As far as I understand energy and matter are two sides of the same coin, and I thought I knew that energy/matter could not be created or destroyed, but then a comment I read on askphysics implied that’s not true. (Something about an electron emitting photons, idk it was not targeted at a 5 year old).
So is there a set amount of energy/matter in the universe since the Big Bang, or can it be created/destroyed?
And bonus question that’s only slightly related, when an atom is broken up into quirks, will the quirks reform into an atom?
In: Physics
**I got a bit carried away and this answer got a bit more indepth then expected, if you have questions you can ask them**
Yeah, so technically energy isn’t really conserved in our universe. Basically Emmy Noether discovered that all conservation laws are a result from some kind of symmetry in the universe
– So for example I can make an experiment in space and rotate it however I want and still get the same result because there is no “up” and “down” in space, and that “symmetry” is causing Angular Momentum to be conserved.
– Same with normal Momentum, if I make an experiment right here or 14 Billion lightyears away, I will get the same result, and that’s why Momentum is conserved
And then Noether found out about Energy Conservation, and for energy to be conserved we would need a “Time Symmetry” so if I make an experiment today and tommorow that needs to have the same results.
And on earth that is the case, that’s why we learn it’s conserved BUT: on cosmic scales, we know that the universe expands and so there is no “time symmetry” and that means that Energy is not conserved. (for example: a photon traveling through an expanding universe is “redshifted” and as far as we know, the energy it is losing by that isn’t transferred anywhere, so it seems like it’s geniuenly just lost)
Then later we got more evidence: Einstein wrote his theory of general relativity and nothing in that theory actually requires energy to be conserved, so we are pretty certain that energy isnt actually conserved
As for the second question, thats a bit more tricky, but hey i get to talk about my favorite fundamental force of the universe:
Basically, Quarks are held together by the Strong Nuclear Force (my favorite, yippie) and what’s cool about that is that every single time we have looked at Quarks they are always coupled (or “Color confined”) to another Quark, we have NEVER NEVER EVER seen just one singlular Quark, thats because quarks cannot be isolated because the force between them increases with distance. So normally these quarks are pretty stable, now if you were to pull at one Quark you would increase the distance, which would make the Bond stronger, so in very simple terms: The more energy you put into seperating Quarks, the more energy it uses to resist getting ripped apart.
Except: When you use a lot of energy to pull quarks apart by around 1-2 femtometers, the energy you put in simply creates new Quarks. These new quarks then pair up with the original quarks, keeping them confined together. So all this just to answer your question now:
No, generally not, Quark pairs will always form but an atom is a lot more then just some Quarks, its a lot of quarks with electrons and neutrons all having to exists at least somewhat stable, i guess, technically its not out of the question for it to happen by chance, but that chance would be astronomically low
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