Is mass real?
You know the drill by now. One question, three meanings. First meaning: are the physical effects of mass real? Answer: yes, of course. Second meaning: is mass itself physically real? Answer: no. Third...
View ArticleParametrising mass
Since we have demonstrated that mass is not a physical concept, but only a mathematical one, we need a suitable symmetry group, or “gauge group”, to describe how mass varies between different...
View ArticleA new mass equation
I’ve been trying to understand how parametrisation of mass works with reference to the underlying cubic symmetry, and was therefore drawn again to looking at the baryon octet, which is usually drawn...
View ArticleThe difference between fermions and bosons
For 100 years it has been assumed that the difference between fermions and bosons is the difference between spinors and vectors. This is something that physicists learn when they are very young. It is...
View ArticleThere’s no such thing as a fundamental boson
There were lots of interesting comments on the previous post, including the above comment by Nige Cook, so I thought I’d expand a little on the issues raised. It is certainly a fundamental principle...
View ArticleWhere have all the spinors gone?
I have argued in recent posts that the entire concept of a “spinor” is redundant, and can be replaced by “complex 2-vector”, thereby allowing all of the standard models of physics to coalesce around...
View ArticleThe ubiquitous 2/3
Everyone knows that the charge on the electron is -1, and the charge on the up quark is 2/3. This is only the first of many occurrences of the fraction 2/3 in the Standard Model. Electroweak mixing...
View ArticleThe last mixing angle?
While writing the previous post, it occurred to me to think again about the remaining mixing angle, between down and bottom quarks, fixing the strange quark. The simplest particles in which such a...
View ArticleWhatever happened to string theory?
Peter Woit mentioned an article with this title, on his blog a couple of weeks ago. It incudes quotes from various prominent people, including Woit, summarising their views on the subject. One quote...
View ArticleFalsification of General Relativity
Pavel Kroupa has a blog called “The Dark Matter Crisis” in which he popularises his work on MOND (modified Newtonian dynamics) and analysis of astronomical observations that falsify many currently...
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