JHL wrote: ↑Thu Jan 21, 2021 1:22 am
After years of searching and loads of accumulated data from countless collisions, there is no sign of any supersymmetric particle. In fact, many supersymmetry models are now completely ruled out, and very few theoretical ideas remain valid.
Mostly off-topic: I keep waiting for - for want of a better word - a
philosophical discussion of the break between material and molecular, where it's acknowledged that everything smaller than the molecule - or thereabouts - is granted a status amounting more or less to magic. Meaning that smaller than a point things do what they do not because of material cause and effect, but just because they
do.
This notion will rankle all sorts of deeply rigorously scientific rules, definitions, and viewpoints. It's still problematic, however, and may have reached its zenith with the Higgs Boson, which was preliminarily given the unexplained property of lending all the particles mass. The premise, while assumed, is logically incoherent even to the point of absurdity, at least as a mechanism. At best it is an act of faith akin to belief.
The sheer impossibility of an entire universe constructed of an infinite matrix of relationships between an infinite sea of "particles" with no ascertainable contact but every utterly faithful action between one another has to be the greatest leap of faith imaginable. And yet here we are referring to it as if it were to us
scientific, and therefore somehow, akin to material.
Of course it's neither. It is however a philosophical problem no matter our obsession with presuming it's separated off into the realm of guys with lab coats. Guys and lab coats themselves made of the immaterial material of everything else...
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm inclined to agree with you as it relates to even the standard model of particle physics being more or less an "act of faith", and I share your skepticism about the concept of the Higgs Boson lending mass to all particles. In fact I tend to believe that bundles (organized pairs) of electrons and positrons in orbit around each other join themselves into various complex arrangements to create the different subatomic particles in the standard model. In fact we know that when we slam positrons and electrons together in the lab, we are able to create subatomic particles.
https://home.cern/science/accelerators/ ... n-collider
It's probably the case that under the right conditions, such subatomic particles (collections of positrons and elections) can join and create entire protons and neutrons. We also observe that when neutrons decay, we end up with a proton and an electron and some amount of leftover momentum/energy. The problem is, there simply isn't a mathematical model (yet) based on electron/positron pairing that mathematically explains what we observe in the lab nearly as well as the standard particle physics model, so for the time being at least, I chose to "pick my battles".
At least with the standard particle physics model, there's a reliable way to make mathematical predictions about the outcome of various collisions, and those mathematical estimates are *amazingly* accurate. If we're going to replace the standard model with something "better", we are going to need to be able to make at least as accurate predictions about the outcome of actual experiments as the standard particle physics model.
The empirical difference between standard particle physics model and the LCDM model is that the standard particle physics model is indeed very useful in terms of predicting the outcome of actual laboratory experiments, whereas the LCDM model is utterly useless in the lab, and useless at predicting observations at high redshift as well.
So for now at least I choose to pick my battles. It's unlikely IMO that the standard particle physics model is going to be replaced anytime soon, particularly after the predictive success of the standard particle physics model in LHC experiments. In fact every attempt to replace the standard particle physics model failed miserably in the lab, particularly SUSY theories.
It's bad/hard enough to try to point out the *obvious* flaws in the LCDM cosmology model, but if I also tried to poke holes in the standard particle physic model, I would come across as though I don't believe in "science" at all, and there wouldn't be any "easy" or logical way to attack the LCDM model.
i think for the time being at least, it's far "better" to simply note that at least the standard particle physics model is very scientifically useful in it's ability to make real predictions about the outcome of various empirical experiments, whereas the LCMD model is a useless piece of junk, both in terms of predicting the outcome of empirical laboratory experiments, and in terms of predicting what we observe at high redshift. The big bang model is an *epic* fail on every level.
I ultimately do believe that a QM oriented "theory of everything" will eventually tie all the four known forces together under the umbrella of EM fields, but for now at least I haven't yet seen a theory of everything that I'm comfortable with. I also don't see any logical way to attempt to undermine *both* the standard particle physics model *and* the entire field of astronomy.
Particle physics works quite well in the lab, whereas the LCDM model is a much easier scientific target because it's utterly useless at actually "predicting" anything anywhere.
I have to admit that while I'm not fully satisfied with the standard particle physics model, it does indeed work very well in the lab in terms of making accurate predictions. That puts the standard model squarely into the realm of real "science" IMO, even if I think it will eventually be replaced with a "theory of everything".
The scientific strength of the electric universe/plasma cosmology model is that it's entirely compatible with both the general relativity theory of gravity *and* it is fully compatible with the standard particle physics model, whereas ultimately the LCDM model isn't fully compatible with *either* of those scientific models. When astronomers try to explain the "inflation" phase of the "big bang", they are forced to ultimately *abandon* GR theory in favor of various quantum mechanical concepts, so ultimately the big bang model is not even fully compatible with GR theory. If astronomers stuck *exclusively* with GR theory to explain gravity, the whole physical universe would have imploded into a "black hole" instantly.
It's a lot "simpler" IMO to simply pick my battles and focus on the ridiculous and sorry state of astronomy for the time being. If and when I see a QM/EM oriented definition of gravity or particle physics that works "better" in controlled experiments, I'll be happy to embrace it. For now however, I embrace GR theory to explain gravity and I embrace the standard particle physics model to explain particle physics because they both correctly predict the outcome of various controlled laboratory experiments.
What really blows my mind, is that the big bang model is ultimately incompatible with both GR theory and the standard particle physics model, and those are the two most "successful" models in physics in terms of empirical predictive value.
IMO the greatest strength of the electric universe model is that it's entirely compatible with *both* GR theory *and* the standard particle physics model, *and* it will be compatible with whatever other QM oriented descriptions of atoms and gravity that might come along.
The greatest weakness of the big bang model (including inflation) is that it's not fully compatible with *either* GR theory or the standard particle physics model.