Quarks And The Shape Of Electric Charges

My view is that everything in the universe, both space and matter, is composed of negative and positive electric charges. A nearly infinitesimal length, known as "Planck's Length", shows up in all manner of physics formula. This is because it is the scale of these electric charges. 

The basic rule of the charges is that opposite charges attract while like charges repel. But this basic rule can be overcome, to some extent, by energy. Space is a perfectly alternating checkerboard of negative and positive charges, in multiple dimensions, the lowest energy state. Matter is a binding together of like charges, against their mutual repulsion, by energy. 

This is why matter consists of charged particles, such as electrons. The energy in matter is referred to as the Mass-Energy Equivalence and is the basis of Einstein's famous formula E = MC squared, Energy equals Mass times the speed of light squared. This energy in matter is suddenly released upon a matter-antimatter reaction and the electric charges in both rearrange themselves into the alternating checkerboard of space. 

Electromagnetic waves are an overcoming of the attractive force between opposite charges by energy. Electromagnetic waves are so-called because they disturb the underlying balance of the charges composing space.

THE SHAPE OF ELECTRIC CHARGES

Here is an interesting question. What shape are electric charges?

We know the pattern in which the charges must be arranged. Since right angle shapes are the only forms that fit together with no leftover space, we can be sure that in dimensions of space the electric charges are at right angles to one another. But this does not tell us what shape the charges themselves are.

Since dimensions of space form right angles we might think that the charges themselves would be square. The trouble with that is dimensions are equal to one another. When there is one dimension the second dimension appears to form as easily in one direction as any other. If the charges were two-dimensional squares then that would favor a second dimension in line with the square. If the charges were more than two dimensions, such as three-dimensional cubes, that would still favor some successive dimensions over others, since there is really no reason to believe that there could not be more dimensions than the ones we inhabit.

The shape of charges is of interest because the shape of the charges would determine the shape of the universe. If something is composed of "building blocks", and there is no other information involved, then the larger object would have to be of the same form as it's component building blocks. If we build a structure out of bricks, for example, with no additional information, the structure would have to be of the same proportion as the bricks themselves. If the universe was "flat", and we sent a spacecraft out into space, it would keep moving further away forever. If the universe was "closed", the spacecraft would eventually return to it's starting point. Space might also be curved, shaped like a saddle.

My belief is that the electric charges are in some way oblong, with the length being a multiple of the width. But the charges cannot be of any complex form because then they would have to be composed of some smaller entities, and so would not be the most fundamental piece of the universe. 

The difference between negative and positive charges is that they exist perpendicular to one another. The attraction and repulsion between them is to achieve balance. Two like charges, of the same dimension, would naturally resist being bonded together but two perpendicular charges would immediately bond together. This represents the lowest information state as a right angle figure would be of the lowest information state if all of it's sides were equal.

This could be the basis of string theory, with the particles of matter consisting of strings, which we perceive as charged particles such as electrons, because we can only see in three dimensions. Like charges, which run in the same direction, can be held together by energy, which forms the strings of matter that are the basis of my cosmology theory.

But electric charges cannot actually have a defined shape. For the shape of anything to be defined it must be defined against something. If there was only one shape in the universe it would be impossible to describe it. For it to be measured there must be something more fundamental that it can be measured against. If electric charges are indeed the most fundamental piece of the universe then they cannot have a defined shape or form because there is nothing to define them against.

Yet the shape of electric charges must define the shape of space in the universe, whether a rocket will keep getting further away forever or eventually return to it's starting point. A "flat" universe, where the rocket keeps getting further and further away, seems to have the advantage since it is the lowest information choice. 

An eventual return of the rocket to it's starting point would require defining which direction the rocket would curve in. It could curve in the direction of where the most matter was located in the universe but that would require the universe to be finite, with more matter in one direction than another. Since gravity operates by the Inverse Square Law I find it unlikely that the space of the universe is curved so that a rocket will, theoretically, ultimately return to it's starting point.

I see electric charges then as bits of oblong straight lines, with negative and positive charges being perpendicular to one another, and the length most likely twice the width and being equal to Planck's Length. These charges are not defined against straight lines, it is the other way around. They define what straight lines are, which is why straight lines are so important in the universe. 

It is why electromagnetic waves move in straight lines and the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It is in harmony with the basic electric charges. They are a reflection of the electric charges that compose everything in the universe.

This alternating pattern of bricks, on Third Street in Niagara Falls NY, is a good model of how I see electric charges arranged in empty space. Image from Google Street View.

THIS PATTERN OF ELECTRIC CHARGES EXPLAINS THE MYSTERIES OF QUARKS

Quarks are the particles of matter that make up protons and neutrons. Sub-atomic particles composed of quarks are referred to as "hadrons", as opposed to leptons such as electrons. There are a total of six quarks, plus their antimatter equivalents. The only two that really matter to us are up quarks and down quarks. 

An up quark has an electrical charge of +2/3 and a down quark has a charge of -1/3. A proton consists of two up quarks and one down quark, giving it a net charge of 1. A neutron consists of two down quarks and one up quark, giving it a net charge of zero. It is sometimes said that "If all the other quarks vanished only particle physicists would notice".

Scientists have a way of explaining the behavior of quarks called "Quantum Chromodynamics". It is based on color. Of course it is not real color, the scale of quarks are far below the wavelength of light, but it operates in the same way as color.

The operation of quarks involves three colors. Each quark is of one color at any given time. The antimatter version of quarks has three anticolors. The quark colors are defined as red, green and, blue. The antiquark anticolors are defined as cyan, magenta and, yellow.

The so-called strong nuclear force governs the combining together of quarks into protons and neutrons, and then the combining of those together into an atomic nucleus. The strong nuclear force operates only over extremely short distances. It is one of the four basic forces in the universe. The others are gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak nuclear force.

The rule of chromodynamics is that, for quarks to combine into composite particles, such as protons or neutrons, their colors have to balance out to zero. Protons and neutrons are composed of three particles, as described above. Mesons are composed of a quark and it's anticolor quark, but the colors still must balance out to zero. It is in much the same way that positive and negative electric charges have to balance out to zero in electromagnetism.

Just as photons are the particle that transmits the electromagnetic force so gluons are the particle that transmits the strong nuclear force. Like the quarks, a gluon is of a color or an anticolor. Gluons are emitted and absorbed by quarks in much the same way that photons are emitted and absorbed by the electron orbitals in atoms. The color of a quark changes every time it emits or absorbs a gluon. But these color changes do not change the basic type of quark, whether it is an up or down quark.

This system of Quantum Chromodynamics, representing quark behavior with colors, is relatively simple but the calculations end up being extremely complicated. Another mystery is that quarks end up missing so much mass when they bind together into protons and neutrons, with the mass being transformed into binding energy.

One thing that caught my attention is why there are so many threes or thirds involved in the subatomic particles. Three colors of quarks and gluons must balance out to zero. There are three generations of quarks, the up and down quarks being the first generation, and all of them have an electric charge of either -1/3 or +2/3. There are likewise three generations of electrons. Neutrinos oscillate between three generations as they move through space.

I decided that all of these threes are just too much coincidence.

We inhabit three spatial dimensions, with two opposite directions in each dimension. We might describe these opposite directions as front-back, left-right and, up-down. On a map these opposite directions might be labeled as north-south, east-west and up-down.

One day I realized that there is nothing written in stone that there has to be two opposite directions per dimension. We have two opposite directions because we are immediately sensitive to electromagnetism and there are two electric charges. We are sensitive to electromagnetism because we receive information through light, which is electromagnetic waves, and matter does not merge with other matter due to electron repulsion.

Suppose that the earth could think. The earth is not immediately sensitive to electromagnetism, it is only sensitive to gravity. Electric charges can be either attractive or repulsive, opposite charges attract while like charges repel, but gravity is solely an attractive force. This means that the earth would see only one direction per dimension, the direction of the strongest gravitational attraction. If the earth studied science it would discover electromagnetism, just as we have discovered the strong nuclear force, but electromagnetism would be no more of the earth's daily routine existence than the strong nuclear force is of our's.

What I have decided is that quarks, as well as some of the quantum realm, experience three opposite directions per dimension. Considering the basic forces that govern the universe, if gravity brings one direction per dimension, and electromagnetism brings two directions per dimension, then why couldn't the strong nuclear force bring three directions per dimension? The strong nuclear force exists only within atomic nuclei so we are limited to two directions per dimension.

Keep in mind that this does not mean more dimensions, it means more opposite directions per dimension. There are still the same three dimensions. We are used to the idea that there might be more dimensions that we cannot access but not the idea that there might be more than two opposite directions in the dimensions that we do inhabit.

What happens with quarks, and at least some of the quantum realm, is that there are three opposite directions per dimension, but we can only access two of them. This is why everything there revolves around threes and thirds. It also explains why Quantum Chromodynamics is fairly simple but it is so difficult to use it to calculate anything. It is also why so much of the mass of quarks appears to vanish into binding energy when they combine into protons or neutrons.

The electric charges that compose empty space act like the bricks, as described above, with the positive charges aligned in one direction and the negative in the perpendicular direction. The designation of the basic electric charges as positive and negative is entirely arbitrary. We could just as easily have reversed the names.

We can only see two opposite directions per dimension. The strong nuclear force arranges it so we see two directions of the positive of the dimension but only one direction of the negative. This is why, not only does so much in this realm revolve around threes, but all quarks seem to us to have an electric charge of either +2/3 or -1/3.

Let's get used to the idea that there is nothing written in stone that there has to be two opposite directions per dimension. It depends on the predominant basic force, and this explains so much about quarks and the quantum realm.