I've always found that describing the universe as made of up quicksand- the larger the object trapped in quicksand is, the less mobility it has. Smaller things (e.g. photons) can move easily through this universal quicksand whereas big things (e.g. W bosons) can't.
Well...a vacuum is defined as a space that contains absolutely no matter. There will be next to no matter in the space between electrons, but there will always be neutrinos traveling through that space which are tiny particles (but still have mass).
1) No idea how the computers did it.
2) Energy creates mass if there's enough of it. This is the whole principle behind the LHC, it creates high enough energies that large particles are created.
3) Assume you have two quarks. If you try to separate them, the strong force between them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Shells.png
Shows levels ordered by energy if you don't feel like solving any equations.
As Glenn said, it's not based upon their principal quantum number, but rather the energy level is based on the energy required to fill the subshells (which may have...
Sam, that clears a lot of things up, thanks a lot.
Ben, that only applies if you are are worried about the weak force eigenstates of these quarks, rather than just the interaction itself (regardless of the cross sections of these interactions), right?
There are probabilities for where the electron will be located at any given moment. Take hydrogen for example, which only has one electron. Arbitrarily, let's say there's a 90% chance that the electron will reside in the first energy shell. That means that there's a 10% chance that the electron...
I didn't think the CKM has anything to do with electroweak annihilation cross sections, but rather gives the likelihood of flavor change from one quark to another which can be used to calculate weak force eigenstates of quarks, but not the cross section of electroweak annihilation.
Basically...
I've heard the weak force described as essentially "a force between particles with flavor" just as the EM is "a force between particles with charge". Mathematically, I understand the concept of the CKM matrix being used to evaluate the weak force eigenstates of quarks, but I'm confused as to how...