WEBVTT - What is a glueball? 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:11.840 Hey, Daniel, what's it like to discover a new particle 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:12.600 of nature? 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.280 You know, it's a lot less dramatic than you might expect. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.599 Oh really, there's no Eureka moment or some grand reveal. 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.960 It's usually a lot more gradual than like dropping a 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.880 velvet curtain or something. It's more like watching water drain 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:28.520 out of the tub to reveal the toys at the bottom. 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:29.920 You make it sound so exciting. 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.159 I'm not sure how Steven Spielberg is going to portray 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.519 that in a moment of my life. But you know, 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.040 it gets even worse. Sometimes we don't even agree about 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.240 whether or not we did discover something. 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:42.559 Sometimes it's like it is that a toy at the 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.360 bottom of the tub or is that something else? But 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:47.360 what do you mean? Like, sometimes you discover something and 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:49.040 some people are like, no, I don't think that's the thing. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.879 Yeah, we can basically disagree about anything in particle. 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.640 Physics, even about whether you disagree or not. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:56.240 That's the one thing we can agree on. 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.760 I am more handmade cartoonists and the creator of PhD comics. 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.720 Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and a professor 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.160 at UC Irvine. And when I got into this field. 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:22.119 I really did think there were going to be more 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:23.759 discoveries to be had. 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:25.480 Well, isn't it kind of up to you to make 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:27.960 those discoveries? Why are you sound like you're complaining. 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.600 It's partially up to me, but it's also up to nature. 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:33.800 You know, when you go out and do research, you 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:35.560 never know what you're going to find, and you never 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.319 know what's out there for you too fine. It's like 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:40.760 the folks who were hoping to discover life on Mars. 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.840 They worked hard, they did their job, they built their rovers. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.360 There just wasn't life on Mars for them, too fine. 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:49.520 And it's sort of the same way in particle physics. 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.279 It's been a little bit dry for us thirsty folks. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.560 Mmmm. Are you going to ask for your money back 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.480 from nature or your career back? 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.080 I'm hoping the government doesn't ask for their ten billion 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:06.960 dollars back. We'll have to auction off bits of the LHC. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.840 Yeah, yeah, there you go, offer it the souvenirs like 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.560 memorial you know, special keepsakes. You get a little bit 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:15.000 of this super conducting magnet. 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.800 The world's nerdiest Etsy shop bits of the LHC. There 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.760 are actually people who've done salvage on the super Conducting 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.120 super Collider in Texas. A lot of the equipment there 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:26.440 was just abandoned and people have grabbed some of it 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:27.760 and saved it as keepsakes. 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.640 A bit of people would buy a piece of the LC, right, 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.720 wouldn't they. It's the thing that discovered the Higgs boson. 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.000 That's kind of a big deal. Like you might actually find, 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.680 you know, the little sensor pad that actually caught the 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.359 first Higgs. Let's let's get in on that. Let's kill 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.240 it on the Daniel and Jorge online shop. 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:48.760 It can be like pieces of the true Cross. We 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:50.639 can sell more of them than actually existed. 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:55.440 Yeah, there you go. Amazingly. It's magical as well. It 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.399 multiplies the LHC. But what do you think you would 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.440 have done if you hadn't been a particle physics someone 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:02.080 who explores life on Mars. 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.320 Well, I actually did two degrees as an undergraduate physics 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.079 and computer science, and I also applied to grad school 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.920 and computer science. I was going to do artificial intelligence 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.280 and machine learning, so that was sort of my other life. 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.560 Wow, man, I'm sorry to say, but you totally missed 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.960 that boat. He would probably a billionaire, I guess, But 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.240 then we wouldn't have this podcast, or we would have 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.239 a super popular podcast about Ki. 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.799 Yeah, but then I'd be responsible for people's self driving 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:31.680 cars crashing, and I don't know if I could handle 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:33.320 that kind of responsibility. 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.680 Well, it's not your fault, it's the car's fault. That's 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:40.320 why you give them sentience to absolve yourself of any responsibility. 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.600 Right right, Just like we're not responsible for whether our 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.440 kids grew up to be serial killers or not. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.600 Exactly right, Wait, what what's going on with your kid there? 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.160 Maybe it's your kids are already making a head. 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.200 I do wonder about those serial killers and whether their 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:56.800 parents feel responsible. Yeah. 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:58.800 I thought you're gonna say I do wonder about my son. 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.680 I was like, whoa, But anyways, Welcome to our podcast, 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.240 Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.160 We are not responsible for the incredible, crazy, bonkers, beautiful 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.160 universe out there, but we do feel responsible for helping 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.360 you to understand it. We dig in deep into what's 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.560 going on out there in the universe, and we try 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:20.840 to process it. We chop it up, and we serve 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.960 it all up to you, hoping to educate and entertain 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:25.040 you at the same time. 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.560 It's right, welcome to our two hundred and ninetieth course 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.440 meal here on the amazing food for thought that is 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.000 the universe, because it is pretty awesome. And to be honest, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:36.560 I do feel a little bit responsible to that. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.240 You know, you were reaching for a big number there, 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:40.919 but I think the number of episodes is more like 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:42.559 four hundred and eighty or something. 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.120 By now, oh my goodness, it's like the banquet that 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.200 never ends. Like maybe it's more like a buffet where 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.479 we take a bring on this food little by little. 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.800 That's right. Every course has to be super tiny for 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.159 you to be able to finish course number five hundred. 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:56.440 Eventually we'll get to dessert. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.719 Now, do we reveal each course of this meal or 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.400 do we just let the work and let the food 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:02.000 say that good. 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.839 Bottom Every episode is letting the water drain and hoping 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.120 that there's some understanding to be revealed. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.600 That is how we record it. We just sit down, 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.720 you start talking, and we hope that some knowledge comes 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:15.040 out of it. 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.200 We hope there's gold and not a floating turret in 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:18.240 that Baptob. 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.800 Oh Man, can you say that on our podcast? I 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:21.640 guess you just did. 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:23.640 Let's see if it guests passed the sensors. 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:24.520 Which are you? 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:25.039 Yes? 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:31.480 Crazy? Well, speaking of pushing things out, let's dive into 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.279 the topic of the episode here today. So it is, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.800 as we said, an amazing and incredible universe full of 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.640 amazing and lots of little things, lots of little things 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:42.440 out there that keep the universe together. 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:44.680 And over the last fifty years or so, we have 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.640 pulled apart matter to reveal its basic constituents. We know 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.760 that you are made of molecules, which are made of atoms, 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.960 which are built out of electrons, protons and neutrons. We've 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.719 even pulled the protons and neutrons apart to discover that 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.640 they are made of quarks. We have found the quarks 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.839 out there and other versions of the electron. We have 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.560 this wonderful periodic table of the fundamental particles that we 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.480 describe using the standard model, which paints a very nice 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.279 picture of what's going on microscopically inside of me and 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.160 you and at the hearts of stars. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.359 That's right. We've come a long way from thinking that 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.440 the universe and everything in it is made out of 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.680 four things like earth, wind and fire and water, to 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.919 basically chop up the entire matter of the universe into 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.400 smaller and smaller bits until we get to basically bits 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:31.640 that you can't chop up anymore. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.720 And it's been a really fascinating ride, not just discovering 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.720 what matter is inside of us, which is mostly the upcork, 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.839 the down cork, and the electron because you can assemble 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:44.680 the upcork and the down cork into protons and neutrons 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.160 and put the electrons around them to make atoms, but 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.680 also to discover what else the universe can do. The 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.239 things that we are made out of are the stable bits, 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.880 the things that last forever and can get mixed together 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.920 to make more interesting chemistry. But there are also other 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.320 weird things that the universe can do, things that don't 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.640 last for very long, so they take special conditions to 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:05.440 reveal them. 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.279 Yeah, the universe has its own buffet of things that 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.320 it can make out there, and not just the things 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.280 that we can eat that make up who we are. 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:14.360 There's lots of other things out there in the universe, 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.200 and little by little we've put together a pretty complete 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.480 picture of what's out there or what can be out 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:20.440 there in the universe. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.720 We have a whole fun series of podcast episodes about 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.560 the discoveries of these particles, how the top quark was discovered, 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.560 how the gluon was discovered, how the photon was discovered. 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.840 All these pieces of the Standard Model, and we put 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.600 them together into a picture and ask like, does it work? 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.280 Are there any missing bits? And that's how some of 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:40.960 those discoveries were made. We like assemble them together and 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.200 we notice patterns. We say, huh, there's a hole here. 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.680 I wonder if there's another particle missing. The way you 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.080 can look at the periodic table and say, where's element 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:49.960 thirty four? Why is there a thirty three and a 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.240 thirty five? There should be one in the middle. In 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.240 the same way, we filled in a lot of the 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.680 gaps in the Standard model just by looking for patterns 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:01.320 and hoping for simplicity and mathematical beauty and symmetry. And 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.560 this has been a very useful guiding principle in helping 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.160 us to discover things. That's how, for example, we knew 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:08.880 to look for the Higgs boson. 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.160 Yeah, we have a periodic table for the fundamental particles 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.240 of nature. It's called the Standard Model, and it does 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.640 kind of look like the periodic table right, it's a 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:19.840 grid and you got little spas for all the different 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:24.200 particles like quarks and electrons and neutrinos, and they're sort 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.200 of in order. Also, it sort of looks like a 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.680 periodic table. Yeah, because there are patterns there. 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.120 Like you can take the electron, the muon and the 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.600 tow and you notice that they're increasing in mass. The 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.560 muon is heavier than the electron, the tow is heavier 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.480 than the muon, And the same pattern exists in the upcork, 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.599 the charm cork, and the top cork. The charm in 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.920 the top is just like heavier versions of the upcark. 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.360 So we notice these patterns. We see these things in 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.840 the table, and so we arrange our table in that 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.679 way to bring out those patterns to like inspire us 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.240 to think about what could be explaining them. And so 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.520 there's sort of two directions to think about there. One 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.280 is like, well, what's inside these particles? Is there a 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.480 deeper layer of reality? And so that's definitely something we're exploring. 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.080 But sometimes we look in the other direction and we say, well, 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.040 what are the consequences of these particles? What can these 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.400 particles do? If this is real? If those particles are 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:13.760 actually out there, what do we expect to see in 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.800 our colliders? What can these things come together to make? 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.000 And that's another very fruitful way to test our understanding 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.080 of what's going on in the particle world. 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.440 Yeah, so we have a grit called the standard model, 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.520 and it's called the standard model because they think it's 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.120 standard and it's a model. But when did they come 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:31.920 up with this name? I wonder? And how did they 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.360 know it is going to be standard for the entire universe? 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:37.400 I knew you were going to have concerns about the names. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.640 The standard model itself comes out of the seventies when 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.440 people realized that there were connections between the weak force 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.120 and electromagnetism and that explained a lot of what we 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.000 were seeing happening with the electron and the muons, and 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:53.760 so they put this together into a model of leptons, 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.520 which then became a standard model of leptons, and so 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.960 it was sort of adopted around then. And the standard 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.560 that sense, just sort of means like consensus. There are 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.240 lots of different views of what was happening in particles, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.160 and this just sort of emerged as the most popular model, 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.240 the one that people thought was the most parsimonious and 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.520 explained what we were seeing, and it also predicted the 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.040 Higgs boson, and so when we saw the Higgs boson 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.600 in nature, people were like, Yep, that's it. 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.520 The standard model is the way to go interesting. It's 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.320 it's like the thing that all physicists can agree on, kind. 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:30.160 Of mostly that can happen. It can happen, although of 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.880 course there are lots of disagreements about what is the 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.480 standard model. Some people, for example, say that the standard 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.320 model requires neutrinos to have no mass, but we know 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.800 neutrinos do have mass, and some people say, no, no, 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.520 we can have massive neutrinos in this standard model. And 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.319 so there's a lot of disagreement about exactly what constitutes 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.920 the standard model. Probably was a bad idea to call 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:51.199 it standard in the first place. 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.520 Ye should have called it a model. But it's interesting because, 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:58.360 like what you said, is that it's not just a 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.360 sort of like a listing of all the fundamental particles, 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.520 kind of like the periodic table is. It's also kind 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.920 of about the rules that govern what happens between the 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.120 things in the table, and a lot of it is 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.080 also just the math of how all of these things 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:12.959 work just like the periodic table. It's not just the 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.880 listing of element. It's also like a model of how 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.920 the electron you know, orbits around the nucleus, and what 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.240 happens when two atoms get close together, how do they 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.760 share electrons and things like that. The Standard model also 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:26.840 there's a lot more to it than just the listening 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:27.480 to particles. 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.200 Yeah, exactly. We often focus on the matter particles like 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.679 the upcork, the down cork, and the electron, but also 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.640 in the standard model we have the force particles, the photon, 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.280 the W, the z, the gluon, and as you say, 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.120 these play a very important role in building things. Without 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.360 the forces, you couldn't put the up, the down, the 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:48.160 electron together to make ice cream or kittens or lava 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.480 or hamsters or anything. Right. Really, the forces are required. 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:53.600 And I often feel that way when somebody says, oh, 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.080 the atom is mostly empty space, because they imagine the 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.360 tiny little nucleus or the tiny electrons really are apart 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.840 from each other in mostly empty space. But the truth 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.600 is is not really empty. It's filled with fields, force 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.200 fields and virtual particles tying them together. It's a swarm 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.480 of oscillating energy and so you're right, we need to 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:13.600 think not just about the little bits of matter, but 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.439 also the forces that tie them together and how that 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.080 works and what those can do. And that's something we 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.880 are still exploring, still trying to figure out. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:23.520 Yeah, I think that's something that maybe a lot of 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.040 people don't know. And I wonder if that's because, you know, 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.079 when they discovered the Higgs Boson, it was kind of 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.760 a big deal. At least that's what the headline said. 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:32.959 That it was a big deal because it completed this 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.559 standard model. The Higgs Boson sort of like was the 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.080 cherry on top where it put the last little lego 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.720 piece or jigsaw puzzle piece on the standard model and 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.480 then you guys were done, right, you could all retire 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.280 and become hey experts or something. 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.000 We've been napping in our offices ever since. Yes, confirmed, 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.400 Oh okay, that's good to know. Then I do want 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:57.760 my money back, Please wait for the check. Yeah, and 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:59.240 so it was sort of a big deal because they 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:02.760 said they'd the standard model. But you're telling me maybe 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:06.360 that it's not complete. Maybe it's something that people disagree about. 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:06.679 Still. 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:08.720 Yeah, well, it's not like the New York Times were 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.480 liars or anything. When they said it completed the standard model. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.920 That's true from one perspective, from the perspective of like 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.959 looking at the periodic table of fundamental particles and saying, 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.280 do we have all the pieces necessary to make a 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.680 complete theory? You know, are there any obvious holes? And 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:25.600 so we had found the top core, we had found 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.800 the Towe leapt on, and the last like definitely predicted 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.840 missing fundamental piece, little jigsaw piece, as you say, was 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.320 the Higgs boson. It was definitely missing, and we definitely 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.720 needed to find it if the Standard Model was real, 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:39.839 if it was a description of nature. And now we 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.920 found it, and it clicks in, and we do have 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.600 what we consider a fairly complete theory. Of course, it 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.480 doesn't describe gravity or dark matter or all sorts of 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:49.720 other crazy stuff. And we just did an episode about 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.960 like the problems of the Standard Model. But you know, 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.440 from one perspective, it really did complete it. It was 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:56.560 like an obvious hole that needed to be filled. There 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.640 are no more open holes in that sense, like fundamental 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.840 particle that the Standard Model predicts that we haven't found yet. 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.800 From another perspective, there's lots of things left to study, 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.480 you know, like how these particles dance together to make 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.120 new things. That's not how these particles come together to 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.320 make more interesting, complicated things. That's not something we fully 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.120 yet understand. And there are lots of predictions there that 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:19.760 have not yet been verified. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:21.960 Yeah, I feel like you're pulling off a nice marketing 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.680 trick here, where you're saying, like, what we did was awesome, 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.080 and where's all that money? And we finished it, but 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.440 there are still things less to do to keep giving 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:30.960 us money. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.880 That is the summer of every science grant proposal ever, basically, 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:38.600 not just in particle physics. 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:40.800 I see, it's just a reflex for you know. 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.480 Well, you know that's the story. It's like, look, we 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.320 did awesome stuff with the money you gave us. We 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.440 will do more awesome stuff with the future money we 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:49.920 hope you keep giving us. That's the way it works. 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:52.920 Well, like you said, there's still more to discover, I guess, 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.440 or to check off about all of the things that 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.640 the standard model predicts. And so one of those predictions 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.840 is kind of an interesting sounding object. 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.000 It is a super fun prediction of the standard model, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.040 and one people have been hunting for for a long 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:12.320 time and disagree about whether it's possible to find it, 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:14.000 or whether we already have. 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.560 It's a sticky subject. Well, to the end of the episode, 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:25.280 we'll be tackling the question what is a glue ball? 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.160 That sounds like something that happens when you're playing with glue. 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.400 It does sound like a very everyday object, but it's 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:36.000 also a very esoteric prediction by the standard model that's 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.920 been surprisingly difficult to verify. 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.040 Actually, it does kind of sound like something that might 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.760 be useful, like a ball made out of glue that 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:45.920 then you can use to stick things together. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:47.760 It sounds like the thing you could keep next to 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:53.360 your rubber band ball. Yeah right, let's start selling those. 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.800 You can get those on our online store now, balls. 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.960 Of glue, oh man. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:00.840 With little bits of the LEDC stuck inside. 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.240 Yeah, there you go. Or it's sticking together bits of 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:04.720 the lac. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.680 Even better, How does the lac work it's held together 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.000 with spit in glue balls. 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.120 Well that might be actually true, right. 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.040 That might be actually trueious. 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.280 I mean, I'm sure a lot of physicists were drilling 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.040 when they were putting it together. That's where all this 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.240 bit comes from. Well, anyways, as usual, we were wondering 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.480 how many people out there had heard of a glue 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.160 ball or have any idea what it can be. 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.400 So thank you very much to everybody who answers these 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.120 random questions. It's super helpful to get a sense for 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:34.120 what people already know and what they think about these ideas. 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:36.360 So think about it for a second. What do you 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:40.480 think a glue ball can be? Here's what people had 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:40.840 to say. 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.480 There must be some silly ball made by kids to 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.680 play with during lunch of races. Yeah, I'm kidding. So 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.200 glue ball is a very relatively new concept. It is 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.880 basically combination of glue on particles without anyone and squawk. 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:00.000 A glue ball sounds like something to do with glue ons. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.600 That's maybe like a ball of glue on, just a 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.720 bunch of them just interacting and stuff, just hanging out. 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.119 A glue ball. Yeah, I have no clue what that 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.120 could possibly be. The only thing that comes to mind 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.200 maybe is it might have something to do with glue ones. 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.560 But other than that, I can't even begin to guess. 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.320 Uh, probably something my cat pukes after she ates some clue. 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.919 I don't know. All right, sounds like we're not the 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:31.720 only ones who thought it's a kit's toy, or that 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:33.679 it involves spit somehow from cats. 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:35.879 I feel sorry for that guy's cat. I mean, who 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:37.760 lets their cat eat glue? Seriously? 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.400 I don't know. But are you responsible if your cat 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.480 eats glue? Or is that the cat's faut. 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:43.879 I don't know, But if your cat turns out to 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.080 be a serial killer, maybe you are responsible. 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.240 Well, at least the cat wouldn't get far, very far. 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:54.399 Just get stick to everything. The sticky glue ball, serial 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:56.840 killer sticky cat? Did you mean? 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.280 But I think a lot of these folks really got 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.400 the idea from the name, right, a ball of gluons. 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.760 Maybe this is actually a thing in particle physics that 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.120 has gasp an appropriate name. 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:10.880 Well, I don't know, it's if it is a ball 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:14.240 or not. I bet it's more like a teohedron or something. 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.760 I see you're gonna withhold judgment, all right, let's dig in. 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:23.400 Yeah, let's see what happens here. We'll step us through this, Daniel, 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:24.640 What is glue ball? 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.240 So a glue ball is a predicted particle that would 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:33.800 be made entirely of gluons, No quarks, no electrons, no 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.720 other matter particles at all, just gluons. 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:43.400 M Okay, So it's a theoretical or a predicted object 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.240 that can happen out in nature, and you would get 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.000 it by putting together gluons. Now what are gluons? 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.639