X-Message-Number: 22136
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 18:33:32 +0900 (JST)
From: "Matthew S. Malek" <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #22131 - #22135 

======> Yvan Bozzonetti wrote:
>
> I think the main problem is the cost of experiments, beans counters are
> not interested to find what is beyond QFT (Quite Frivolious Thing for
> them).

Unfortunately, I agree with you 100% here.  Funding for basic research in
general and particle physics in particular has been dropping steadily for
some time now.  Particularly in the United States.  In Japan, the effect
is not so noticable and Europe isn't too bad, either.  Case in point:  the
Large Hadron Collider _is_ going to be completed, whereas the
Superconducting Super-Collider was not.

However, I am not certain about the existance of several of the
"extenstions" to QFT that have been theorized.  Supersymmetry, for
instance, was conceived to solve specific problems -- but the lack of any
evidence for SUSY to date has required the model to be tweaked to the
point where it is no longer as elegant as it once was.  Other extensions,
such as string theory, require an extrapolation of current physics (e.g.
the coupling constants) over many orders of magnitude.  No one know for
certain if such an extrapolation is valid.  Personally, I expect that some
unknown physics exists in the vast "energy desert."

Despite the successes enjoyed by QFT and the Standard Model of particle
physics, most of the groundbreaking discoveries have been driven by
experiment, not theory.  For instance, no theory predicted the existence
of three generations of matter; the discover of the muon came as quite a
shock.  I expect that insights leading to improvements beyond QFT will be
driven by some experimental discovery that no one has thought of yet.
We'll see...

It is possible that the discovery of neutrino mass may be the experimental
breakthrough that leads to improvements in theory.  While some theorists
have cobbled together "minimally extended Standard Models" that basically
erase "neutrino mass = zero" and replace it with "very small," the
implications potentially go much further than that.  The small energy of
the neutrino mass could open insights into very high energy physics, via
the so-called "see saw" mechanism.  Perhaps this is an indication that
Grand Unified Theories exist?  Personally, I'd like to see GUTs confirmed
(or ruled out) before I can event think of considering something like
string theory.  Let's unify all of the "normal" forces (electromagnetic,
weak, and strong) before we add the oddball (gravity) to the mix.
Besides, we _know_ gravity behaves differently, from General Relativity,
and we still don't necessarily understand the way gravity works on small
scales (less than 1mm) or in regions of small acceleration (hence the
debate about the existance of dark matter vs. a modification of Newtonian
dynamics).

> This is a table top experiment, if it was done with an accelerator, my
> estimate is that the energy would be in the 10^19 eV range, one million
> times the LHC energy built near Geneva.

It is possible that such experiments as you propose may eventually become
possible.  We know that particles with 10^19, or even 10^20 eV exist in
cosmic rays.  The mechanism that accelerates them to such energies is
still not well understood and the two experiments that have studied these
particles so far (Hi-Res and AGASA) do not produce consistent results.
When the Auger Observatory is completed in 2005, we should have much more
data concerning such ultra-high energy particles.

You present interesting ideas.  May I ask what your connection with
physics is?  Is it an "amateur" interest?  Or are you professionally
employed as a physicist?

=>Best,
=>Matthew

---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
   Matthew S. Malek        |    "Judging by his outlandish attire, he's
       |     some sort of free-thinking anarchist!"
---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

           "A nation that continues year after year to spend
            more money on military defense than on programs
            of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."

                              --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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