standard Model of Particle Physics encapsulates the behavior of quantum fields and their associated particles, providing a mechanism for creating the basic building blocks of the universe.

26:05

Unraveling Mysteries of Particle Physics

Particles are created in experiments, although their existence is not fully understood.
Fields are linked to various forces of nature, like the photon for the electromagnetic force.
Gluons bind quarks in protons and neutrons, while W and Z bosons are linked to the weak force.
The Higgs boson is a significant particle in the standard model, describing visible matter accurately.
The standard model is highly successful but believed to be incomplete, leading to unanswered questions.
Antimatter is a mirror image of matter, with particles and antiparticles created in equal numbers.
The early universe had matter and antimatter, but a great annihilation event occurred, leaving only matter.
The Higgs field gives particles mass, with a fixed value throughout space, crucial for particle properties.
The Higgs field's value is 246 giga electron volts, crucial for the universe's habitability.
The Large Hadron Collider aims to answer questions about antimatter, the Higgs field, and the universe's origins.

39:26

Unraveling the Universe: Discoveries at LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) converts energy from colliding particles into new particles, not smashing atoms to bits but creating new particles from quantum fields.
Scientists analyze LHC collisions to find evidence of new particles, forces, or phenomena to explain the universe's existence and the peculiarities of the Higgs field.
On July 4, 2012, CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, a significant achievement known as Higgs dependence day.
Despite understanding the standard model better, no new particles or phenomena have been discovered at the LHC, causing some concern among physicists.
The LHCB experiment, focusing on beauty quarks, has shown signs of possibly discovering new forces or particles beyond the standard model.
By studying beauty quark decays, researchers can indirectly detect new phenomena by comparing predictions with standard model results.
Recent measurements at LHCB have shown deviations in beauty quark decays, indicating a potential new force of nature outside the standard model.
The Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab also revealed evidence of a new force of nature through measurements of muon magnetic fields.
These discoveries could provide insights into fundamental questions about the universe, such as the survival of matter after the Big Bang and the nature of the Higgs field.
Understanding the universe's origins, including cosmic inflation and the creation of matter from inflaton fields, is crucial to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

52:31

Unveiling Universe's Origins: Inflation and Collaboration

Inflation theory explains the uniformity and structure of the universe, attributing the formation of galaxies and large-scale structures to quantum fluctuations magnified by inflation. These quantum jitters, smaller than an atom, are believed to have seeded all observable structures in the universe.
The cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe, acts as a barrier preventing direct observation of the moment of inflation. However, advancements in gravitational wave detection, like the LIGO observatory, offer a potential means to detect the ripples in space-time caused by inflation, completing the understanding of the universe's origins.
Collaboration across scientific disciplines, from chemists to astronomers, has contributed to unraveling the mystery of the universe's origins, emphasizing the shared goal of understanding the source of matter and existence. This collective effort underscores the excitement and significance of exploring the fundamental questions of our existence.

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