Thursday, February 11, 2010

unification of "gravity" and "strong interaction force"



Quantum Gravity:
Gravity is regarded as an important force on the cosmological/macroscopic scale,but not significant at the subatomic scale. Physicists have long sought to reconcile/unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. Demonstrating the equivalence of the strong interaction force and gravity would make that synthesis/unification a reality
Gravity is regarded as a weak force becuz it acts on objects separated by vast distances. The force is inversely proportional to the distance between the two masses.
Hence at immense distances even massive objects such as galaxy superclusters are not affected by gravity.(whereas galaxy and galaxy cluster slowly implode toward their center under the influence of gravity, the force of gravity is so small between galaxy superclusters that it is overcome by the outward expansion of the universe. We do not know what is powering the observed accelerating expansion of the universe.)
Conversely, at short subatomic and infinitesimal distances,gravity can be a strong force even between small masses such as hadrons(subatomic particles).*
 Fg = G (m1*m2)/(d^2) where G= gravitational constant (6.67*10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2)or 6.67300 × 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2 ,and m1 and m2 = the masses of object 1 and object 2 respectively. For example:proton mass = 1.67261 x 10^-27 kg d=the distance (in meters) between the two objects = the separating distance between the centers of mass of the particles = diameter of a proton is 2 × 10^-14 meters (The proton has a radius about 10^-15 m )
Thus as d^2 approaches zero,...(m1m2) approaches infinity Thus when two particles possessing mass are contiguous (such as neutrons in an atomic nucleus),or fuse together to become one (such as a proton and electron combining to form a neutron ,or quarks combining to form a proton*),the force of gravity maintaining the integrity of the unified structure may be immense! If hadrons are described not as discrete material particles,but waves, then they can perhaps interpenetrate each other (fuse together) to occupy the same space. Two objects occupy the same space when they become one. Thus the spatial distance("d" in the above equation) between the two separate particles collapses to zero. In fact at this quantum level (the subatomic scale), gravity may be identical with or a component of the "strong interaction force" wch bonds hadrons (and their constituent components)together within the atomic nucleus.It is a force of attraction between nucleons at short range. Essentially we can say that gravity and the "strong nuclear interaction force" are identical!
Distance (d)in the above equation must be measured not to the outer surface of the sphere/object/particle but to to their point centers. Thus two contiguous/touching spheres are separated by a distance equal to the sum of their two radiuses. To calculate the force of gravity between hadrons within the nucleus of an atom we need to know: What are the radiuses of some subatomic particles? What is the radius and mass of a neutron? proton mass = 1.67261 x 10 -27 kg, Thus gravity is what keeps a rapidly spinning mass together . Without this force of attraction,the center would not hold.Gravity draws matter toward a center point. Gravity is the weakest force in the universe,yet in sufficient amounts it can capture light.
 A critically large mass has the strength to prevent the escape of light or to "contain" light energy. In fact all matter is a storage battery/repository for light energy. Matter is light in a "potential" form.The annihilation of mass results in the creation of light energy.
Matter and energy are interchangeable forms of one substance/stuff.
 In molecules, energy is stored in chemical form (as bonds between atoms). All material particles are like "black holes" wch confine the light energy they contain through gravity,strong nuclear interaction force , or other unidentified forces. We do not understand the mechanisms by wch this potential energy is captured,confined, and released.Since matter is an unlimited reservoir of energy ..,understanding how energy is captured and released from this potential form ,would enable us to harness it in a controlled manner. We need to apply some fresh thinking to this problem so that we can use this limitless supply of energy, and wean ourselves from fossil fuels. Black Holes do not have a minimum size ,and could be the size of an atom or neutron. They are ultra dense points of hidden mass/energy. It has been calculated that the minimum amount of mass required to form a black hole (i.e. to confine light and prevent it's escape) would be 20 times the sun's mass. But perhaps it's not important what the starting mass is so much as the mass density finally attained within the black hole! If sufficient matter and energy(mass) is squeezed/compressed into a space of sufficiently small radius,then density approaches infinity. Gravity compresses aggregations of diffuse matter and energy into ever-smaller volumes ...thereby squeezing mass densities towards infinity.
It has been argued that only stars emit electromagnetic radiation and since stars formed only 600 million years after the Big Bang, prior to this the early universe was opaque; that is, it did not radiate electromagnetic radiation. However it seems unlikely that all the energy emmitted from and radiated by the Big Bang event was made only of microwaves (cosmic microwave background radiation). Other wavelenghts of electromagnetic radiation would have contributed to the background radiation emanating from the Big Bang event. It seems more likely that light of all wavelenghts was generated by and blasted out at the instant of the Big Bang ,just as it is created in a thermonuclear explosion.
That shock wave or wave front would have propogated outward at light speed ,and would not be expected to be diffused throughout space like the background microwave radiation .That wave front defines/delineates the outwardly moving boundary of space, and hence the outer limit/boundary of the universe. At the instant of the Big Bang , matter and antimatter existed in equal amounts because the laws of nature require that matter and antimatter be created in pairs. So where is the antimatter? Because matter and antimatter on contact annihilate each other in a burst of energy according to the equation, E=mc2.,we could use this phenomenon as a means of converting matter into useable energy.
 Fg = G (m1*m2)/(d^2) where G= gravitational constant (6.67*10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2) =6.67300 × 10^-11 m3 kg-1 s-2, and m1 and m2 = the masses of object 1 and object 2 respectively ,d=the distance (in meters) between the two objects
Sample calculation: What is the gravitational force exerted between two protons within the atomic nucleus: proton mass = 1.67261 x 10^-27 kg proton diameter = 2 × 10^-14 meters Fg = G (m1*m2)/(d^2)= (6.67300 × 10^-11 m3 kg-1 s-2)(1.67261 x 10 ^-27 kg)( 1.67261 x 10 ^-27 kg)/(2 × 10^-14 m) x (2 × 10^-14 m) = (6.67300 × 10^-11 m3 kg-1 s-2)(2.79762421 × 10^-54kg^2)/4 × 10^-28 m^2 = 6.67300 x 2.79762421 = 18.6685464 x 10^-65 m3kgs^-2/4 × 10^-28 m^2 = 4.6671366 x 10^-37 mkgs^-2
The newton is the unit of force derived in the SI system; it is equal to the amount of force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one meter per second per second. In dimensional analysis, F=ma, multiplying m (kg) by a (m/s2), the dimension for 1 newton unit is therefore: 1N =1 kg·m/s² As mass density is increased by reducing the volume of the sphere within wch the mass is contained by one thousandfold(10^3 X),the diameter of the particle is also reduced by 10^3.Thus "d^2" in the above equation becomes 4 × 10^-34 m^2 Reduced by 10^9 fold ,"d" becomes 2 x 10^-23 ,and "d^2" becomes 4 × 10^-46 m^2. But reduced by 10^19 fold,"d" becomes 2 x 10^-33 ,and "d^2" becomes 4 x 10^-66 m^2,and "F" now becomes a larger number: 46.671366 mkgs^-2 . For every 10fold decrease in "d", there is a 10fold increase in "F". As "d" becomes smaller and smaller (that is, as "d" approaches zero),the numerator in the equation becomes larger and larger. In fact as "d" approaches zero,the numerator approaches infinity. Thus at very small distances (less than 10^-33 m)gravity again becomes a significant force. Gravity may have a significant role in holding dense particles less than 10^-33 m in diameter together. Such a scenario can occur when two protons fuse/coalesce to become one (that is, they come to occupy the same space,thereby the distance between them collapses to zero!
 Any single particle (Pm3) can be mathematically described as two separate "virtual" particles (Pm1 and Pm2) each carrying half the mass and separated by near-zero distance.
see "zero degrees of separation"
Any one object/particle can be split in two.
Two objects/particles can occupy (co-exist within) the same/common space.
Any single object can be described as "two objects orbiting a common center of mass". These are simply two equivalent descriptions of the same object! (see "Supertoroid" below)
"F" then is the force with wch the constituent virtual particles are held together.
* There are some 60 identified particles trapped inside neutrons The Standard Model describes forces between particles smaller than atoms. The Standard Model predicts that exchange particles called gauge bosons are the fundamental means by which forces are emitted and absorbed.

Sphere packing:
How many spheres can be fitted into a given space?

Supertoroid designed by Fergus Ray Murray. http://oolong.co.uk/tor1.htm

The mass of the proton (1.67262158 × 10^-27 kilograms) is about eighty times greater than the sum of the rest masses of the quarks that make it up, while the gluons have zero rest mass. The extra energy of the quarks and gluons in a region within a proton, as compared to the energy of the quarks and gluons in the QCD vacuum, accounts for over 98% of the mass. The diameter of atoms is hundreds of millions of times greater than the diameter of nucleons located at the center of atoms.
Bibliography Sears, W. Francis. University Physics. New York. Addison Wesley, 1992: 596-603. "Our physics books say that the diameter of a proton is 2 × 10-14 m Christensen, James J. The Structure of an Atom. London: Wiley, 1990: 60-65. "The structure is reflected in the size of nucleons which are about 10-15 m across" MIllikan, Robert Andrews. Electronics (+ and -) Protons, Photons, Neutrons, and Cosmic Rays. London: Cambridge University Press, 1990: 47.
"The radius of a proton is on the order of 10-13 cm" 10-15 m Brown, Jonathan. The Physical Science Encyclopedia. New York. Cornell University Press, 1980. "The proton has a radius about 10-15 m World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, 1998: 69. "A proton has a diameter of approximately one-millionth of a nanometer" 10-15 m
nuclear range is called a short-range, wherein the nucleons attract each other with a force, much larger than the electrostatic repulsion between the positively charged protons. This means, two neutrons attract each other though they are neutral; two protons attract each other though they are both positively charged; a proton and a neutron attract each other though they are not of opposite charges. In other words the nucleons bind themselves together when they happen to come closer than 10-12 cm. Within this range, the closer they are the stronger their bond is. charge on a proton is +1. Its location is the nucleus, and its mass is 1.67262 x 10-27 kg. Protons have an effective size of about 1.2 x 10-15 m, and the nucleus is roughly the cube root of the number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) times that typical proton size, usually still on the order of 10-15 to 10-14 m in size. The charge on an electron is -1. It is found in a region around the nucleus called the electron cloud. The mass of an electron is 9.10939 x 10-31 kg (1836 times lighter than the mass of a proton). The typical size of the electron cloud is usually 5 x 10-11 to 10-10 m in size, about 100,000 times larger than the nucleus. The charge of a neutron is 0, and it is located in the nucleus along with the proton(s). The mass of the neutron is 1.67493 x 10-27 kg. The elementary charge is equal to 1.60218 x 10-19 Coulombs. The proton and electron each carry this charge, but the sign of the charge will be positive for the proton, and negative for the electron. Note: The mass of the proton and the mass of the neutron apply to the individual particles. When protons and neutrons are combined (fused) in a nucleus to make an atom, they all give up a bit of their mass (mass deficit) to create binding energy (or nuclear glue). This is necessary to offset the repulsion of the protons (which are like charges, and like charges repel), and it is absolutely necessary for this to happen to make the nucleus stick together.
The width of a proton is a hundred thousandth of the width of an atom, the width of an atom is a millionth of the width of a hair, and the width of a hair is a tenth of one millimeter. At Long Last, Physicists Calculate the Proton's Mass By Adrian Cho ScienceNOW Daily News 21 November 2008 It's one thing to know a fact, but it's another to explain it, as a curious advance in particle physics shows. Ever since the proton was discovered 89 years ago, physicists have been able to measure the mass of the particle--which, along with another called the neutron, makes up the atomic nucleus. But even with the best computers, theorists had not been able to start with a description of the proton's constituent parts and calculate its mass from scratch. Now, a team of theorists has reached that goal, marking the arrival of precision calculations of the ultracomplex "strong force" that binds nuclear matter. "It's a really big deal," says John Negele, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "It's the first time that we've really had this kind of confidence that everything is being done right." Like a troubled teenager, the proton is a mess inside and just about impossible to figure out. In the 1970s, experimenters discovered that the proton and the neutron, known collectively as nucleons, consist of more-fundamental particles called quarks and gluons, which are the basic elements of a theory called quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In the simplest terms, a proton contains two "up" type quarks and one "down" type quark, with gluons zipping among them to bind them with the strong nuclear force. (The neutron contains two downs and an up.) In reality, a nucleon is much more complicated. Thanks to the uncertainties of quantum mechanics, myriad gluons and quark-antiquark pairs flit in and out of existence within a nucleon. All of these "virtual" particles interact in a frenzy of pushing and pulling that's nearly impossible to analyze quantitatively. "Everything interacts with everything," says Laurent Lellouch, a theorist with the French National Center for Scientific Research at the Center for Theoretical Physics in Marseille and one of 12 physicists from France, Germany, and Hungary who performed the new calculations. Ninety-five percent of the mass of a nucleon originates from these virtual particles. To simplify matters, the team took a tack pioneered in the late 1970s called lattice QCD. Within their computer programs, the researchers modeled space not as continuous but as a three-dimensional array of points. They also modeled time as passing in discrete ticks, as opposed to flowing smoothly. This turns space and time into a lattice of points. The researchers then confined the quarks to the points in the lattice and the gluons to the links between the points. The lattice sets a shortest distance and time for the interactions, greatly simplifying the problem. Still, the computation involves millions of variables and requires supercomputers. Only since about 2000 have researchers attempted to include not just all of the gluons but the fleeting quark-antiquark pairs as well. The latest work, reported today in Science, incorporates a variety of conceptual improvements to obtain estimates of the mass of the nucleon and nine other particles made of up, down, and slightly heavier "strange" quarks accurate to within a couple of percent. This isn't the first computational tour de force for particle physicists. Five years ago, others made equally precise calculations of more esoteric quantities--somewhat easier to calculate--such as those that govern the decay of a particle called a D+ meson, which contains a down antiquark and a heavy "charm" quark, notes Christine Davies, a theorist at the University of Glasgow in the U.K. Still, she says, the calculation of the well-known masses highlights the ability of lattice QCD to make accurate predictions for the strong force. "This is all good news for lattice QCD," Davies says, "because there are lots of things that we want to calculate that experimenters haven't already measured." For example, Negele says, physicists still don't know distribution of the virtual particles inside the proton or the origin of its spin.

The size of the proton:
--published in Nature ,volume 466,p 213-216 (08,july 2010)


 The proton is the primary building block of the visible Universe, but many of its properties—such as its charge radius and its anomalous magnetic moment—are not well understood. The root-mean-square charge radius, rp, has been determined with an accuracy of 2 per cent (at best) by electron–proton scattering experiments1, 2. The present most accurate value of rp (with an uncertainty of 1 per cent) is given by the CODATA compilation of physical constants3. This value is based mainly on precision spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen4, 5, 6, 7 and calculations of bound-state quantum electrodynamics (QED; refs 8, 9). The accuracy of rp as deduced from electron–proton scattering limits the testing of bound-state QED in atomic hydrogen as well as the determination of the Rydberg constant (currently the most accurately measured fundamental physical constant3). An attractive means to improve the accuracy in the measurement of rp is provided by muonic hydrogen (a proton orbited by a negative muon); its much smaller Bohr radius compared to ordinary atomic hydrogen causes enhancement of effects related to the finite size of the proton. In particular, the Lamb shift10 (the energy difference between the 2S1/2 and 2P1/2 states) is affected by as much as 2 per cent. Here we use pulsed laser spectroscopy to measure a muonic Lamb shift of 49,881.88(76) GHz. On the basis of present calculations11, 12, 13, 14, 15 of fine and hyperfine splittings and QED terms, we find rp = 0.84184(67)fm, which differs by 5.0 standard deviations from the CODATA value3 of 0.8768(69)fm. Our result implies that either the Rydberg constant has to be shifted by −110kHz/c (4.9 standard deviations), or the calculations of the QED effects in atomic hydrogen or muonic hydrogen atoms are insufficient.

34 comments:

  1. Good fill someone in on and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you as your information.

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  2. According to John Brandenburg
    (Beyond Einstein's Unified Field: Gravity and Electro-Magnetism Redefined)...
    the force of gravity can be reduced and eliminated by a strong electromagnetic field.

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  3. Are you saying that gravity alone can account for the force that holds protons and neutrons together within the nucleus of the atom?
    The force that holds the nucleus of every atom together has been called "the strong nuclear interaction force"

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    3. Gravity may be a weak force at large distances(the attraction of gravity weakens with the square of the distance)...but at distances one thousandth the diameter of tbe proton,gravity is a strong force!

      Indeed the smaller the distances,
      the stronger the force of gravity becomes!

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  4. Thanks for your comment,Jim!

    Yeah,maybe!
    I was just trying to get some insight into how gravity operates at the subatomic (Quantum)level.
    What is the formula for calculating "the strong nuclear interaction force" ?
    Use this formula to calculate this force between the proton and the neutron in a Hydrogen nucleus.
    Then use the gravity equation to calculate the gravitational force
    between these two particles.
    If the two numbers are the same ,then you've proven that the two forces are one and the same!

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  5. Any sphere can be visualized as two separate hemispheres having masses of M1 and M2,and the distance ,d,(in the gravitational force equation) is the distance between their center points .
    Unless a sherical mass were compresed to zero volume,it will always have some finite radius such that the distance between the two masses will be d = R1 + R2.
    Since the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the distance separating the two masses ,Fg increases as "d" approaches zero.

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    1.  Gravitational singularity : a point in spacetime in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density and zero volume

       A mass compressed to zero volume becomes a dimensionless point.

      But how can mass exist within a dimensionless point?

      What is the minimum finite space/volume into wch a mass can be compressed?

      It is generally acknowledged that yhe contraction of spacetime and yhe compression of matter-energy under the influence of gravity results in yhe creation of a Black  Hole.

      What is the minimum mass content of a Black Hole?  

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    2. I have seen numbers ranging from 3 to 10 solar masses.
       

      1 solar mass = 1.9891 × 10^30 kilograms

      1 solar mass = 1.9891 × 10^33 grams

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    3. It is generally acknowledged that the contraction of "spacetime" and the compression of matter-energy under the influence of gravity
      results in the creation of a Black Hole.

      ...So much for the idea of rewinding cosmic expansion backward to a hypothetical Big Bang!

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    4. Compressabity of matter:

      atoms, of wch all matter is made, are mostly empty space.

      On a scale where an atomic nucleus is tbe size of a marble and an electron bas the diameter of a hair, the electron orbits the nucleus some 2 miles away from the nucleus.

      So it is easy to see how atoms can be compresssed into denser forms of matter such as. neutrons...
      but are neutrons also compressable.?

      What is the densest form of matter?
      If tbere is. no maximum density limit (i.e. if matter is infinity compressible) ...then any mass can be compressed into a Black Hole.

      If all the matter/energy of the universe were compressed into an infinitesimal volume...
      that would be one Mother of a Black Hole!!

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    5. ...and then she exploded and gave birth to everything!

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    6. PublishDeleteSpam501-1 of 1 1The volume of an atom is quadrillion times larger than the volume of itz nucleus. Take a beebee and place it on the pitcher's mound. That beebee is to the stadjum what an atomic nucleus iz to the atom.
      Becauze of the "emptiness" of atoms,
      65 billion neutrinos can pass tbrough us
      every second without a single interaction!

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    7. Does a mass not necessarily occupy a finite (non-zero)volume of space. ...

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    8. When two spheres coalesce (e.g. proton and electron becoming a neutron), it would seem that the distance between them becomes zero and therefore the force of gravity becomes infinite.
      But a sphere can be treated as two hemi-spheres separated by the distance between the center points of each hemi-sphere.
      Then "d" becomes the radius of the whole sphere...wch is always more than zero.

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  6. Why does gravity not cause spherical masses to collapse inward upon themselves?
    What is the outward exerting force that counterbalances gravity?

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  7. For the same reason that we can't walk through walls, and when you fall off a tall building you don't keep going when you hit the ground.

    Although atomic matter (matter made of atoms)is mostly empty space ,atoms do not interpenetrate each other due to electromagnetic repulsive forces between them.

    However neutrinos (wch have no charge) have so much energy and so little mass that they go clear through walls and even the entire earth without being impeded!

    And under some conditions ordinary atomic matter does collapse into a much denser form of matter (as in neutron stars).Presumably this occurs when the force of gravity overpowers the countervailing forces wch maintain the structural integrity of atomic matter.

    Can neutrons also collapse into something even denser under the even greater gravitational force within the event horizon of a Black Hole? Or can Matter only exist as Energy within a Black Hole?
    How can we Know?

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    1. Is matter/energy infinitely compressible?

      Electrons collapse into protons to form neutrons.
      This new material (state of matter) is so incredibly dense that 1 cubic centimetre has a mass of about 100 billion kg. ( 10^11 kg = 10^14 grams).
      This means a teaspoon of neutrons has a mass of 500 million tonnes.(multiply the mass of one neutron)
      The question is are neutrons also compressible into an even denser form of matter...and does this occur when neutron stars collapse into infinitely dense Black Holes?
      Is matter/energy infinitely compressible into ever smaller volume--even into a dimensionless point?

      Or is there a limit beyond wch it becomes incompressible?!

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    2. see : The densification of matter under the influence of gravity

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    3. Black holes normally form when the remains of a dead star collapse under their own gravity, squeezing their mass together.

      What is the minimum mass of a Black Hole?
      What is the minimum size/volume of a Black Hole?

      http://ca.news.yahoo.com/mini-black-holes-easier-thought-172430218.html

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    4. Micro black holes could form at lower-than-expected energies




      William E. East and Frans Pretorius
      Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

      Received 2 October 2012; published 7 March 2013

      See accompanying Physics Synopsis


      "We study the head-on collision of fluid particles well within the kinetic energy dominated regime (γ=8 to 12) by numerically solving the Einstein-hydrodynamic equations. We find that the threshold for black hole formation is lower (by a factor of a few) than simple hoop conjecture estimates, and, moreover, near this threshold two distinct apparent horizons first form postcollision and then merge. We argue that this can be understood in terms of a gravitational focusing effect. The gravitational radiation reaches luminosities of 0.014 c5/G, carrying 16±2% of the total energy".

      Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 101101 (2013) [5 pages]

      Ultrarelativistic Black Hole Formation

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    5. The densification of matter under the influence of gravity

      As the spatial distance between two masses
      collapses toward zero,
      the masses are compressed together
      toward the limit of zero volume.
      As space collapses the two masses eventually coalesce/fuse into one infinitely dense
      dimensionless point.

      So two or more objects can occupy the same space by being compressed together to occupy one volumeless point.
      Thus taken to the limit, two would need to eventually occupy one and the same space.
      As space collapses , mass density increases toward infinity.
      "Compression of mass" means a reduction in the volume or space that the mass occupies:
      density = mass/volume
      Thus if the mass remains constant ,then an increase in mass density can only be achieved by decreasing the space that contains the mass
      In other words the compression of mass can only occur if the spatial volume that the mass occupies is also compressed.
      Therefor there can be no compression of mass without a concurrent compression of space!

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    6. Are all increases in mass density
      then due to gravity caused
      compression of space?

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    8. Is there a limit to how much matter/energy can be compressed? Is there a minimum size to a Black Hole?

      If, according to the Big Bang theory, the universe originated. and expanded from a point source of infinite density...this suggests that matter/energy can be con.densed without limit. The Big Bang theory presupposes that all the matter/energy in the universe can be compressed into an infinitesimal point.

      The corollery is : there is no minimum size/volume to a Black Hole.

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    9. This could explain how an entire universe could be contained within and emerge from a point source. The entire mass/energy of a universe can be confined to(compressed into) a space/volume the size of a proton and smaller by the force of gravity. But what could overcome such an immense centripetal force to result in a Big Bang--the outward unfoldment/expansion of all that condensed mass/energy? Could this mean there must be an even stronger antigravity force that propelled the outward expansion?
      Perhaps at some critical spin velocity (cycles per sec)the outward-directed centrifugal force overpowers the inward-directed gravitational force thereby triggering expansion.

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  8. Most of what we take to be solid matter actually consists of empty space. If you imagine an atom the size of a cathedral, its nucleus would be roughly the size of a fly. Thanks to electromagnetism, in this case the tendency for electrons to repel each other, everything doesn't collapse in on itself. You may think that you are sitting in a chair right now, but you are actually hovering above it at a distance of one angstrom, about 250 millionths of an inch. Neither your electric field nor that of the chair wants to get any closer.

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  9. Shedding light on quantum gravity:

    http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/nov/29/table-top-test-targets-quantum-foam

    Some theories of quantum gravity suggest that experiments must probe distances smaller than the Planck length, which is 1.61 × 10–35 m.
    Probing this scale using an accelerator would involve colliding particles at enormous energies of more than 1016 TeV. This would be well beyond the capabilities of the Large Hadron Collider, which has a maximum collision energy of 14 TeV, or indeed of any conceivable future collider.
    Bekenstein's proposal, in contrast, is much more modest; he says it could be done in a small physics lab mostly using existing equipment.

    Photons at the ready

    The experiment would involve firing single photons at a piece of glass or crystal, suspended by a tiny thread. When the photon moves from the vacuum into the material, it loses speed because the material has a higher refractive index than that of the vacuum. The result is that a tiny amount of momentum is transferred to the material, causing it to move an extremely small distance. In the case of a blue photon with a wavelength of 445 nm, Bekenstein says it would cause a 150 mg piece of high-lead glass to deflect by about 2 × 10–35 m, which is on a par with the Planck length.The bottom line is that if a photon is detected on the other side of the material, it means the mass was deflected by a distance greater than the Planck length. But if the energy of the photon is reduced (or alternatively the mass of the glass increased) until the deflection becomes equal to or smaller than the Planck length, then quantum gravity will affect how the glass
    responds to each photon.In particular, Bekenstein believes that the presence of the foam would prevent the glass from recoiling in exactly the same way when ed as a drop in the number of photons detected on the other side.The experiment is challenging but not beyond what experimental physicists can do today Jacob Bekenstein, Hebrew University of JerusalemBekenstein admits that the experiment is "challenging", but claims it "is not beyond what experimental physicists can do today". Indeed, creating and detecting single photons is a routine part of quantum-optics experiments that are done in many labs around the world. Minimizing the effects of thermal noise will also be a challenge, with Bekenstein calculating that the apparatus must be cooled to about 1 K and operated in an ultrahigh vacuum of about 10–10 Pa – both of which are achievable using existing technology.

    Other table-top schemes

    Bekenstein is not the only physicist to have proposed a table-top probe of quantum gravity. Earlier this year, for
    Imperial College London described a way of making optical measurements on a mechanical oscillator with a mass close to the probing distances down to 10–35 m.
    Some theories of quantum gravity predict that some other effects of quantum gravity could emerge at length scales as great as 10–25 m.

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  10. I have often wondered why it is that the nuclei of atoms such as tritium and helium are held together by strong nuclear interaction force, whereas the glue that holds neutrons together in neutron stars is gravity.

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  11. I quess a few billion neutrons wouldn't be sufficient to make a light-emitting neutron star...so what is the minimum number of neutrons
    to make a neutron star?
    And is there a critical threshold mass at wch a neutron star is transformed into a Black Hole?
    What is the mathematical relationship between the mass of a Black Hole and its size; i.e. its volume or diameter?

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    1. That is the question!
      It seems that a minimum mass is required to form a Black Hole ( http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/black-hole-heartbeat.html)
      ...but how is this minimum mass (or the mass in general of any Black Hole)related to the volume of space (radius to event horizon) occupied by this mass?

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  12. Were you to contract the space occupied by the earth and compress its mass to tbe size of a tennis ball, you would have turned the earth into a Black Hole.
    There has been no change in mass but only in density; that is,  tbe volume of space within wch tbe mass is contained.
    So any mass compressed into a small enough space can become a Black Hole!
    According to tbe Big Bang tbeory of creation, the entire mass of tbe u.iverse
    was in the beginni.g contained within an infinitesimal space(a point source).

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  13. Perhaps we are putting tbe chi cken before tbe egg?
    Space is compressed by mass...not vice versa.

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