The real story is that the Hoylestate has finally been calculated and we can expect a much tightened upunderstanding of the sequence of nuclear fusion producing our universe. The rest of it is a bit of a stretch. The only guess was that it existed and thatappears answered now the only way that was plausible. A good news day for theorists.
We are slowly policing up a lotof atomic theory now and with the like of the Rossi Focardi reactor, this areamay again become hot.
Particle theory we can ignore fornow.
Fundamental question on how life started solved
by Staff Writers
For carbon, the basis of life, to be able to form in the stars, a certain stateof the carbon nucleus plays an essential role. In cooperation with UScolleagues, physicists from the
"Attempts to calculate the Hoyle state have been unsuccessfulsince 1954," said Professor Dr. Ulf-G. Meissner (Helmholtz-Institut furStrahlen- und Kernphysik der Universitat Bonn
"But now, we have done it!" The Hoyle state is an energy-richform of the carbon nucleus. It is the mountain pass over which all roads fromone valley to the next lead: From the three nuclei of helium gas tothe much larger carbon nucleus. This fusion reaction takes place in the hotinterior of heavy stars. If the Hoyle state did not exist, only very littlecarbon or other higher elements such as oxygen, nitrogen and iron could haveformed. Without this type of carbon nucleus, life probably also would not havebeen possible.
The search for the "slave transmitter"
The Hoyle state had been verified by experiments as early as 1954, butcalculating it always failed. For this form of carbon consists of onlythree, very loosely linked helium nuclei -more of a cloudy diffuse carbon nucleus. And it does not occurindividually, only together with other forms of carbon. "This is as if youwanted to analyze a radio signal whose main transmitter and several slavetransmitters are interfering with each other," explained Prof. Dr. EvgenyEpelbaum (
The main transmitter is the stable carbon nucleus from which humans -among others - are made. "But we are interested in one of the unstable,energy-rich carbon nuclei; so we have to separate the weaker radio transmittersomehow from the dominant signal by means of a noise filter."
What made this possible was a new, improved calculating approach theresearchers used that allowed calculating the forces between severalnuclear particles moreprecisely than ever. And in JUGENE, the supercomputer at ForschungszentrumJulich, a suitable tool was found. It took JUGENE almost a week of calculating.The results matched the experimental data so well that the researchers can becertain that they have indeed calculated the Hoyle state.
More about how the Universe came into existence
"Now we can analyze thisexciting and essential form of the carbon nucleus in every detail,"explained Prof. Meissner. "We will determine how big it is, and what itsstructure is. And it also means that we can now take a very close look at theentire chain of how elements are formed."
In future, this may even allow answering philosophical questions using science.For decades, the Hoyle state was a prime example for the theory that naturalconstants must have precisely their experimentally determined values, and notany different ones, since otherwise we would not be here to observe theUniverse (the anthropic principle).
"For the Hoyle state this means that it must have exactly theamount of energy it has, or else, we would not exist," said Prof.Meissner. "Now we can calculate whether - in a changed world with otherparameters - the Hoyle state would indeed have a different energy whencomparing the mass of three helium nuclei." If this is so, this wouldconfirm the anthropic principle.
The study was jointly conducted by the University of Bonn,Ruhr-Universita
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