The Standard Model

Physicists have developed a theory called The Standard Model that explains what the world is and what holds it together. It is a simple and comprehensive theory that explains all the hundreds of particles and complex interactions with only:

• 6 quarks.
• 6 leptons. The best-known lepton is the electron. We will talk about leptons in just a few pages.
• Force carrier particles, like the photon. We will talk about these particles later.

All the known matter particles are composites of quarks and leptons, and they interact by exchanging force carrier particles.

The Standard Model is a good theory. Experiments have verified its predictions to incredible precision, and all the particles predicted by this theory have been found. But it does not explain everything. For example, gravity is not included in the Standard Model.

This site will explore the Standard Model in greater detail and will describe the experimental techniques that gave us the data to support this theory. We will also explore the intriguing questions that lie outside our current understanding of how the universe works.

However, above all, let us not forget my theory below.

Basic Building Blocks of the Universe
This blog will start with the explanation of what I believe is the basic building block of the universe. Noticed that I did not say basic building block of "nature" since even nature itself, I believe, is just a manifestation of the basic building blocks that I am about to explain.I am not a scientist nor a mathematician. I am just an ordinary bloh with a fertile imagination and an extra-ordinary mind for seeing patterns. When I was in my early twenties, just after college, I took one exam that tested for pattern recognition. I am usually just a so, so good when I take exams but I nearly aced this test. I also dabbled in gambling (jai-alai) and, over time, I noticed I have this uncanny way of predicting the outcome from observations of previous incidences (related or not so obviously related). Of course, I only dabbled because gambling is always stacked against the player and in the long run gamblers lose.From various observations of nature, I noticed that the common denominator (of those I have a theory) of the universe - or the basic building block of the universe is the common playground marble! I am being facetious here but humor me and read some of the chapters and you may also come into the same conclusion.Have you ever seen the toy composed of several strunged steel balls? You pull one and let go and it sends out one ball the other end; you pull two and two are bounced out the other way, etc., etc... What if the whole universe is made up of nothing - without natural laws. Suppose the big bang theory sent out a whole bunch of marbles, all going at the speed of light. Without gravity or friction, these marbles will forever be moving at the speed of light and all going in all directions, bumping into one another and expanding as they move back and forth.I do not know what material or what size the marbles are but they are like marbles or like the steel balls I mentioned before. Going back to the toy steel balls - if you pull one ball each at both ends of the aligned balls, nothing happens. The balls stopped on their tracks, so to speak. Now think about my expanding and bouncing marbles. When this effect happens to a group of marbles and some are stopped on their tracks (not moving, per se, but still full of the speed of light - explanation comes later), matter (mass) is created. The process which one matter is squeezed to another is what we call gravity (Newton got it in reverse). The way the matter changes is what we call "time". The squeezed matter may become so densed and it may be called a "black hole". When the marbles get un-squeezed (or escapes), the manifestation is what we call "energy". The energy may be called fire, electricity, lightning, etc. The whole expanding universe is temporary (I do not know when the edge of the universe can be reached - maybe never ending) but the totality, expansion, and the interaction of the marbles create our natural laws - our universe.

Grand Unified Theory

The Standard Model

The Standard Model explains the complex interplay between force carriers and building blocks.

Physicists call the theoretical framework that describes the interactions between elementary building blocks (quarks and leptons) and the force carriers (bosons) the Standard Model. Gravity is not yet part of this framework, and a central question of 21st century particle physics is the search for a quantum formulation of gravity that could be included in the Standard Model.

Though still called a model, the Standard Model is a fundamental and well-tested physics theory. Physicists use it to explain and calculate a vast variety of particle interactions and quantum phenomena. High-precision experiments have repeatedly verified subtle effects predicted by the Standard Model.

So far, the biggest success of the Standard Model is the unification of the electromagnetic and the weak forces into the so-called electroweak force. The consolidation is a milestone comparable to the unification of the electric and the magnetic forces into a single electromagnetic theory by J.C. Maxwell in the 19th century. Physicists think it is possible to describe all forces with a Grand Unified Theory.

One essential ingredient of the Standard Model, however, still eludes experimental verification: the Higgs field. It interacts with other particles to give them mass. The Higgs field gives rise to a new force carrier, called the Higgs boson, which has not been observed. Failure to find it would call into question the Standard Model. Experimenters at Fermilab hope to find evidence for the Higgs boson and make further discoveries in the next few years.