Doomsday 2012 begun?New particle from Sun?

By G

Is the Sun emitting a new particle?

By Gary Vey

In previous discussions in this series, we have shown how scientists are reluctant to let go of paradigms. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It forces new thoeries to provide a better explanation of how things work and cautiously advances our knowledge and understanding of the universe.

One of the basic paradigms in modern physics has to do with atomic decay. This refers to the action whereby unstable atoms shed particles in their nucleus to make them stable. We know much about this decay and about which kinds of atoms shed which types of particles. We even know how long it takes for a certain mass of unstable atoms to shed these particles. This is known as the rate of decay and it is considered to be very stable and predictable. But we don't know precisely when this decay will happen. It's always random.

A chunk of radioactive cesium-137, for example, may decay at a steady rate overall, but individual atoms within the chunk will decay in an unpredictable, random pattern. Thus the timing of the random ticks of a Geiger counter placed near the cesium might be used to generate random numbers.

Random number generators are used all the time in scientific experiments and in computer science to make cryptograms. A typical atomic (quantum) random number generator measures the bursts of particles being thrown off by radioactive material. The detector measures the time between the bursts and uses this measure in a mathematical formula to arrive at a random number.

The rate of decay for various unstable atoms has been documented for decades and is assumed to be unchanging. But that assumption was challenged in an unexpected way by a group of researchers from Purdue University who were, at the time, more interested in random numbers than nuclear decay.

Ephraim Fischbach, a physics professor at Purdue, was looking into the rate of radioactive decay of several isotopes as a possible source of a quantum random number generator. He began his investigation by reviewing the recently published decay rates for various unstable elements and noticed something odd -- they did not agree with each other!

Reviewing the data collected at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Federal Physical and Technical Institute in Germany, he noticed that the reported decay rate of silicon-32 and radium-226 showed a seasonal variation, being slightly faster in winter than in summer.

These findings strengthened Fischbach's suspicion that the strange swings in decay rates were caused by the Sun. The swings seemed to be in synch with the Earth's elliptical orbit, with the decay rates oscillating as the Earth came closer to the Sun and then moving away.

Was this fluctuation real, or was it merely a glitch in the equipment used to measure the decay? Could the equipment be influenced by the change of seasons, with the accompanying changes in temperature and humidity?

"Everyone thought it must be due to experimental mistakes, because we're all brought up to believe that decay rates are constant." -- Peter Sturrock, professor emeritus of applied physics

While scientists were pondering that data, another anomaly was found.

On Dec 13, 2006, a solar flare sent a stream of plasma particles and radiation toward the Earth. Purdue nuclear engineer, Jere Jenkins, was busy measuring the decay rate of manganese-54, a short-lived isotope used in medical diagnostics. He noticed that the decay rate dropped slightly about 36 hours before the flare began and returned to normal when the flare was finished.

Jenkins first thought was that this phenomenon could be useful in predicting solar flares which could help prevent damage to satellites and electric grids, as well as save the lives of astronauts in space. But the mechanism involved in this phenomenon was bizarre.

The decay rate aberrations that Jenkins noticed occurred during the middle of the night in Indiana -- meaning that if it was something produced by the sun, it would have had to travel all the way through the Earth to reach Jenkins' detectors. What kind of energy could do that?

Jenkins and his associate, Fischbach, concluded that the only particle capable of penetrating the earth and coming from the Sun was a neutrino. Neutrinos are almost weightless particles famous for flying at almost the speed of light through the physical world -- humans, rocks, oceans or planets -- with virtually no interaction with anything.

Critics didn't want to believe this phenomenon was valid. In a series of papers published in Astroparticle Physics, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research and Space Science Reviews, Jenkins, Fischbach and their colleagues showed that the observed variations in decay rates were highly unlikely to have come from environmental influences on the detection systems. They were real.

The suspicion that these anomalies were possibly related to solar neutrinos was made stronger when Peter Sturrock (Professor Emeritus at Stanford), suggested that the Purdue scientists look for other recurring patterns in decay rates. As an expert of the inner workings of the sun, Sturrock had a hunch that solar neutrinos might held the key to this mystery. As he expected, the Purdue researchers noticed the decay rates vary repeatedly every 33 days -- a period of time that matches the rotational period of the core of the sun.

The usual changes on the surface of the Sun are in 28 day cycles. The core rotates faster than the surface. The solar core now appears to be the source of the decay anomalies and the strange neutrinos. But how? Neutrinos aren't supposed to work like that.

Here come the neutrinos! A neutrino (Italian, meaning "small neutral one") is an elementary particle, meaning that it is not made up of smaller particles, such as quarks etc. In this regard it is like an electron and photon and unlike protons and neutrons (which are composed of quarks etc.).Neutrinos have almost no mass and no electrical charge. This allows them to behave like "ghost particles" where they usually travel close to the speed of light and are able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected. In physics, they are denoted by the Greek letter v (nu). Neutrinos are everywhere. They evolved in huge quantities during the theoretical "Big Bang" that created the universe. Some believe that neutrinos are the "dark matter" that alludes scientists because, even though their mass in extremely small, there are so many of them that their cumulative effect could just be the force that holds everything together [3]. Right now, neutrinos are passing through your body. Although some come from cosmic space (every second, in the region of the Earth, about 65 billion solar neutrinos pass through every square centimeter perpendicular to the direction of the sun), most come from our own Sun. They are a by-product of the fusion process that also gives us heat and light (see the chart below). [Above:] The interior of the Sun is hot enough to strip the single electron from an atom of Hydrogen, which is the simplest and most numerous atom in the universe. It consists of one central proton and one orbiting electron. In Step 1, two protons (i.e. two hydrogen atoms without their electrons) join together releasing their excess energy as an electron (-) and a positron (+) and (0.42 MeV) excess energy. Aneutrino is also released in this reaction -- the same solar neutrinos that are the subject of interest in our story. The electron and positron particles immediately annihilate each other because of their opposite charges, releasing more (1.03 MeV) energy, and two gamma ray photons. Very quickly, one of the two newly joined protons changes to become a neutron, causing it to become Deuterium -- a form of hydrogen with one proton and one neutron. In Step 2, the Deuterium nucleus joins with another free proton and becomes Helium-3. Helium is the next larger atom after hydrogen. It usually has only two electrons and two protons but, in this form, it has two protons plus a neutron in its nucleus. This process releases excess energy (5.49 MeV) and a gamma ray photon. In Step 3 the two atoms of Helium-3 join together to become Helium-4. This form of Helium has 2 protons and two neutrons in its core. Obviously, the recipe calls for less protons than is required, so two protons are released to begin their subsequent lives in more similar reactions inside the Sun. This is the most common reaction in the Sun (86%). From the creation of Helium-4, there are two other possible ways that these atoms can react. One [Figure 2, top] involves the joining of Helium-4 with Helium-3, producing Beryllium-7 (4 protons and 3 neutrons), where one of the protons changes to a neutron (creating Lithium-7), releasing a neutrino before splitting again to form two atoms of Helium-4 and a proton. This reaction releases 12.86 MeV of energy and is the second most common fusion reaction in the Sun (14%). The other reaction [Figure 2, bottom] is like the previously described one, except that the Beryllium-7 captures a proton and becomes Boron-8, which then splits to shed a positron and aneutrino, becoming Beryllium-8 before splitting yet again to become two Helium-4 atoms. This releases 14.06 MeV of energy. This is a very rare reaction, happening only 0.11% of the time. Confused? This is the kind of stuff that gives headaches to ordinary people, like me. But it is good to know that the production of neutrinos is a part of the Sun's energy cycle and that these particles bathe us, inside and out, and perhaps are the most numerous particles in the whole universe. It's also why we should be very concerned if they are suddenly behaving in some way that is transforming matter, since that is what you and I are made from. As we will see, some scientists balk at the idea that neutrinos can be responsible for changes in the decay rate. But what they propose is something even more radical -- a completely new particle!

More particle weirdness

If we insist on holding on to our current understanding about neutrinos, there is a possibility that this unexpected effect is brought about by a previously unknown particle emitted by the sun.

"What we're suggesting is that something that doesn't really interact with anything is changing something that can't be changed... It's an effect that no one yet understands. Theorists are starting to say, 'What's going on?' But that's what the evidence points to. It's a challenge for the physicists and a challenge for the solar people too.[If the mystery particle is not a neutrino], It would have to be something we don't know about, an unknown particle that is also emitted by the sun and has this effect, and that would be even more remarkable." -- Peter Sturrock

Resources:


The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies, and Possibilities


Now That's Weird - 2012 Apocalypse


2012 Survival Guide


The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012


How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times


Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis


Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse


SAS Survival Handbook, Revised Edition: For Any Climate, in Any Situation


Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition


When All Hell Breaks Loose


Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family


Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It's Too Late


Darkest Before the Dawn: How to Survive the end of the World as we know it.

Contributing sources:

David, LightEye of Norway

http://viewzone.com/expando33.html

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Anti-Aging: Turn the Clock Back!

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