Symmetries and Broken
Symmetries of our Universe
The
Charges of Matter are the Symmetry Debts of Light
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".) According to Noether's Theorem,
certain symmetries of energy are conserved no less than its
quantity.
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.
Yet barely concealed
behind this calm exterior, there is both a furious energy and a
deep order upon which life depends and which life embodies. We
must be protected from the raw expression of this energy, life is
too fragile to endue it. We see it unleashed in the thunderbolt,
and in the nuclear heat of the solar furnace; even the magnet we
can hold in our hand and the gravity beneath our feet bespeak
mysterious energies hidden in matter, while the crystal hints at
its rigid order. The beauty, the mystery, and the majesty of the
night sky; the magnificence of nature; the thrill of life - there
is an energy working in the universe which we can hardly
comprehend, from whose power we must be shielded, lest it destroy
us. But it is this ordered energy, stepped down through many
transformations and generations, which emerges as the miracle of
life, as humanity, as all that we are, inviting our curiosity, our
wonder, our admiration, and our reverence.
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