First successfull teleportation done!

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Rogan,

Are they fixing the Standard Model to deal with neutrinos?

Yes, they are. It is fairly straightforward to do in principle (although rather aesthetically unpleasing imho), but more experimental details are required to get all the parameters for the oscillations right. There are some snazzy new satellites going up soon to check the Solar neutrino emissions (and their subsequent oscillations) more accurately. (I forget the names.)

There is still a disagreement between the experiments though. LSND seem to disagree with everyone. There have been some attempts to explain this theoretically, but I think the general feeling here is that they are just full of ****.

[KrazyHorse]

Don't they just have to adjust a few parameters?

Any how, I hope the Standard Model gets broken beyond repair...

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Frogger
Don't they just have to adjust a few parameters?

No. The Standard Model has no neutrino mass terms in the Lagrangian (although I suppose you could say that you are adjusting the masses away from zero ). The question is whether or not the mass terms should be Dirac mass terms or Majoranna mass terms - or in other words, is the right handed neutrino the anti-particle of the left handed one, or not?

Since they also mix, you need some mixing angles too (which weren't there before).

Any how, I hope the Standard Model gets broken beyond repair...

That is what we are all hoping for. Roll on Supersymmetry....

[Lorizael]

...and the Standard Model would be??

Reading science magazines only does so much good if you don't have background information. *sigh*

[KrazyHorse]

Standard model is the current best approximation of everything we know about the fundamental particles and their interactions.

Don't worry; half of what Rogan just said is gibberish to me too, and I've got a Bachelor's degree in physics. I've only taken one particle physics course, and it was sort of bobo...I can sort of draw Feynman dagrams, but that's about it...

[KrazyHorse]

On the plus side, I've done an unholy amount of quantum mechanics and abstract math courses...

[Lorizael]

Thanks anyway, KH. I didn't even know Feynman could draw.

And you Rogan Josh, what are your qualifications?

I read most of A Brief History of Time.

Oh and I also read The Physics of Star Trek.

[KrazyHorse]

Rogan's a Ph.D. in high energy physics, IIRC. And I think that he's currently working at CERN. Feynman diagrams are a graphical way of depicting the possible paths a reaction can take. A might go straight to B, or it might take an intermediate step or two (A->C->D->B). With each step is associated a probability (coupling coefficient) so to get the total probability (known as cross-section) for a reaction you need to theoretically add up all the probabilities from the infinite number of possible reaction paths. Luckily, the importance of each possible path drops as the number of steps in it increases (usually), so you can get away with only looking at the relatively simple paths (say 1-4 steps, depending on reaction)...

[Solver]

Damn KH you and Rogan are clever.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Frogger
Rogan's a Ph.D. in high energy physics, IIRC. And I think that he's currently working at CERN.

That's right

Feynman diagrams are a graphical way of depicting the possible paths a reaction can take. A might go straight to B, or it might take an intermediate step or two (A->C->D->B). With each step is associated a probability (coupling coefficient) so to get the total probability (known as cross-section) for a reaction you need to theoretically add up all the probabilities from the infinite number of possible reaction paths. Luckily, the importance of each possible path drops as the number of steps in it increases (usually), so you can get away with only looking at the relatively simple paths (say 1-4 steps, depending on reaction)...

I spend my PhD calculating lots of these little buggers - the especially hard ones with loops in them. For a little while, after I had finished it, I held the record for the most advanced one-loop Feynman diagram calculation ever

Didn't take long before someone did an even harder one though

I try to steer well clear of the little buggers these days.....

[KrazyHorse]

It sounds like a great deal of pain...

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I read most of A Brief History of Time.

I met Hawking once at a conference. He wheeled his wheelchair right next to my seat during a seminar. When the talk got boring (they usually do) I was very temped to tweek his little joystick control thing and spin him round in circles.

[KrazyHorse]

I know someone at Cambridge that Hawking knocked down with his wheelchair. He claims it was on purpose...

[Lorizael]

Wow... you know Stephen Hawking. The closest I've come to him is seeing him on the Simpsons.

Oh, and you're a horrible horrible person for wanting to harass one of our greatest geniuses...

Why didn't you?

[Rogan Josh]

I didn't say I knew him. I only sat next to him.

Anyway, Hawking isn't so great. I have had dinner with much brighter geniuses. I used to be the seminar organiser, so I got to invite lots of big name physicists and take them out to dinner on expenses.

A couple of months ago, I was at a conference with lots of big names at it. One evening I was having dinner with a friend at a small table for three, when Ed Witten came up to us. Ed Witten is pretty much the acknowledged greatest genius alive (ask any particle physicist). Much cleverer than Hawking...

Anyway, he recognises me from somewhere (I think a previous conference the year before where I asked him a stupid question), and so asks if he can join us. My friend, who has never met him before and didn't recognise him replies "Sorry, we are saving that seat for a friend"!

I could have throttled him....