1
Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / How can matter be made of light?
« on: 03/02/2011 13:16:25 »
My post 342421 actually has a lot in common with the idea of phase transitions explaining how a photon can transmutate into matter. Here wiki actually has something surprising to say about this too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition
Relevance in cosmologySymmetry-breaking phase transitions play an important role in cosmology. It has been speculated that, in the hot early universe, the vacuum (i.e. the various quantum fields that fill space) possessed a large number of symmetries. As the universe expanded and cooled, the vacuum underwent a series of symmetry-breaking phase transitions. For example, the electroweak transition broke the SU(2)×U(1) symmetry of the electroweak field into the U(1) symmetry of the present-day electromagnetic field.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition
Relevance in cosmologySymmetry-breaking phase transitions play an important role in cosmology. It has been speculated that, in the hot early universe, the vacuum (i.e. the various quantum fields that fill space) possessed a large number of symmetries. As the universe expanded and cooled, the vacuum underwent a series of symmetry-breaking phase transitions. For example, the electroweak transition broke the SU(2)×U(1) symmetry of the electroweak field into the U(1) symmetry of the present-day electromagnetic field.