Nuclear Physics with Dr Kevin Peter Hickerson! Ghost Black Holes, Ant Man Atoms, Free Will and Fast Radio Bursts
Nuclear Physicist Dr Kevin Peter Hickerson (@kphickerson) from Surely You're Joking Podcast joins Dave to discuss tiny atoms known as positronium, fields of energy known as ghost black holes, the theory of a cyclical universe, determinism, an infinite universe and new AI that has detected dozens of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)! Is it aliens? Of course! Isn't it always?
Positronium
Positronium (Ps) is a system consisting of an electron and its anti-particle, a positron, bound together into an exotic atom, specifically an onium. The system is unstable: the two particles annihilate each other to predominantly produce two or three gamma-rays, depending on the relative spin states. The orbit and energy levels of the two particles are similar to that of the hydrogen atom (which is a bound state of a proton and an electron). However, because of the reduced mass, the frequencies of the spectral lines are less than half of the corresponding hydrogen lines.
(more...) From Episode: Nuclear Physics with Dr Kevin Peter Hickerson! Ghost Black Holes, Ant Man Atoms, Free Will and Fast Radio Bursts
A Spree of Signals From Across the Universe Scientists still don’t understand “fast radio bursts,” but they’ve gotten a lot better at discovering them.
About a decade ago, astrophysicists discovered an overlooked signal in some old telescope data: a flash of cosmic energy lasting only a few milliseconds. The signal seemed to have experienced a long and bumpy ride to Earth. Its radio waves had become distorted and were spread across a range of frequencies. This suggested that the radiation had traveled for billions of years, slowing down here and there as it sped through lush galaxies and luminous clouds of gas and dust.
(more...) From Episode: Nuclear Physics with Dr Kevin Peter Hickerson! Ghost Black Holes, Ant Man Atoms, Free Will and Fast Radio Bursts
