(Untitled)

May 18, 2006 10:11

I just sent someone an email asking them to reverse the polarity of the solenoids. My job is to try to figure out why there is a matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. How cool is that!

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cardinalsin May 18 2006, 10:40:49 UTC
Cool! So have we got an excess of matter, or antimatter? Or is it that they've got more antimatter on one side of the universe, more matter on the other side?

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chris1234 May 18 2006, 10:58:40 UTC
We have an excess of matter - which is why we are made out of matter.

Could there be more antimatter on the other side of the universe? Basic assumption of cosmology, and physics, is that the universe is the same everywhere, and measurements seem to back it up. There is no "great barrier" where matter and antimatter collide and annihilate that has been observed - we can't see to the other side of the universe though.

If there was an inhomogeneity then that would mean the laws of physics would have to be directional or Big Bang is wrong - I don't think you can get it through statistical effects alone. That is of course possible but pretty crazy.

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But, I sent someone an email saying "Could you reverse the polarity of the solenoids"!!! I mean an actual email... where I asked someone to reverse polarity... like in star trek:

O'BRIEN: What the... they've reversed the polarity of our shields!

How cool!

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cardinalsin May 18 2006, 11:11:44 UTC
It does seem to lose something in translation though.

O'BRIEN: What the... they've reversed the polarity of our solenoids!

PICARD: Ummm.... do you mean our shields?

O'BRIEN: Oops, yes, I did mean that. But wouldn't it have been cool if it had been solenoids instead?

PICARD:

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chris1234 May 18 2006, 11:48:23 UTC
Ah, fair point :) ...

By the way, fancy a pint sometime? Haven't seen you and Becks in ages...

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