Symmetries and Broken Symmetries of our
Universe
The Charges of Matter are the
Symmetry Debts of Light (Noether's
Theorem
Abstract
The four forces of physics are considered in terms of the broken
symmetry of our "matter only" Universe
The Four Forces of Physics:
1) Electromagnetism/electric charge. The symmetry of
matter vs antimatter - broken by the weak force during the Big
Bang to produce our "matter only" universe. Electric charge is
the consequence of this most fundamental of all broken symmetries -
matter eternally seeks reunion with antimatter via the attraction
between opposite electric charges. Consequent annihilation reactions
return both matter and antimatter (individually asymmetric) to the
symmetric light which created them. Light is the most symmetric
energy form known - massless and carrying no charges, having no time
dimension, producing no gravitational
field in free flight. Light is a 2-dimensional
transverse wave; the photon is the field vector (force carrier) of
the electromagnetic force, which, like gravitation, has an infinite
range. "Velocity c" is a condition of energetic symmetry, not an
actual velocity. There are no forces of acceleration at velocity c
(think of the reflection of a photon back and forth between two
parallel mirrors), and at velocity c the photon is everywhere
simultaneously in spacetime, since time and distance both vanish at
"c" (per Einstein and his Special Theory of Relativity). Opposite
electric charges attract because that is the antimatter
signal. Hence the electron is forever attracted to the proton but
cannot annihilate because the proton is not an antimatter positron.
Because matter can carry both positive and negative charges, the
universe (on average) is electrically neutral despite the absence of
antimatter. (See: "Symmetry Principles of
the Unified Field Theory".)
2) Gravitational force/"location charge". The symmetry of
the equitable distribution of light's energy (free electromagnetic
energy) throughout spacetime, vs the asymmetry of undistributed
concentrations of matter (bound electromagnetic energy) in
specific spacetime locations. In consequence of light's
"absolute" ("infinite") velocity (see #1), and because at velocity
"c" neither time nor distance exists (light is a 2-D transverse
electromagnetic wave), light is everywhere within its entropic conservation domain (spacetime)
simultaneously. This symmetric distribution of light's energy is
broken by the conversion of light into immobile (and hence
undistributed) matter during the "Big Bang". Unlike light, matter
has no intrinsic (entropic) motion in space, only intrinsic
(entropic) motion in time. The "location" charge of gravity
identifies the spacetime location of undistributed "lumps" or
concentrations of energy in the form of matter (bound
electromagnetic energy). Gravity eventually converts matter back to
light, beginning with stars, supernovas, quasars, etc., ending with
Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes, in final satisfaction
of Noether's Theorem. Because gravity is
universally attractive, it provides a secondary "fail safe" pathway
(in addition to electromagnetic matter-antimatter annihilation), for
the symmetry-conserving conversion of asymmetric matter into
all-symmetric light. Gravity is matter's memory it once was
light.
The motivation of gravity is the entropic, one-way motion of time
into history. History is the entropic, causal conservation domain of
matter, just as space is the entropic, a-causal conservation domain
of light. Although matter has no intrinsic, entropic motion in
space, and so cannot share light's entropic conservation domain,
nevertheless matter, as a form of electromagnetic energy, must have
an entropic foundation and conservation domain, as provided by
matter's intrinsic motion in time and the historical
conservation domain of causal information. When light is
converted into matter, the intrinsic, entropic spatial motion of
light is replaced by the intrinsic, entropic temporal motion of
matter. This is the essential meaning of spacetime - an entropic
conservation domain that can accommodate both free and bound forms
of electromagnetic energy. (See: "Spatial vs
Temporal Entropy".)
As time moves along its one-way and one-dimensional time line into
history, it pulls space along behind it - because space and time are
connected (as spacetime). Time is one-way and one-dimensional
because matter is causal/local (whereas light is
a-causal/non-local). But space, being three-dimensional, cannot
enter the one-dimensional time line of history, and self-annihilates
at the gravitational center of mass, liberating as a residue the
metrically equivalent temporal component of spacetime. This
remaining temporal component continues the entropic, historical
march of time, pulling more space into the center of mass, where
space again self-annihilates, liberating more time, etc.,
etc., forever. The entropic motion of time produces gravity,
and gravity's entropic motion produces time. Only when matter is
reconverted into light does the gravitational entropic cycle stop,
light having no time dimension nor
gravitational field. A gravitational field is the spatial
consequence of the intrinsic motion of time.
As Einstein discovered, gravity is a metrical, geometric force,
causing the distortion of space and time. (The original
spatio/temporal metric is established by the "intrinsic"/entropic
motion of light and "gauged" (regulated) by "velocity c".)
Gravity "warps" both space and time such that the value of "velocity
c" remains the same within any orbital frame of reference (or given,
uniform distance from the center of mass), conserving causality and
Einstein's "Interval", the mathematical unit of causal influence in
spacetime. (See: "A Description of Gravity".)
The "mass due to acceleration" (F = ma) of elementary particles is
not due to the "ether wind" interaction with the Higgs boson as
proposed in the "Standard Model", but rather to the interaction of
the gravitational field of the particle with the local spacetime
metric. A primordial version of the Higgs
boson determines the original "rest mass" of the particle (E =
mcc) in terms of its bound energy content. During accelerated
motion, the gravitational field associated with the particle's rest
mass (Gm - which is a metric-warping field), is forced through the
spacetime metric of its immediate environment. The local metric
resists the intrusion of this metric-warping field, producing the
observed "mass due to acceleration" of the particle. The reciprocal
of this effect produces the gravitational "weight" (gm) of the
particle (local spacetime accelerates through the metric-warping
field of the stationary particle), preserving/explaining Einstein's
"Equivalence Principle". The
gravitational field of a particle registers its total bound energy,
regardless of the source, and although weak, gravitational fields
extend throughout the cosmos. Finally, the gravitational field of a
particle (Gm) provides the exact physical connection between the
particle's "rest mass" (E = mcc) and mass due to "acceleration" (F =
ma). "m" in these several formulas must have the same objective
reference, or our explanations of energy conservation fail.
3) Strong Force/"color charge". Whole (leptonic)
unit quantum charges vs the fractional or partial quantum unit
charges of the quarks. In the strong nuclear force, we are
dealing with a symmetry on the scale of a quantum particle, rather
than the astronomical/cosmological scale (as in #s 1 and 2 above).
Consequently, we have little (if any) intuitive feeling for this
symmetry. In the strong force, the symmetry concerns a whole
leptonic quantum unit of charge (as in an electron), vs the
subdivision of that whole unit into parts (as in the quarks of
baryons). Quarks are subdivisions of a whole leptonic unit of charge
(originating in primordial "leptoquarks"),
a fracture which nature seeks to heal or conceal by means of the
gluon field of the strong force. The universe is a simpler place and
conservation of symmetry and energy is more readily accomplished if
charges remain as whole quantum units rather than as fractional
subdivisions. While there is an excellent reason for the original
subdivision of nuclear particles into quarks (so electrically
neutral leptoquarks could form and decay asymmetrically via the weak
force into our "matter-only" universe), Nature prefers that her
charges (symmetry debts) remain in whole quantum units for ease of
accounting, balancing, neutralizing/canceling, and annihilating.
Consequently, quarks are permanently confined within baryons by
means of the gluons of the color force, a force which grows stronger
as quarks try to escape each other (which would destroy the whole
quantum charge unit), and weaker as they collapse together (reducing
the destructive threat to the whole unit charge - "asymptotic
freedom"), always retaining the outward appearance of a whole
quantum unit of charge (in leptonic charge units). It is easily seen
that the strong color force has just the character one would expect
to arise within a too-heavy lepton that had split under the
self-repulsion of its own electric charge, but was nevertheless
trying to obey the quantum rules of an elementary, rather than a
composite, particle - at least as seen by the external world.
Indeed, it fooled our best scientists for a long time.
Each quark bears a "color" charge and exchanges virtual, massless
"colored gluons" at light speed with the other quarks. Gluon
exchange is the basis of the binding character of the strong color
force, much as the exchange of virtual, massless photons
characterizes the electric force. However, unlike the photons of the
electric force, all gluons attract each other. Otherwise, these
forces are much alike, and probably derive from the same source (the
electric charge of a heavy, primordial, divided lepton - the
"leptoquark"s). (See: "The Strong Force: Two
Expressions".) There is no alternative charge carrier for the
color charge of a baryon, hence its resistance to decay. However,
the total color charge of a baryon (carried by a field of 8
"gluons", each composed of a color-anticolor charge) sums to zero,
and will self-annihilate if the baryon is symmetrically compressed
by a sufficiently powerful force (hence returning it to its original
leptoquark configuration). Such a sufficiently powerful, symmetric
force is available at the central "singularity" of black holes.
Black holes are probably filled with nothing but trapped light, the
remains of annihilated baryons. Black holes are baryon graveyards,
their likely cosmic function (as there is no other way to achieve
the annihilation of large numbers of baryons). Hawking's "quantum
radiance" returns the light of annihilated baryons to the symmetric
domain of spacetime - the final enforcement of Noether's Theorem.
Baryons are born in the "Big Bang", mature in stars, are dispersed
by supernovas, and die in black holes. During their productive
lifetime, baryons (by virtue of their gravitational fields), create
the stars, galaxies, the elements of the periodic table, and via
their electron shells and the force of evolution, life itself.
4) Weak Force/"identity charge". The symmetric anonymity
of the massless photons vs the asymmetric identity of massive
elementary particles (leptons). Photons are all alike and have
no individual identity, nothing to distinguish one from another.
Against this universal "symmetry of anonymity" we find the four
massive elementary leptonic species (electron, muon, tau,
leptoquark) which are distinguishable one from another and from
photons. In consequence of this broken symmetry, these elementary
particles carry "identity" charges in two forms: implicitly as
"lepton number charge" and explicitly as the (nearly) massless
neutrinos, a separate neutrino species for each massive leptonic
species. Leptonic particle-antiparticle pairs naturally cancel
(balance) each others' implicit "number" (identity) charges;
however, no massive lepton/leptoquark can enter this world as a single
particle unless its implicit number charge is balanced by an
opposite explicit number charge carried by an anti-neutrino;
likewise, no massive lepton/leptoquark can exit this world as a single
particle unless the loss of its implicit number charge is balanced
by the gain of a corresponding explicit number charge - left behind
in the form of a neutrino.
It's a simple accounting system whereby the universe keeps track of
the numbers and kinds of (massive, asymmetric) elementary leptonic
particles in spacetime. Because the anti-neutrino produced by the
in-coming lepton is cancelled by the neutrino left behind by the
out-going lepton, the total lepton number of the universe is always
zero. This in itself is a charge-anticharge (or matter-antimatter)
symmetry, necessary to allow the birth of our asymmetric "matter
only" universe. Baryons and the quarks they contain are the remains
of primordial leptoquarks and are counted as a single unit by
leptoquark neutrinos. Hence leptons (including leptoquarks) are the
only class of elementary particles, and are distinguished as
such by their neutrino identity charges. Quarks are sub-elementary
fractional charges, do not have associated individual neutrinos, and
are counted inclusively with their parent baryons by primordial
leptoquark neutrinos.
(See: "Introduction to the Weak Force".)
Neutrinos are alternative charge carriers
for elementary leptonic "particle number", and they are the most
interesting and significant of all the charges of physics, since it
is only by means of these alternative carriers of identity charge
that primordial leptoquarks could decay asymmetrically to produce
our "matter only" universe, while still obeying charge conservation
in terms of identity charge. "In the Beginning",
primordial leptoquarks, which are simply primordial heavy leptons -
the heaviest leptons of the leptonic spectrum - split into three
parts (quarks) internally (because they were actually too heavy,
forming the natural terminus of the "leptonic spectrum"), which
allowed the production of electrically neutral leptoquarks by a
suitable arrangement of the fractional charges - exactly like heavy
neutrons. These primordial, electrically neutral leptoquarks could
then live long enough (since they could avoid electromagnetic
annihilation reactions) to decay asymmetrically via the weak force "X" IVBs, and so
produce our "matter only" universe - but only because anti-neutrinos
were available as an alternative charge carrier for the
anti-leptoquark's identity charge, providing a "lawful" (charge
conserving) pathway even for such an asymmetric decay. For some
unknown reason, anti-leptoquarks decayed faster than leptoquarks,
which latter were consequently left without antimatter annihilation
partners, and so (by the simple expansion of their quarks to the
confining limits of the gluon field of their color charges) became
the hyperons/baryons of our "matter only" universe (with explicit,
conserved color charges that blocked their further decay). The heavy
anti-leptoquark neutrinos left behind are now seen as the mysterious
"dark matter" of the universe. The implicit number charges of
baryons are balanced by these primordial "dark matter" leptoquark
anti-neutrinos, so despite the gross "matter only" asymmetry of our
universe, its lepton number remains zero. (See: "Identity" as the Charge of the Weak Force".)
Neutrinos are necessary to specifically identify and guarantee that
leptons are the genuine article and exactly as they should be, in
case they need to replace another similar lepton, or balance,
neutralize, or cancel charges, or annihilate with an appropriate
antiparticle. All such interactions require precision among the
participants. The universe is very careful in its accounting of
elementary particles, which reduce in the ground state to the lowly
electron and proton. Even the protons originate as split leptons
(leptoquarks), so in its essentials, the universe is very simple
indeed, and it evidently intends to keep it that way: leptons (1),
leptoquarks (1), and their identity charges (2 anti-neutrinos) -
which in the ground state reduces to our familiar electron, proton,
and their anti-neutrinos. These simple ingredients (plus gravity)
produce the 92 elements and information content of the Periodic
Table: all the rest, driven by the negentropic force of gravity, is
evolutionary history.
There is another symmetry of our "matter only" universe that is
maintained (rather than broken) by the weak force (symmetry debts
must be maintained in full force/value until they are paid,
ultimately via matter-antimatter annihilations). This symmetry
subsists in the fact that every electron in the universe today is
exactly the same as every other ever created, and any electron can
seamlessly replace any other electron, no matter when or where
either one was created. Understanding how a single electron
created today (not a particle-antiparticle pair) can be exactly the
same in all respects as its counterpart created eons ago in the "Big
Bang", brings us to a consideration of the strange and massive weak
force IVBs (Intermediate Vector Bosons) and the equally unlikely and
even more massive Higgs Boson. It is only via the mediation of these
ultra-massive "particles of interaction" that such an improbable
replication becomes possible. Simply put, the massive Higgs and IVBs
re-create the primordial environmental conditions (the
energy-density) in which the leptonic particles (and quarks) were
first created, and produce leptons and quarks today in the same
forge and from the same mold as the originals. The Higgs boson
provides a standard reservoir of invariant Alternative Charge
Carriers (ACCs) (leptons, mesons,
neutrinos), from which the IVBs select and distribute
appropriate/needful particles to the decays and other
reactions/interactions they mediate. (See: The
Higgs Boson and the Weak force IVBs.)
Global-Local Gauge Symmetries in the Four
Forces
This is a technical subject which can be difficult to understand and
explain, and I will take my own route to comprehension through its
effect on symmetry-keeping. Symmetry debts acquired via
symmetry-breaking during the creation of our "matter only" universe
during the "Big Bang" can be redeemed or repaid at any future time -
thus providing the universe with an extended (historical) time
dimension (unlike energy debts which must be repaid immediately, as
in virtual particles) - but these debts (charges) must be maintained
at full value, even though entropy and relative (rather than
"absolute") motion in local, causal spacetime will threaten to
erode, enervate, warp, or otherwise change their initial values.
Keeping these charges (symmetry debts) invariant over time until
they are paid (typically by antimatter annihilation) is the job of
the field vectors of the "four forces".
1) In the electromagnetic force, the value of electric charge is
kept invariant by the action of a magnetic field, allowing relative
motion in spacetime without changing the value of the electric
charge. The combination of electric charge plus magnetic field keeps
the value of electric charge invariant when in relative motion in
spacetime. This is why ordinary matter remains electrically neutral
(even bar magnets), and does not give us a shock when we touch it,
despite the fact that the electrons are whirling around stationary
protons, and so both charges can't exactly cancel. The magnetic
field of the moving electrons compensates for the difference, and
the earth we walk on remains electrically neutral.
2) In the gravitational force, time plays the role of the magnetic
field seen in the electromagnetic case. Gravity warps spacetime but
does not destroy the invariant value of "velocity c" nor the
invariant value of Einstein's "Interval", preserving the causal
ordering of massive objects in local, causal spacetime (as opposed
to a-causal, non-local events in "absolute" space for photons
traveling at "c"). Hence the causal ordering of events does not
change as we pass from one gravitational domain to another (as on
our Earth-Moon expeditions).
3) In the strong force, the quarks of composite baryons are confined
to whole quantum unit charges of leptonic magnitude by the action of
the gluon field of the color charge. The gluon field grows stronger
with increasing separation between the quarks, and weaker as the
quarks approach each other ("asymptotic freedom"), resulting in the
permanent "confinement" of the partial charges of the quarks within
the limits of the baryon. Thus single, partial quark charges are
never seen and never threaten the symmetry of the whole quantum unit
charges (with respect to balancing, neutralizing, canceling, or
annihilating opposite charges), despite the fact that every baryon
consists of 3 quarks carrying partial quantum charges. Baryons were
long thought to be elementary, rather than composite particles, so
good is this masquerade.
4) In the weak force, we find the massive Intermediate Vector Bosons
(IVBs), which, in concert with the Higgs Boson, ensure that every
electron ever created is the same as every other electron ever
created. Hence any electron can replace any other electron,
regardless of when or where either one was created, despite the fact
that the universe has endured eons of entropic expansion in both
space and time since the first electrons were created. The great
mass of the IVBs and Higgs simply recreates the original energy
density in which those first electrons were created, and makes
electrons today from the original mold and in the original furnace
(like Frodo's magic ring).
Hence magnetism, time, the gluon field, and the IVBs/Higgs boson are
the local gauge forces/field vectors which maintain and preserve the
original values and magnitudes of the "symmetry debts of light"
incurred by the creation of matter during the "Big Bang", keeping
them invariant until such time as they may find suitable antimatter
annihilation partners - perhaps in the depths of a "Black Hole". You
will find other, more technical explanations of "global/local gauge
symmetries" in the books, but I have listed those of most
significance to the theory of symmetry conservation as expounded on this website.
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