New Element that is lighter than hydrogen. how????

there's an old joke about particle physics don't trust atoms they make up everything while that's obviously not totally accurate much of the things we encounter with on a daily basis is formed of atoms thus it seems to reason that we must all learn about them and we're taught in school that atoms are made up of some mix of protons neutrons and electrons the simplest atom has only one proton and one electron this is hydrogen yet it turns out that there is an element even simpler than hydrogen out there it's called muonium and it might help scientists unravel the deepest secrets of physics muonium is named after a particle known as a muon so let's start with an explanation of what it is it's essentially a particle that has the same negative electric charge as an electron yet there are two significant distinctions between them first a muon is around 200 times more massive than an electron yet it is only about nine times lighter than a proton second it is unstable it will spontaneously Decay after around two millionths of a second leaving behind one electron and other strange subatomic particles the two millionths of a second are of course incomprehensibly short to us yet it is long enough for muons to interact with other particles not just that but to have connections with them this involves creating anything that resembles a hydrogen atom this however is illogical if a muon is negatively charged and hydrogen is supposed to have a positively charged proton in its Center how is muonium another other kind of hydrogen it's because a conventional melonium atom does not include a muon it's crazy I know it instead employs an antonuon yeah we are dealing with an atom that contains some antimatter while images of matter antimatter and explosions may have flashed through your mind antimatter is simply a different matter every subatomic particle has anti-counterpart with the same mass but the opposing electric charge an antinuon has the same mass and decays in the same length of time as a muon but it has a positive charge rather than a negative one and here's the key point the strength of that positive charge is exactly the same as the positive charge of a proton so if a regular old electron is in orbit around an antimuon that is a millennium atom those things don't violate each other because they're not each other's matter antimatter counterpart and when it comes to chemistry the difference in Mass between a proton and an antinuon doesn't matter nearly as much as their identical electric charges do so an atom of muonium ignoring its super short lifespan acts as a chemical in almost the exact same way that a proton-based hydrogen atom does this is why some scientists consider Millennium to be the lightest form of hydrogen and just like other forms of hydrogen like deuterium and tritium chemists gave muonium an honorary chemical symbol a moo now if you prefer to think about muonium as its own element and not like a quirky hydrogen that could make muonium the simplest element in the universe just like melons antenuins are fundamental they are as simple as a single subatomic particle can get meanwhile an individual proton is complicated it's not fundamental each one is made of smaller particles called quarks so even if the simplest hydrogen atom only has one proton and one electron muonium is even simpler these days antenuans are actually fairly easy to create in particle accelerators although they come out traveling pretty quickly so making muonium requires taking a concentrated Bean chock full of antinuits and then slowing them down this can be done by literally putting aluminum or gold foil in the beans path which slows the attenuans down by making them bump into electrons and the like when they get nice and slow the old adage of Opposites Attract kicks in the positively charged continuance can peel off some of the negatively charged electrons orbiting other atoms to make a bunch of munium now physicists are not making all of these exotic atoms just for fun they want to make muonium because it lets them use experimental techniques from the well-developed field of atomic physics to study are murky subatomic reality for instance each atom has a unique sequence of colors that it emits and absorbs it's called a spectrum and it basically is a barcode that lets scientists learn more about the subatomic structure and properties of a given atom muonium has its own Spectrum too which is easier to calculate because the atom is simpler so scientists can study the Spectrum in exquisitely precise detail and use that to test what physics says miwan should look and act like and since those theories tend to describe how other particles are supposed to act it turns into a test bed for all of particle physics but muonium might even help answer questions about a phenomenon that's a little more tangible to human Minds gravity specifically does gravity pull on antimatter of the way it pulls on regular matter no one knows this because no one's made enough antimatter to properly weigh it but meonia may be the perfect solution not only is myonium relatively easy to make the atom as a whole is electrically neutral and that means it will be easier for scientists to screen out any effects caused by the electromagnetic force and focus solely on how gravity is acting and because we're in the antimatter game antimonium is also a thing instead of an antinuon forming a bond with a regular electron this involves a negatively charged regular muon combining with a positively charged anti-electron so if scientists ever spot atoms of muonium and antimunium falling in different ways under the same conditions either faster slower or even in different directions that will be a clear sign that there's some new unexplained physics going on meaning that yes the atom that breaks all the rules might break one of the biggest rules in the universe and literally fall upwards we may never see mubonium get its own box on the periodic table or taught to the next generation of elementary school students but it could turn out to be one of the most important atoms in our quest to understand reality atoms are bizarre Quantum objects that make the world go round but also break the rules of classical mechanics and probability

Channel: Tech Senpai

Views: 23,765

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Id: vRf1QM7ka7s

Length: 7min 57sec (477 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023