Physics

Solitons- From Deadly Monster Waves On The High Seas To Modern Particle Physics

Solitons, also called solitary waves, are an intriguing topic. They are waves which behave much like particles, yet not in the sense of the quantum physical particle-wave-duality, but in a purely classical sense: They travel much like particles, meaning th ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jan 12 2012 - 11:35pm

CiteAlert: a new form of Spam

Elsevier is spamming my mailbox. You would not expect that from a large publishing company who makes money from publishing scientific papers, but that's what happens. I think I am not alone in receiving automated emails with your name on the subject ( ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Jan 12 2012 - 10:38am

A Theory of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos

I was going to talk about neutrinos today, as the results of MiniBoone looking at how muon neutrinos mix into electron neutrinos had just been published earlier this week, and wanted to write about CP violation and a possible 1-2eV right handed neutrino mi ...

Blog Post - Barry Adams - Jan 15 2012 - 12:48pm

How Belief Could Be Physically Effective Through Quantum Physics II

As discussed in Part 1, analyzing “precognition” discredits everything but the in the eyes of pseudo-skeptic scientism worst: The influence of belief on the quantum probability of finding oneself inside a future world. Pseudo-skeptics warn that the mere me ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jan 15 2012 - 11:56pm

People Who Believe In Upper Limits...

...and people who like sausages, should not ask how they are made. As a member of two large scientific collaborations (CDF and CMS), I enjoy the benefit of seeing lots of scientific publications that carry my name as an author being produced at weekly rate ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Jan 16 2012 - 1:15pm

First Snarky Puzzle Answers of 2012

Dec. 6, Spinning the Interaction Story: Spin 1 (1 of 3) Snarky puzzle Figure out how to represent any quaternion using 3D rotations and one complex number. ...

Blog Post - Doug Sweetser - Jan 17 2012 - 12:41am

Space Is A Carpet Woven From Left Spun Yarn

“ The vacuum is empty ” Richard Feynman According to Dick himself, this was his catchiest motto, but eventually he abandoned it for being as wrong as it sounds right.   ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jan 20 2012 - 5:11pm

The Importance Of Statistics In Particle Physics

This week's edition of the CMS Times features a short piece by A.Rao,  where some points are made on the issue of correct statistical analysis of high-energy physics data. ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Jan 23 2012 - 11:06am

Neutrino, Flying from CERN to LNGS, and Brachistochrone

A particle which flies from a point C to point L in the Earth gravitation should submit to the brachistochrone problem decision.  Well-known that the particle flying in a gravitational field of the Earth on a cycloid, spends less time, than flying on dire ...

Blog Post - Gunn Quznetsov - Jan 23 2012 - 12:44am

Slit Experiments and Coherence Patterns

Fire a machine gun at a wall with two slits. Look at the pattern bullets make that pass through. The pattern is the sum of two Gaussian curves. Classical physics makes sense. Repeat the exercise with electrons or photons. Where there is constructive inter ...

Blog Post - Doug Sweetser - Jan 24 2012 - 1:19pm