are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?
Jim ClarageDepartment of Chemistry and Physics
University of St. Thomas
![Page 2: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
GGravitational Force
![Page 3: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Gravity mysteries: Why is gravity fine-tuned?
“The feebleness of gravity is something we should be grateful for. If it were a tiny bit stronger, none of us would be here to scoff at its puny nature.”
1 part in 1015
0.000000000000001
![Page 4: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
proton and neutron
If mp > mn proton decays to neutron (no atoms)
If mp << mn deuteron unstable (no pp reaction)
If mp ~= mn no beta decay possible
mp = 1.6726 x 10-27 kg
mn = 1.6749 x 10-27 kg
![Page 5: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
41H → 4He + 2e+ + 2γ + 2νe (26.7 MeV)
proton-proton chain reaction
![Page 6: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Implications...
Anthropic Principle
Designer (aka Tuner)
Multiverse
![Page 7: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Weak: What we can expect to observe must be restricted by the condition necessary for our presence as observers.
Strong:The Universe (and hence the fundamental parameters on which it depends) must be such as to admit the creation of observers within it at some stage.
Anthropic Principle(Brandon Carter, 1974)
![Page 8: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Hoyle’s Carbon resonance
triple-alpha process
3 4He → 12C
prediction: 7.65 MeV (1952)
measured: 7.656 MeV
![Page 9: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Critique of fine-tuning
![Page 10: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Literature
![Page 11: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Voltaire’s Candide, 1759
![Page 12: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
"There is a concatenation of all events in the best of possible worlds..."
-Master Pangloss, teacher of the metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology
![Page 13: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
History...
![Page 14: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
![Page 15: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
History...
William Paley (1743–1805) used the watchmaker analogy in his book Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity collected from the Appearances of Nature, published in 1802.
![Page 16: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
![Page 17: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Goldilocks planet
not too hot (nor cold)
oxygen
sunlight
“Has the Earth a Corner on Life?” Kenneth Crist, Los Angeles Times, 1935
![Page 18: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
![Page 19: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video 3 decompressorare needed to see this picture.
![Page 20: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Goldilocks planet
not too hot (nor cold) thermophilic (118°C !)
• oxygen anaerobic (no oxygen)
• sunlight heat, sulfur
Aquifex pyrophilus
![Page 21: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
How to un-fry and egg
Cystine
![Page 22: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Apollo 12 (1969)
Streptococcus mitisSurveyor 3's camera (1967)
![Page 23: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Language
“delicately dependent...”
“Slightly” stats: 14 times in Davies, “The Accidental Universe”20 times in Barrow, “The Constants of Nature: The Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe”
“slightly different...” (14)
“wildly improbable numerical accidents...”
“very slightly stronger...”
“somewhat weaker...”
“tiny bit stronger...”
![Page 24: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
G
F1 = 979.677941576350
F2 = 979.677634377790
ΔF ~ 1/107
m = 100 kg, dr = 1.0m
![Page 25: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
November 2008 Physics Today
![Page 26: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Hoyle’s Carbon resonance
triple-alpha process
3 4He → 12C
Steven Weinberg: fine = 20%
![Page 27: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Chemistry
![Page 28: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Carbon fixation
![Page 29: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Mathematics
![Page 30: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
![Page 31: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
![Page 32: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Biology
![Page 33: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Stating the obvious
ra = radius axle holesrb = radius lug bolt
If ra > rb unstable, decays 1-2mins.
If ra < rb bound state cannot form!
Conclusion: travel as we know it impossible w/out tuning.
![Page 34: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Why don’t biologists have an Anthropic Principle?
![Page 35: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Biology
Cytochrome c,
![Page 36: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Computer Science
![Page 37: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Life qua Algorithm
![Page 38: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Life qua Algorithm
If C(t+1) >= C(t) {
TumbleTime = long;
}
Else {
TumbleTime = short;
}
![Page 39: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Architecture Independent
// program to replicate Archimedes’ calculation of pi // also shows numerical
problems - wdg 2008 #include <stdio.h> #include <math.h>float estimate(int); //
prototypeint main(void) { int divs; for(divs=1; divs<2000000; divs*=2) {
float pi = estimate(divs); printf("For
division=%d Pi is approximately %.5f\n", divs, pi ); } return 0;}float
estimate(int divisions) { int i; float sum =0.0, width = 1.0/divisions;
for( i=0; i<divisions; i++ ) { sum += width * sqrt( 1.0 -
(i*width)*(i*width) ); } return 4*sum;}
![Page 40: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Podar et al. Genome Biology 2008 9:R158 doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-11-r158
![Page 41: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
![Page 42: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Complex Systems
![Page 43: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Pre-stating
“Never calculate anything until you already know the answer”
-Landau
![Page 44: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
TATA-box binding protein (TBP)
![Page 45: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
![Page 46: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
Pre-stating,non-ergodicity
Time required to create all possible 200 residue proteins at least once:
1067 times the lifetime universe!
Stuart Kauffman, Investigations
![Page 47: Are the laws of physics actually fine-tuned?](https://reader030.vdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022020707/61ff9291c416e35d2e14f4e8/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
Voltaire’s Candide, 1759