WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.480 --> 00:00:05.599 Welcome to the court Side Quantum Physics podcast, an exploration 2 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:10.880 of the fundamental structure of reality, where quantum laws govern matter, energy, 3 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:16.239 and information. Here, uncertainty is a feature, not a flaw, 4 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.280 and understanding begins at the smallest scales. 5 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:29.480 Okay, I want you to do something for me right now. 6 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:31.480 Oh boy, it might feel a little bit odd, especially 7 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:34.280 if you're on a crowded train or sitting in an office, 8 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:35.880 but just humor me for a second. 9 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:36.840 All right, I'm listening. 10 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:39.560 I want you to look at the space right in 11 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:40.280 front of your face. 12 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:42.079 We're starting with the staring contest with. 13 00:00:42.039 --> 00:00:46.000 The air stick with me here. If you're driving, just 14 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:48.920 glance at the empty passenger seat. If you're at home, 15 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:51.359 look at the gap between you and the wall. 16 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:56.159 Okay, focusing on the nothing exactly, Focus on that empty space, 17 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.159 and I want you to really ask yourself, what are 18 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:03.039 you seeing? Well, broadly speaking, most people would say they're 19 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:06.040 seeing nothing. Right, Maybe some dust motes if the light 20 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:08.879 is hitting it just right. Sure, maybe some air molecules 21 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:13.000 if they're thinking scientifically, but mostly empty space. 22 00:01:13.159 --> 00:01:17.519 Exactly nothing. Avoid that's the intuitive answer, isn't it It is? 23 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:19.519 That's what our eyes tell us and Frankly, that's what 24 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:22.560 our brain wants us to believe, because it's simple. 25 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:25.319 The world is simpler if a box can just be empty. 26 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:28.760 But here's the hook, and honestly, it is one of 27 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:30.719 those things that has been keeping me up at nights 28 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:32.599 as we started reading the source material for what we're 29 00:01:32.599 --> 00:01:36.280 talking about today. That nothing. It's a complete illusion. 30 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:39.719 It is, indeed, and not just you know, a visual trick. 31 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:44.439 We're talking about a fundamental misunderstanding of the very nature 32 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:45.319 of reality. 33 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:47.120 And we're going to talk about a study today that 34 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.439 just fundamentally shatters that illusion. 35 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:50.480 It really does. 36 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:52.840 It turns out that what we think of as a 37 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:59.840 vacuum absolute emptiness is actually a chaotic bubbling, violent, high energy. 38 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:01.799 It's teeming with activity. 39 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:04.280 And we aren't just talking about random noise here. We're 40 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:07.760 talking about the fundamental building blocks of reality blinking. 41 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:10.400 In and out of existence faster than you can even comprehend. 42 00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:13.280 Right, and for the longest time, for decades, really, this 43 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:14.919 was just theory. 44 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.199 It was math on a chalkboard. It was something physicists 45 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:20.879 told each other to make the equations balance out. 46 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:23.360 But we have a source today, a brand new study 47 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.879 published just yesterday February fourth, twenty twenty six in the 48 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:29.080 journal Nature. That changes the whole game. 49 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:32.319 It's a significant milestone. It's one of those papers that 50 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:34.840 I think people will be citing for a long long. 51 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:40.199 Time because scientists have found a way to essentially glimpse 52 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:44.479 this hidden world fast. They have watched nothing turn into something. 53 00:02:44.919 --> 00:02:49.080 They have tracked how visible matter, the stuff you and 54 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:51.439 I and this microphone and your headphones are made of, 55 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:53.439 emerges from that empty void. 56 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.039 It sounds like science fiction, it really does. It sounds 57 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:59.000 like something out of a metaphysical philosophy book. But it 58 00:02:59.080 --> 00:03:02.520 is very hard nosed experimental physics. 59 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:04.719 So let's set the scene before we get into the 60 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:08.960 mind bending details. This news comes from the US Department 61 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.560 of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. 62 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.879 And specifically a group called the Star Collaboration. 63 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:17.120 Right, And for context, when we say collaboration, we aren't 64 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:19.360 talking about three people in a garage lab. 65 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.240 No, not at all. We are talking about hundreds of 66 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:24.919 physicists from institutions. 67 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:26.240 All around the world, and they're working with one of 68 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:28.680 the most impressive machines human beings I've ever. 69 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:33.120 Built, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider or RHIIC. 70 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:34.319 A particle smasher, a. 71 00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:38.159 Particle smasher, yes, but on an incredible scale. It's a 72 00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:43.199 massive facility designed specifically for nuclear physics research. 73 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:45.639 And their mission, the mission we are going to explore today, 74 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:48.240 is honestly audacious. 75 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:49.199 It really is. 76 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:53.479 They're using sub atomic car crashes, smashing particles together at 77 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:58.719 unbelievable speeds to turn virtual ghosts into real solid matter. 78 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:01.000 And the stakes here are in incredibly high. This isn't 79 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:04.479 just about cataloging some new, obscure sub atomic particle that 80 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:06.919 no one outside a lab cares about, right. This is 81 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:10.840 about understanding the fundamental origins of mass. It's about understanding 82 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.400 the structure of the universe itself. 83 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:14.960 And as we'll find out later, and even connects to 84 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:15.879 the future. 85 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:17.439 Of computing in a very direct way. 86 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.040 But we'll get there. First, let's unpack this illusion of nothing, 87 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:23.319 because to understand how they turned ghosts into real stuff, 88 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:25.959 we have to understand what the vacuum actually is. 89 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:27.720 We have to redefine empty. 90 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:30.600 You agreed with me earlier that nothing is a lie. 91 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.800 That's right, it is, But historically we didn't always think that, 92 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:36.560 did we. I mean, if you asked Isaac Newton what 93 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:38.360 a vacuum was what would he have said. 94 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:41.160 Oh, he would have said, it's an empty stage, avoid 95 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:45.480 a container where absolutely nothing exists. And for a long 96 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:47.600 long time that was the prevailing view in. 97 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:50.199 Science, the common sense view exactly. 98 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:54.360 But this isn't exactly brand new information for physicists. The 99 00:04:54.439 --> 00:04:57.360 source material mentions that physicists have known for about one 100 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:00.319 hundred years that the vacuum isn't truly empty. 101 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:02.879 One hundred years. So we've been living a lie for 102 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:04.199 a century. 103 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:08.000 Give or take, really since the dawn of quantum mechanics. 104 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:12.279 The classical idea of a vacuum that perfectly empty box 105 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:14.439 just doesn't work when you get down to the sub 106 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:18.160 atomic level. Quantum mechanics came along, and well, it ruined 107 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:20.759 the simplicity. It always does, it does, and now we 108 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:22.560 understand the quantum vacuum. 109 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:25.160 The quantum vacuum, it sounds like a cleaning product from 110 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:26.160 the year three thousand. 111 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:29.800 It's significantly messier than that, and honestly a lot harder 112 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:30.319 to clean up. 113 00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:31.040 So what is it? 114 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:34.439 The quantum vacuum is filled with fluctuating energy fields. You 115 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:37.040 can't get rid of them. They are a fundamental property 116 00:05:37.079 --> 00:05:37.720 of the universe. 117 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:40.399 So even if I took a box pumped out all 118 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:42.519 the air, all the atoms. 119 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:46.480 Every single atom, every photon, every bit of radiation from 120 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:48.920 that box, and you shield it with thick lead and 121 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:50.800 you cool it to absolute zero. 122 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:52.120 The lowest possible temperature. 123 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:54.839 Those fields are still there, buzzing with energy. 124 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:58.120 But why why can't we just have zero? It seems 125 00:05:58.120 --> 00:05:59.639 like zero should be an option. 126 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:01.920 Because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. 127 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.199 Okay, I've heard of that. That's the you can't know 128 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.560 exactly where something is and how fast it's going at 129 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:08.199 the same time rule exactly. 130 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:10.800 But it's a bit broader than that. It also applies 131 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:13.800 to energy and time. How So you cannot know the 132 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.959 exact energy of a system for a specific, precise amount 133 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.399 of time. If you say this box has exactly zero 134 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:24.160 energy for all time, you are claiming to know its energy. 135 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:26.079 Perfectly, which violates the principle. 136 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:30.480 Which violates the principle nature forbids absolute zero energy, there 137 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:34.560 must be fluctuations, a little bit of uncertainty, a jitter. 138 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:37.560 So the universe forces a little bit of wobble just 139 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:38.519 to satisfy its. 140 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:41.759 Own rule book precisely. And these energy fluctuations, they aren't 141 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:45.560 just abstract numbers, they manifest as what we call virtual particles. 142 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.279 Virtual particles. Okay, this is a key term for our 143 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:51.160 whole discussion. I want to make sure we really get 144 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:52.319 this concept. 145 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:53.279 Down essential to everything. 146 00:06:53.639 --> 00:06:56.680 So what exactly is a virtual particle? Is it real? 147 00:06:57.079 --> 00:07:02.560 It's complicated. Think of them as intang pairs matter and 148 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:03.439 anti matter. 149 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:05.480 So a particle in its opposite, a. 150 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:09.560 Particle and its anti particle counterpart, for example, an electron 151 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:14.920 and a positron. They spontaneously pop into existence, borrowing energy 152 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:18.959 from the vacuum. Okay, and then almost instantly they snap 153 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:22.160 back together and annihilate each other, paying the energy. 154 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:24.959 Back, so they appear out of nowhere and then disappear. 155 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:27.120 Exactly, they blink in and out of existence. 156 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:29.360 How fast are we talking about second? A millisecond? 157 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.240 Much much much faster. We are talking about time scale 158 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:36.319 so short that they are almost immeasurable. 159 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:37.360 So short that they're almost not even there. 160 00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:40.360 In fact, they exist on such short time scales that, 161 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:43.480 according to the laws of physics, they are never counted 162 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:46.439 as real matter. They don't stick around long enough to 163 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:48.680 be detected by standard means, so. 164 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.199 They don't trigger a Geiger counter, they don't leave a 165 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:52.759 trail in a cloud chamber. 166 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:56.040 Nope, they live and die in a time so brief. 167 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:59.240 They can't directly interact with our world. They are a constant, 168 00:07:59.279 --> 00:07:59.879 invisible fit. 169 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:04.519 So they are like ghosts. Yeah, they're there haunting the vacuum, 170 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:07.279 but they aren't really interacting with our world. 171 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:09.759 Ghosts is a pretty beecent analogy, yes, but I actually 172 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:12.639 prefer the analogy you alluded to earlier, the boiling soup. 173 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:16.360 The boiling soup analogy, Yes, let's break that down. Imagine 174 00:08:16.439 --> 00:08:20.120 a pot of really thick, viscous soup on a stove. 175 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:24.279 It's simmering right on the edge of boiling. Even if 176 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:26.240 you look at a patch of the soup where there 177 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:30.079 are no ingredients, no carrots, no potatoes, the surface itself 178 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:31.839 is still moving. It's frothing, right. 179 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:35.440 You get little bubbles forming and then plopping almost immediately exactly. 180 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:38.480 You have these tiny bubbles constantly forming on the surface 181 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:42.399 and then popping right away. The surface is never truly still. 182 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:46.200 So that's space. The bubbles are the virtual particles. 183 00:08:45.799 --> 00:08:48.480 That is space. It isn't avoid. It's a bubbling soup 184 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:51.399 of potential energy that's just waiting to be realized. The 185 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:52.919 bubbles are the virtual pairs. 186 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:56.480 So everywhere I look, in the empty air, in this room, 187 00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:00.759 in deep space, between galaxies, inside my own skull, there 188 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:03.879 are these matter antimatter pairs popping up and destroying each 189 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:05.360 other constantly. 190 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.240 Constantly, trillions upon trillions in times a second, in every 191 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:09.759 cubic centimeter. 192 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:12.559 Of space that is. That's just overwhelming to think about. 193 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:15.759 It makes the universe feel very crowded. 194 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:18.279 It is crowded. The vacuum is the busiest place there is. 195 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:22.039 This is the bedrock of what we call quantum field theory. 196 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:25.519 Okay, but here's the problem I'm having. If they annihilate 197 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.840 so quickly, they stay virtual, right, Their potential matter not 198 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:33.639 real matter. They're bubbles that pop before they can float away. Correct, 199 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:36.080 So how do we make them real? How did the 200 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.759 folks at Brookhaven turn these soup bubbles into something that 201 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:41.519 doesn't just pop? Oh that's the big news here, right, 202 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:43.759 They didn't just theorize about the soup, They actually cooked 203 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:44.000 with it. 204 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:46.720 That brings us right to the experiment itself. To turn 205 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:50.519 virtual into real, you need to pay a toll, a toll, 206 00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:54.320 like a bridge toll, exactly like an energy toll. Remember, 207 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:57.879 nature has to balance its books. The law of conservation 208 00:09:57.919 --> 00:09:59.279 of energy is absolute. 209 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:00.799 Can't create something from nothing. 210 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.519 You can't just create matter out of nothing for free. 211 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:06.840 These virtual particles are borrowing energy from the vacuum for 212 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:08.960 a split second, and then they pay it back by 213 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.120 annihilating the books are balanced. 214 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.840 Okay, so it's like a tiny super. 215 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:16.840 Fast loan, a perfect analogy. But if you want them 216 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:20.159 to stay, if you want them to become permanent, real particles, 217 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:23.000 you need to step in and pay that energy debt 218 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:23.320 for them. 219 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:24.360 So you cover their loan. 220 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:27.799 You inject enough energy into that system right at that 221 00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:30.960 spot to rip those pairs apart before they can annihilate 222 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:33.159 each other. You give them such a boost that they 223 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:35.519 can fly away and never have to pay the debt back. 224 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:38.399 And that's where the relativistic heavy ion collider comes in. 225 00:10:38.519 --> 00:10:42.960 That's the bank, exactly, the RHICEE. This machine is designed 226 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.200 to deliver that massive energy paycheck. 227 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:48.279 So describe the mechanism. What are they actually doing at 228 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:50.200 this facility to pay this tool. 229 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:54.600 They are performing proton proton collisions. So they take protons, 230 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:58.120 which are the positively charged building blocks of atomic nuclei. 231 00:10:58.120 --> 00:10:59.159 The stuff we're all made. 232 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:01.639 Of, and they accelerate them around a two point four 233 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:02.519 mile ring. 234 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:04.320 Two and a half miles. That's huge. 235 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:08.879 It is. They use thousands of massive superconducting magnets to 236 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:11.879 steer them and then get them going fast, so fast 237 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.000 ninety nine point nine nine nine percent the speed of light, 238 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:16.039 so basically. 239 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:19.039 As fast as the universe allows anything with mass to move. 240 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:21.960 For all intents and purposes. Yes, they are pumping these 241 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.799 protons full of an incredible amount of kinetic energy. And 242 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:29.799 then a head on collision, Yeah, a catastrophic collision at 243 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:31.080 the subatomic scale. 244 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:32.919 And that releases all that energy they built up. 245 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.320 It releases a tremendous amount of energy in a tiny, 246 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:39.559 tiny point of space. We are talking about temperatures and 247 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:42.600 energy densities that haven't existed in the universe since the 248 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:44.480 first microsecond after the Big Bang. 249 00:11:44.519 --> 00:11:47.039 And that fireball of energy is the boost, that's the 250 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:47.879 payment for the loan. 251 00:11:48.039 --> 00:11:52.360 Precisely, that fireball of energy permeates the quantum vacuum right 252 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:56.519 at the collision point. It floods those ghosts, those virtual particles, 253 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:59.080 with so much energy they are ripped apart and become real. 254 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:01.639 I like the way the describes it says, the collisions 255 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:05.759 deliver an extra energy boost that transforms such virtual particles 256 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.080 into real particles. It's so clean. 257 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:10.960 It is going back to our soup analogy. It's like 258 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:13.480 cranking the heat up on that pot so high that 259 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:16.399 the bubbles don't just pop on the surface. They get 260 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:20.639 enough energy to break free entirely and become droplets of 261 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:24.440 steam that fly away. They become persistent, they enter the 262 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:25.120 real world. 263 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:27.759 Okay, so we have smashed the protons, We have dumped 264 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:30.559 a ton of energy into the vacuum. We have popped 265 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:34.120 these virtual particles into reality. Yes, but here's the catch, 266 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:37.559 and the source makes a big deal about this. A 267 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:41.440 particle collision is an unbelievably messy place, isn't. 268 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:44.559 It extremely messy. Messy is a profound understatement. 269 00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:47.159 It's not like just one pair of these new particles 270 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:48.720 pops out in waves of the scientists. 271 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:52.679 No, not at all. When you smash protons at relativistic speeds, 272 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:56.639 you create a shower of debris. The protons themselves break 273 00:12:56.679 --> 00:12:58.559 apart into their constituent quarks and. 274 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:02.360 Gluons, and all that cantic energy gets converted into new particles. 275 00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:07.799 Exactly through emsieforticum. You get quarks and gluons flying everywhere. 276 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:12.039 New particles are being created from the pure energy. Millions 277 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:14.399 of particles can be created in a single one of these. 278 00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:18.360 Events a storm, a chaotic storm of manner and radiation. 279 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:19.759 That's a very good description. 280 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:23.080 So this is my question. If you have millions of 281 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:25.960 particles flying out from the center, how in the world 282 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:28.759 do you find the specific ghosts you are looking. 283 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:30.120 For a very good question. 284 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:32.919 It sounds like trying to find a specific special rain 285 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:35.320 drop in the middle of a hurricane. How do you 286 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:38.279 know this particle came from the vacuum and that particle 287 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:39.679 came for the proton itself. 288 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:42.799 That is the core challenge of detection. First, you need 289 00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:46.000 an incredible camera, and that's the star detector. 290 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:48.840 The star detector, I've seen pictures of this thing. It 291 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:50.799 looks like a giant cylinder the size of a house, 292 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:53.080 just packed with wires and electronics it is. 293 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:56.360 It stands for a Solen oil tracker at RHIC. It's 294 00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:00.159 essentially a giant digital camera that surrounds the collision point. 295 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.080 And it tracks everything. 296 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:05.000 It captures the tracks of these thousands, sometimes millions, of 297 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:08.519 particles flying out from the collision. It measures their speed, 298 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:11.919 their charge, their trajectory, their momentum. It builds a three 299 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:13.720 D picture of the explosion. 300 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:16.879 But again, if there are millions of particles, the detector 301 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:22.720 just sees a giant mess, a beautiful, complicated mess. How 302 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:23.559 do they filter it? 303 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.200 That is the crucial question, and that leads us to 304 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:29.080 the real detective work of the study. They couldn't just 305 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.080 look at the photo, right, They needed a specific clue, 306 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:35.480 a tracer, something that would act like a die pack, 307 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:39.240 distinguishing a vacuum particle from a regular run of the 308 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:39.879 mill particle. 309 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.080 Okay, so this is where the cleverness comes in. They 310 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.200 didn't just look at any particle. They looked for something 311 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:45.440 very very specific. 312 00:14:45.559 --> 00:14:47.799 They did. They focused on a type of particle called 313 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:48.960 a lambda hyperon. 314 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:51.440 Lambda hyperon it sounds like a fraternity from a sci 315 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:53.639 fi movie. Lambda hyperon it does. 316 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:57.440 And crucially, they also looked for its antimatter counterpart, the 317 00:14:57.480 --> 00:14:59.480 anti lambda. They looked for them in pairs. 318 00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:02.919 Okay, so why these Why not just look for electrons 319 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:06.519 or regular old protons. Why go hunting for something so exotic? 320 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:11.759 Because lambda particles contain a very special ingredient, a strange quark. 321 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:15.600 A strange quark. Now I love physics nomenclature. Yeah, strange 322 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:18.279 is the actual technical name, right, They're not just being poetic. 323 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:21.639 It is. In the standard model of particle physics, we 324 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:25.000 have six flavors of quarks. You have up and down, 325 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.080 which are the let's say boring ones. 326 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:29.519 Hey, don't insult up and down quarks. I'm made of them. 327 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:30.360 You're made of them. 328 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:33.600 We all are. That's my point. Protons and neutrons are 329 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:35.639 made of up and down quarks. That's the vanilla and 330 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:38.759 chocolate of the universe. It's the stable, everyday stuff. Okay, 331 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:42.120 But then you have their heavier, more unstable cousins, charm 332 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:43.600 strange top and bottom. 333 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:47.399 Right. So the lambda particle contains a strange quark and 334 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.919 the anti lambda contains a strange antiquark. Why is that 335 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:51.360 the key? 336 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:55.559 Because the protons you are smashing together, they are made 337 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:57.960 of up and down quarks. Ah, they do not contain 338 00:15:58.039 --> 00:15:58.840 strange quarks. 339 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:02.200 Ah. I see you're going the ingredients list exactly. 340 00:16:02.440 --> 00:16:04.879 If you smash two things together that have no strange 341 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:07.519 quarks in them, and suddenly you see a strange quark 342 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:09.120 flying out of the explosion, you. 343 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:11.879 Know it was created fresh. It wasn't just luggage that 344 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:13.600 the protons brought with them to the crash. 345 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:15.840 It had to be manufactured right there on the spot. 346 00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:18.840 Okay, so that narrows down the search field immensely. That's 347 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:20.320 a huge filter, it is. 348 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:23.080 But even that isn't quite enough. Why not, Because you 349 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:26.919 can create strange quarks just from the pure kinetic energy 350 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.200 of the crash. You can transform motion into mass into 351 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:33.799 a strange Qurkanta quark pair. That doesn't necessarily prove it 352 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:35.879 came from a virtual vacuum fluctuation. 353 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:38.240 Okay, so we're getting closer, but we're not there yet. 354 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:42.440 We need another clue, a fingerprint that says I came 355 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:45.480 from the vacuum soup, not just I was made by 356 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:46.879 the energy of the crash. 357 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:51.320 Correct. And that final definitive fingerprint is a property called spin. 358 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:55.000 Spin. Okay, every time we talk physics, spin comes up, 359 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:57.320 and it's always a little bit confusing. We aren't talking 360 00:16:57.320 --> 00:17:00.240 about a tiny particle spinning like a top, are we not? 361 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:03.159 Literally No, though the mathematics is similar, which is where 362 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:07.680 the name comes from. Spin is a built in intrinsic quantum. 363 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:09.160 Property like charge or mass. 364 00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:13.920 Exactly like charge or mass. It's related to angular momentum 365 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:17.559 and magnetism. But for our purposes today, you can just 366 00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:20.799 imagine it as a tiny arrow attached to every particle, 367 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:22.279 pointing in a certain. 368 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:23.759 Direction, a little compass needle, A. 369 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:25.839 Little compass needle. Every particle carries one. 370 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.640 Okay, So I have a virtual strange quark and a 371 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:32.279 virtual strange antiquark popping out of the vacuum soup, and 372 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:37.039 you're saying they're arrows. Their spins interact in a specific, 373 00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:37.839 predictable way. 374 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:41.720 Yes, the source explains a fundamental rule of quantum field theory. 375 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:46.160 Strange corkanti quark pairs generated as virtual particles in the 376 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:47.799 vacuum are always spin aligned. 377 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:50.440 Being aligned, meaning their little arrows are pointing in the 378 00:17:50.440 --> 00:17:51.119 same direction. 379 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.480 It means their quantum states are correlated. They are entangled 380 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:56.559 from the moment of their birth. They act as a 381 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:58.920 single coherent unit. Their fates are linked. 382 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:02.680 Okay, got it. Now, contrast that with a regular messy collision. 383 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:05.720 If I just smash two protons together and all that 384 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:09.359 energy randomly creates some strange quarks, what are their spins? 385 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:13.359 Usually like random absolute chaos. If you look at the 386 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:17.920 vast majority of particles emerging from a rhic collision, their 387 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:22.720 spins are randomly oriented in every possible direction. There is 388 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:25.039 no coordination at all. It's just thermal noise. 389 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:27.920 Ah, I see the logic. Now, this is brilliant. It's 390 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:29.559 a sorting mechanism exactly. 391 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:33.599 The hypothesis was this, If we can find lambda and 392 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:36.920 anti lamba pairs emerging from the collision that are spin aligned, 393 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:41.160 it is highly highly likely that they didn't just bumped 394 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:44.319 into each other randomly in the debris field. It proves 395 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:47.720 they originated directly from one of these pre aligned, entangled 396 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:49.200 virtual vacuum pairs. 397 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.440 The alignment is the proof of origin. It's like finding 398 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:54.960 two people in the middle of a massive, chaotic riot 399 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:57.799 who are perfectly flawlessly dancing the tango. 400 00:18:57.880 --> 00:18:59.079 That is a fantastic analogy. 401 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:01.079