In the postwar period so many new subatomic particles were discovered that it was referred to as the "Particle Zoo". But there were some physicists who didn't believe that there could really be this many separate particles.
As it turned out there was too many fundamental particles. What emerged is Quark Theory. Quarks were believed to be particles that are even more fundamental, and that combine together with each other to form what we see as many of the fundamental particles.
Particles that are composed of quarks are called hadrons. Two very important hadrons are protons and neutrons, which form the nuclei of atoms. Not all subatomic particles are composed of quarks. Electrons are of a class of particles called leptons, which do not involve quarks.
There are theorized to be six kinds of quarks, and also their corresponding antiquarks of antimatter. But two of these quarks, up and down quarks, are far more important than the others. It is believed that, if all quarks other than up and down quarks vanished tomorrow, only particle physicists would notice.
Up and down quarks are charged particles, but have charges in thirds relative to the equal but opposite charges on protons and electrons. These quarks combine in thirds to produce hadrons like protons and neutrons.
An up quark has a charge of + 2 / 3 and a down quark has a charge of - 1 / 3. So two up quarks and one down quark form a proton, with a net charge of +1, and two down quarks and one up quark form a neutron, with a net charge of zero.
With that understanding of quarks let's move on to the end of the lives of stars. The largest stars may collapse into a black hole or explode in a supernova. Our own sun will do neither, it will simply burn out.
Stars form when enough matter is pulled together by it's mutual gravity to overcome the electron repulsion that keeps stars separate from one another, and crunch smaller atoms together into larger ones. A new larger atom contains less overall energy than the smaller atoms which were crunched together to form it. This excess energy is released as radiation and this is why stars shine. A planet does not shine because it is not massive enough for it's internal gravity to overcome electron repulsion.
A star is an equilibrium between the outward force of the energy being released by fusion in the star's center and the inward force of gravity. A star may swell, or explode in a supernova, when the process of fusing successively heavier atoms together means that the energy being released per time is increasing, and this upsets the equilibrium.
But the end of the star comes from the opposite direction, when the star runs out of fusionable fuel but is not large enough to explode in a supernova. The ordinary fusion process cannot go beyond iron. This upsets the equilibrium by removing the outward pressure of the energy being released, causing the star to collapse inward.
Stars are composed of atoms, with lighter atoms continuously being combined by fusion into heavier atoms. When the star collapses the structure of the atoms are crushed by the sheer mutual gravity of the star's mass, now no longer opposed by the energy released by fusion.
When fusion takes place the new heavier elements require more neutrons, relative to protons, in the nucleus. What happens is that, during fusion, an electron is crunched into a proton to produce a neutron. This is known as K-capture.
When the atomic structure of the star collapses this is what happens to all of the atoms. When the process is complete there are no more protons and electrons, all that there is left is an extremely dense mass of neutrons. It is now referred to as a neutron star, although it is not technically a star because no fusion is taking place.
The extreme density of a neutron star makes further collapse possible and eventually a black hole may form. A black hole is the most dense possible concentration of matter. It is known that black holes do not last forever. They give off radiation, called Hawking Radiation, and eventually evaporate.
Now, here is the question of the day. If the structure of stars that have collapsed into a neutron star can collapse still further, into a black hole, and neutrons are composed of quarks, then what about "quark stars"?
The existence of quark stars was theorized more than fifty years ago, but none have ever been found. The next step in the collapse should be for the neutrons of a neutron star to collapse into their component quarks. Many black holes have been found, and many neutron stars, but, as of yet, no quark stars.
How could this be? The way I see it, there are two possibilities.
The first, of course, is that quark theory was incorrect all along. But it is believed by so many people and it explains so much.
My cosmology theory opens the way to another possibility. The theory, detailed in the compound posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", explains everything in the universe, both matter and space, as being composed of negative and positive electric charges. Space is a perfectly alternating pattern of negative and positive charges, in multiple dimensions. Matter is any concentration of like charges, held together against their mutual repulsion by energy.
The majority of the charge interfaces in matter are actually between opposite charges, and this is what holds the units of matter, such as atoms or neutrons, together. Since negative and positive electric charges must always balance out to zero, and particles that compose matter are usually charged, matter must consist of some structures, such as atoms or neutrons, that have a net charge of zero.
We cannot discern any structure of matter within black holes. Yet, given that black holes do not just explode in a gigantic matter-antimatter reaction, their matter must consist of some kind of structure.
In my cosmology theory the reason that black holes give off radiation, and eventually evaporate, is that their extreme gravitational pressure is enough to cause charge displacement to take place. Adjacent like charges, which are trying to mutually repel, are under so much pressure that negative and positive charges can "trade places". This does not mean any charged particles but the fundamental electric charges that comprise everything in the universe.
But that brings groups of opposite charges into direct contact with each other. They gradually rearrange themselves back into the alternating charge pattern of empty space, and in doing so release the energy that was holding them together. This is why a black hole gives off radiation and eventually evaporates, turning back into empty space.
But still, there must be some structure of matter within a black hole, the arrangement of the charges that comprise matter. What could that structure be? Has anyone ever thought that maybe it is quarks? That a black hole actually is a quark star? It would explain why quark theory explains so much, but we just can't find any quark stars that should exist.
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