Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Mass Defect And Cosmology

The important thing about the cosmology theory, detailed in the compound posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", is how it makes facts that are usually difficult to understand seem simple. Another of these facts is the so-called Mass Defect.

An atomic nucleus is composed of positively-charged protons and naturally-charged neutrons. Each of these particles has a definite mass but the confusing part is that the nucleus as a whole has less mass than the sum of it's parts.

We know that some of the mass of the nucleus is converted into binding energy, to hold the nucleus together against the mutual repulsion of it's positively-charged protons, but how exactly does this happen?

First, let's review the nature of matter and space in my cosmology theory.

Everything is made of near-infinitesimal negative and positive electric charges. Opposite charges attract and like charges repel. Space is a pattern of alternating negative and positive charges, in multiple dimensions. But like charges can be held together, against their mutual repulsion, by energy. This gives us the charged particles, such as electrons, that compose matter. The energy that holds the like charges together shows up as mass, the well-known Mass-Energy Equivalence.

What we perceive as electromagnetic waves, such as light and radio waves, are actually disturbances in the underlying balance of negative and positive charges. This makes it seem that the waves are electromagnetic.

Yet the reduction in mass is also energy.  It works against the energy of the Mass-Energy Equivalence. The binding energy that holds the positively-charged protons together against their mutual repulsion actually rearranged the like charges into sets, so that there is some mixing of opposite charges, although nowhere near the perfectly mixed checkerboard of charges, in multiple dimensions, of empty space.

A simplified example is that empty space is alternating negative and positive charges, + - + - + - + -. Matter is concentrated like charges, held together against their mutual repulsion by the Mass-Energy Equivalence, + + + + - - - -.  Then the nuclear force, the nuclear binding energy that holds the nucleus together, somewhat rearranges the charges of matter into sets so that there is some mixing of opposite charges, although nowhere near the perfectly alternating pattern of empty space, + + - - + + - -.

This allows opposite charge attraction to hold the nucleus together. But the move towardward mixing of the two opposite charges lessens the total mass of the nucleus, as mass is defined as like charges held together by energy, hence the Mass-Energy Equivalence.

The reduction in mass, the Mass Defect, is also energy. A larger atom has more binding energy per nucleon, and this is the energy that is released when the atom is split in two by fission.

Neutrons have an equal number of negative and positive charges, hence their overall neutral charge, and this is why neutrons are so necessary for binding energy. Heavier atoms have more neutrons per proton. But the number of protons is what defines the element. During the fusion of smaller atoms into larger ones, in the centers of stars, an electron can be crunched into a proton to create a neutrons, a process known as K-capture.

But this necessity of neutrons for binding energy gives us a definite clue as to it's true nature. The nucleus is held together by opposite-charge attraction, despite it's overall positive charge. This shows my cosmology theory, everything composed of electric charges, to be correct as it makes this concept of Mass Defect so simple.

It also shows that energy and information is really the same thing, as described in the information theory in the compound posting on this blog "The Theory Of Complexity". We cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it, and we cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it. Another way we see that information and energy is really the same thing is the way we can make our lives physically easier by using technology, but only at the expense of making them more complex. We can never, on a large scale, make our lives physically easier and also less complex.

Binding energy is energy, although it decreases the total mass of the nucleus which seems to defy the principle of the Mass-Energy Equivalence, because it would require more information to describe the arrangement of the electric charges than the simple concentration of like charges that comprises matter.

Since we can be sure that binding energy is, in fact, energy because it is released when a heavy atom is split by fission, this shows definitely that energy and information is really the same thing.

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