Strangest Star known is the 'Talk of Astronomy'

Charles Cagle wrote:


Now that's the problem in a nutshell. The P-P process has never been
observed, no once. Not in any experiment in the history of science.
So you presume something that has nothing to do with reality. I think
it was Hans Bethe who invented the process (or at least built a horse
to ride on from its assumptions) and no one has taken him or anyone
else to task on it. When one cannot differentiate the work product of
a so-called scientist from that of a pathological liar then the proper
conclusion is that there is no difference and that science which makes
use of such work products has itself become pathological.


P-P chain energys are observed and now the solar neutrino problem has
been solved.

PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
Number 617 December 13, 2002 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James
Riordon

PHYSICS STORIES OF 2002. The top two physics stories for the past 12
months were the total accounting of neutrinos from the sun by the Sudbury
Neutrino Observatory (SNO), thus solving the solar neutrino problem (Update
586; www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/split/586-1.html); and the formation
and detection of antihydrogen atoms at CERN (Updates 605 and 611,
www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/split/605-1.html and
www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/split/611-1.html). Other notable physics
developments for the year include stopping and storing light in a solid
(Update 571), the observation of phase-transition behavior in nuclei (572),
publication of some unsent letters by Niels Bohr to Werner Heisenberg (576),
interferometry with C-70 molecules (579), a dispute over "fusion" in
sonoluminescence (579, 599), most precise tests of special relativity (571,
590), sharper maps of the cosmic microwave background (591), "droplet" of
light (596), claims for element 118 retracted (597), verification of the
notion that the second law of thermodynamics can be violated on small
spacetime intervals (598), high precision measurements of CP violation in B
meson decays and in the g-2 factor of the muon (600), scandal at Lucent
(606), record high laboratory magnetic fields (614), polarization in the
cosmic microwave background detected (606), 2002 Nobel prize for physics
(608), noise can improve balance (612), and longest measured atomic lifetime
(616). All the above Update items can be retrieved from our archive at
www.aip.org/physnews/update.

REACTOR ANTI-NEUTRINO DISAPPEARANCE, measured by a detector in Japan,
supports the idea that neutrinos oscillate from one type to another and that
they possess mass. Nuclear reactors produce several things: heat,
electricity, spent fuel rods, and neutrinos. The neutrinos (or, to be more
exact, electron anti-neutrinos) are a result of fission reactions inside the
reactor core. But some of the electron antineutrinos, once they're underway
and moving through the Earth, manifest one of the weirdest phenomena in all
of physics, namely the ability to exist as a composite of several
sub-species. That is, what we call a neutrino is really several (perhaps
three) neutrinos in one. At any point along its trajectory the generic
neutrino might (if you were to capture it just then) appear as an electron
neutrino, but farther along it might look like a muon neutrino, in which
case it would elude detectors tuned to detect only electron nu's.
The Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector (KamLAND) sets out
to sample this odd mode of being. The apparatus, basically a huge reservoir
of optically-active liquid viewed by numerous phototubes, looks for
interactions in which an incoming nu strikes a proton, creating in their
stead a trackable neutron-positron pair. KamLAND resides in an underground
lab beneath Toyama, Japan. It is a sort of telescope peering not at
galaxies in the sky; instead it stares through a block of terrestrial crust
looking for the neutrino warmth cast off by a constellation of 69 reactors
in Japan and Korea.

Taking into account the laws of physics governing the reactions in the
reactor cores, the known power ratings for the reactors, their aggregate
reactor-detector distances, and the duration of the experiment (145 days),
one would expect seeing 86 true events, whereas the actual number was 54.
The researchers conclude that the disappearance of events is due to neutrino
oscillation.

This result is not merely a confirmation of oscillation research carried
out with solar nu's at such detectors as Super Kamiokande in Japan and the
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in Canada (see Update 586,
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/split/586-1.html). For one thing
KamLAND studies anti-neutrinos rather than neutrinos. Furthermore, the
production of neutrinos in a reactor is much closer at hand and better
understood than is the case for the sun. The KamLAND finding also serves to
narrow the theoretical explanation of the neutrino's split personality.
(Eguchi et al., paper submitted to Physical Review Letters, text and
background information at:
http://hep.stanford.edu/neutrino/KamLAND/KamLAND.html)

Charles Cagle wrote:


Now that's the problem in a nutshell. The P-P process has never been
observed, no once. Not in any experiment in the history of science.
So you presume something that has nothing to do with reality. I think
it was Hans Bethe who invented the process (or at least built a horse
to ride on from its assumptions) and no one has taken him or anyone
else to task on it. When one cannot differentiate the work product of
a so-called scientist from that of a pathological liar then the proper
conclusion is that there is no difference and that science which makes
use of such work products has itself become pathological.


PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
Number 608 October 8, 2002 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James
Riordon

THE 2002 NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS recognizes work that led to the
establishment of two new branches of astrophysics, those involving x rays
and neutrinos. The award will be presented to Raymond Davis (University of
Pennsylvania and Brookhaven Natl. Lab), Masatoshi Koshiba (University of
Tokyo), and Riccardo Giacconi (Associated Universities Inc.). In the 1960s
Davis was the first to detect neutrinos coming from the sun. The number of
nu's recorded fell short of predictions made by John Bahcall (Institute for
Advanced Study) and thus was born the "solar neutrino problem." Later
detector experiments, such as SAGE and Gallex, also failed to observe the
expected number of neutrinos from the sun. The best explanation for the
shortfall was that electron neutrinos made in the solar core, as products of
nuclear fusion reactions, might be transforming while in flight toward Earth
into other types of neutrino such as muon neutrinos, which could not be
recorded in terrestrial detectors.
This hypothesis was put to the test in the Kamiokande detector, which had
earlier sought to find evidence for proton decay. Koshiba and his
collaborators enlarged the detector (Super-Kamiokande) and finally affirmed
(by observing asymmetries in cosmic-ray-engendered nu's coming through the
Earth to the detector or directly into the detector from Earth's atmosphere)
that nu's were indeed transforming, or "oscillating." Still more proof for
the oscillation principle arrived this past spring when the Sudbury Neutrino
Observatory (SNO), capable of directly detecting all three types of
neutrino, reported that all solar nu's (albeit not the same mix as was
produced in the sun) were accounted for.
Neutrinos are important in astrophysics since they might have played a
considerable role in shaping or herding early galaxies; they are the form of
energy coming directly from the solar core (photons scatter around inside
the sun for up to a million years before escaping); and they account of the
largest share of energy released during supernovas; indeed, after the 1987A
supernova, a dozen or so nu's from the event were observed in terrestrial
detectors.
As for x-ray astrophysics, Giacconi was the first to employ an x-ray
telescope in space (1962) and observe specific x-ray sources outside our
solar system. There followed decades of new orbiting x-ray telescopes
(e.g., ASCA, RXTE, ROSAT, Einstein, Yokhoh, Chandra) and notable x-ray
discoveries, such as the detection of an x-ray background, resolving that
background mostly into point sources, and the detection of x rays from a
variety of sources, such as comets, black holes, quasars, and neutron
stars.
(Background articles in Physics Today, August 98, Kamiokande oscillation
results; July 02, SNO results; May 00, x-ray background; Nov 00, Chandra
results. Some useful websites:SNO website: www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/;
US-Kamiokande: www.phys.washington.edu/~superk/; Beamline, Winter ?99:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/be...ii.pdf;Swedish Academy:
http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureate...yreading.html; historic APS
journal articles, www.aps.org/media/; Chandra X-Ray Telescope:
www.chandra.harvard.edu . Some past Update items include: solar neutrino
problem: http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/19.../pnu003-1.htm; x rays from a
supernova: http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/19.../pnu250-2.htm; x-ray
background: http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/19.../pnu175-2.htm; background
pt. sources: http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/20.../pnu467-1.htm; Chandra:
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/19.../pnu441-1.htm; quark stars:
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/20...it/585-1.html; nu oscillation:
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/19.../pnu375-1.htm; nu mass limits:
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/20...it/600-2.html; recent SNO:
www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/split/586-1.html)

3-DIMENSIONAL INK. Most people are familiar with three-dimension drawings,
which are of course rendered on two dimensional surfaces in a way that gives
the illusion of depth. Jennifer Lewis ,
217-244-4973) and colleagues at the University of Illinois, however, are
developing techniques to draw truly 3-D structures. The researchers are
perfecting "inks" that carry tiny particles made of metals, ceramics,
plastics, or a variety of other materials instead of pigments. The inks are
deposited with a machine similar to an ink jet printer. But unlike most
inks, the fluid that the printer deposits is a gel that can be built up,
layer by layer, into three-dimensional structures. The gel must be thick
enough to support itself as it spans empty space. (Imagine, for instance,
squeezing out a stream of toothpaste across your fingers. The line of
toothpaste can, at least for a little while, support itself across a small
gap between two fingers.) It also must be designed to retain its shape
without significant shrinking or sagging as it hardens. The manufacturing
technique may soon lead to novel structures woven of inky threads only tens
of microns in diameter (see image at www.aip.org/mgr/png). Lewis will
present recent studies of 3-D inks
(http://www.rheology.org/sor02a/abstract.asp?PaperID=243) on October 14
at the 74th annual Society of Rheology Meeting
(http://www.rheology.org/sor/annual_meeting/2002Oct/), in Minneapolis.

QUAOAR is the name for a planet-like inhabitant of the Kuiper Belt debris
zone lying beyond Neptune. Spotted first as a mere dot of light, it has now
been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a plum for students of the
solar system: with a diameter of 1300 km and a distance of 4 billion miles
from Earth, Quaoar is the largest solar-system object to be measured since
Pluto was discovered in the 1930s and the farthest-out to be resolved by a
telescope. The finding was announced yesterday by Caltech scientists at the
meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical
Society in Alabama.

SLAC IS 40 YEARS OLD. On October 2 the anniversary of SLAC's founding was
observed at a large gathering (http://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/40years/ )
The Stanford Linear Acceleration Center has been the scene of many notable
strides in physics, including the deep inelastic scattering of electrons
from a hydrogen target (helping to establish the existence of quarks inside
protons and neutrons), the discovery of the Psi meson (helping to establish
the existence of charm quarks; similar research was performed simultaneously
at Brookhaven), the discovery of the tau lepton, studies of the Z boson
(suggesting a limit on the number of quarks and leptons), and most recently
studies of B meson decay (exhibiting a violation of CP conservation).

***********
PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE is a digest of physics news items arising
from physics meetings, physics journals, newspapers and
magazines, and other news sources. It is provided free of charge
as a way of broadly disseminating information about physics and
physicists. For that reason, you are free to post it, if you like,
where others can read it, providing only that you credit AIP.
Physics News Update appears approximately once a week.

Charles Cagle wrote:


Now that's the problem in a nutshell. The P-P process has never been
observed, no once. Not in any experiment in the history of science.
So you presume something that has nothing to do with reality. I think
it was Hans Bethe who invented the process (or at least built a horse
to ride on from its assumptions) and no one has taken him or anyone
else to task on it. When one cannot differentiate the work product of
a so-called scientist from that of a pathological liar then the proper
conclusion is that there is no difference and that science which makes
use of such work products has itself become pathological.



Not only is the pp-chain observed, but The Solar Neutrino Problem Has Been Closed
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/586.html

Charles Cagle writes:
[ ... ]
In article , Craig Markwardt
wrote:
A nitpicker would be concerned with minutiae. My expression showed
that, based on the understanding of thermal gases, the ratio in
question would indeed change significantly with temperature (as
described above), and so your criticism is baseless.

CM

Nonsense. Your understanding of thermal gases has no relationship to
reality if you ignore the fact that low mass gases (which can be
completely ionized) will change the behavior of the gas with respect to
the effect of elementary particles overlapping in momentum space.

On the contrary, the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution of thermal gases
has been tested in many experimental scenarios over the past decades,
and even centuries. It speaks directly the question of the velocity
distribution of gas atoms, and hence the proportion of gas atoms which
overlap in velocity space. The ionization state or mass of the is
largely irrelevant to the temperature dependence of the distribution.
I showed that the temperature has a large effect on the ratio of
overlaps, and you continue not to address this point.

CM

In article , Craig Markwardt
wrote:

Charles Cagle writes:
[ ... ]
In article , Craig Markwardt
wrote:
A nitpicker would be concerned with minutiae. My expression showed
that, based on the understanding of thermal gases, the ratio in
question would indeed change significantly with temperature (as
described above), and so your criticism is baseless.

CM

Nonsense. Your understanding of thermal gases has no relationship to
reality if you ignore the fact that low mass gases (which can be
completely ionized) will change the behavior of the gas with respect to
the effect of elementary particles overlapping in momentum space.

On the contrary, the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution of thermal gases
has been tested in many experimental scenarios over the past decades,
and even centuries. It speaks directly the question of the velocity
distribution of gas atoms, and hence the proportion of gas atoms which
overlap in velocity space. The ionization state or mass of the is
largely irrelevant to the temperature dependence of the distribution.
I showed that the temperature has a large effect on the ratio of
overlaps, and you continue not to address this point.

CM

Okay. Let's address it then. According to the Maxwell Boltzmann
distribution of thermal gases we see that as temperature increases that
there is a wider range of velocities available to the particles of the
gas. But also there is a higher collision rate. For a wider range of
velicities we might easily see that this translates into a change of
the ratio of pairs of nuclei which are overlapping in momentum space
vs. the pairs of nuclei which are not overlapping in momentum space.
In this case we see that a temperature rise would lead to change in the
ratio so that fewer pairs would be overlapping in momentum space. On
the other side of the coin we see that each particle will undergo more
collisions per fixed unit of time. So, I'll agree that as temperature
increases that the ratio between the two type of pairs becomes more
extreme and this would cause the number of fusion reactions to fall
with a temperature increase. But a temperature increase also means
that a the nuclei will also be ionized a greater percentage of the
time. And ionization is an important factor for nuclear fusion
according to my modeling. Next, the average velocity is higher and
this means that the particles in the confined gas will be undergoing
collisions at a higher rate than they would at a lower temperature. It
is evident that the higher collsion rate will lead to more 'states' per
fixed unit of time for each particle and even with a more extreme ratio
of the types of pairs it seems obvious that the higher collision rate
because it generates more 'states' per fixed unit of time will lead to
an increase in the number of fusion reactions per fixed unit of time.
So, I don't find it unusual that more fusion reaction per fixed unit of
time will take place with an increase in temperature. But I still say
that increasing the temperature will not decrease the ratio of the
types of pairs. I previously stated that an increase in temperature
would not change the ratio of pairs to a significant degree. And in
fact I have at times stated that an increase in temperature wouldn't
effect the ratio. It is obvious that an increase in temperature will
cause some change in the ratio which translates into a more extreme
ratio. One might think that my model would predict fewer fusion
reactions by raising the temperature because the ratio has become more
extreme. But I'm saying that the fact that more states per unit of
time per particle are evolved with a higher temperature contributes to
an increase in the number of fusion reactions per fixed unit of time
even with an increase in the ratio between the two types of pairs.
This only reifies my point that one cannot change the ratio in favor of
more fusion reactions. In other words if the ratio were to decrease
then one could expect more fusion reactions per unit of time that was
keyed to say the mean free path time of flight.

I've always agreed that increasing the temperature of a confined fusion
fuel gas would lead to an increase in the number of fusion reactions
per fixed unit of time but that the standard analysis of the fusion
reaction event itself has always been flawed. I stand by my claim that
the only way to build a working nuclear fusion reactor that can reach
the 'ignited' state is to build one which can significantly lower (or
actually invert) the ratio between the two types of pairs.

Charles Cagle

In article , Sam Wormley
wrote:

Charles Cagle wrote:


Now that's the problem in a nutshell. The P-P process has never been
observed, no once. Not in any experiment in the history of science.
So you presume something that has nothing to do with reality. I think
it was Hans Bethe who invented the process (or at least built a horse
to ride on from its assumptions) and no one has taken him or anyone
else to task on it. When one cannot differentiate the work product of
a so-called scientist from that of a pathological liar then the proper
conclusion is that there is no difference and that science which makes
use of such work products has itself become pathological.



Not only is the pp-chain observed, but The Solar Neutrino Problem Has Been
Closed
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/586.html

Once again, Sam shows us that he is incapable of separating the
pseudoscientific hype from facts.

Charles Cagle

Charles Cagle writes:

In article , Craig Markwardt
wrote:
...
On the contrary, the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution of thermal gases
has been tested in many experimental scenarios over the past decades,
and even centuries. It speaks directly the question of the velocity
distribution of gas atoms, and hence the proportion of gas atoms which
overlap in velocity space. The ionization state or mass of the is
largely irrelevant to the temperature dependence of the distribution.
I showed that the temperature has a large effect on the ratio of
overlaps, and you continue not to address this point.

CM

Okay. Let's address it then. According to the Maxwell Boltzmann
distribution of thermal gases we see that as temperature increases that
there is a wider range of velocities available to the particles of the
gas. But also there is a higher collision rate. For a wider range of
velicities we might easily see that this translates into a change of
the ratio of pairs of nuclei which are overlapping in momentum space
vs. the pairs of nuclei which are not overlapping in momentum space.
In this case we see that a temperature rise would lead to change in the
ratio so that fewer pairs would be overlapping in momentum space. On
the other side of the coin we see that each particle will undergo more
collisions per fixed unit of time. So, I'll agree that as temperature
increases that the ratio between the two type of pairs becomes more
extreme and this would cause the number of fusion reactions to fall
with a temperature increase. But a temperature increase also means
that a the nuclei will also be ionized a greater percentage of the
time. And ionization is an important factor for nuclear fusion
according to my modeling. Next, the average velocity is higher and
this means that the particles in the confined gas will be undergoing
collisions at a higher rate than they would at a lower temperature.

1. Using the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution I determined the exact
fraction of a gas overlaps within a certain velocity range, and is
proportional to 1/v = 1/sqrt(T).

2. Using straightforward ideal gas physics, the rate of collisions per
unit time scales as v = sqrt(T)

3. At the temperatures and densities present in contemporary fusion
experiments, the atoms are totally ionized (ionization potential
~14 eV, plasma temperature 5000 eV). Therefore your comment
about change in ionization with temperature are irrelevant.

Therefore, the increase in collision rate is offset exactly by the
dilution in velocity space, and your model would incorrectly predict
no change with temperature.

CM

In article , Craig Markwardt
wrote:

Charles Cagle writes:

In article , Craig Markwardt
wrote:
...
On the contrary, the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution of thermal gases
has been tested in many experimental scenarios over the past decades,
and even centuries. It speaks directly the question of the velocity
distribution of gas atoms, and hence the proportion of gas atoms which
overlap in velocity space. The ionization state or mass of the is
largely irrelevant to the temperature dependence of the distribution.
I showed that the temperature has a large effect on the ratio of
overlaps, and you continue not to address this point.

CM

Okay. Let's address it then. According to the Maxwell Boltzmann
distribution of thermal gases we see that as temperature increases that
there is a wider range of velocities available to the particles of the
gas. But also there is a higher collision rate. For a wider range of
velicities we might easily see that this translates into a change of
the ratio of pairs of nuclei which are overlapping in momentum space
vs. the pairs of nuclei which are not overlapping in momentum space.
In this case we see that a temperature rise would lead to change in the
ratio so that fewer pairs would be overlapping in momentum space. On
the other side of the coin we see that each particle will undergo more
collisions per fixed unit of time. So, I'll agree that as temperature
increases that the ratio between the two type of pairs becomes more
extreme and this would cause the number of fusion reactions to fall
with a temperature increase. But a temperature increase also means
that a the nuclei will also be ionized a greater percentage of the
time. And ionization is an important factor for nuclear fusion
according to my modeling. Next, the average velocity is higher and
this means that the particles in the confined gas will be undergoing
collisions at a higher rate than they would at a lower temperature.

1. Using the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution I determined the exact
fraction of a gas overlaps within a certain velocity range, and is
proportional to 1/v = 1/sqrt(T).

2. Using straightforward ideal gas physics, the rate of collisions per
unit time scales as v = sqrt(T)

3. At the temperatures and densities present in contemporary fusion
experiments, the atoms are totally ionized (ionization potential
~14 eV, plasma temperature 5000 eV). Therefore your comment
about change in ionization with temperature are irrelevant.

Therefore, the increase in collision rate is offset exactly by the
dilution in velocity space, and your model would incorrectly predict
no change with temperature.

CM

Nonsense. A totally ionized gas doesn't emit radiation. The light
from an ionized gas is produced as electrons are being acquired by
nuclei. A dilution in velocity space doesn't offset an increase in
collsion space. Where the hell's your head?

Charles Cagle

Charles Cagle wrote:


Nonsense. A totally ionized gas doesn't emit radiation. The light
from an ionized gas is produced as electrons are being acquired by
nuclei. A dilution in velocity space doesn't offset an increase in
collsion space. Where the hell's your head?

"velocity space" ????