The Effect of Physical Laws on Elementary

Particles
The laws of physics are what define our world and are considered to be universal, yet on the scale
of elementary and subatomic particles these laws often look different. In this essay, I will discuss
how the different physical laws and fundamental forces affect elementary particles.

One of the most important laws of physics is the law of gravity. This also ties into the topic of
fundamental forces. At its most basic, gravity is defined as the force that exists between two objects
because of their mass. It is the weakest of all fundamental forces, yet it acts on all forms of matter
and energy. On the scale of tiny particles, this force is negligable compared to the other forces – the
weak force, strong force, and electromagnetic force. The concept of gravity is even more
interesting when we consider particles that are massless, such as the photon. Photons have no mass,
yet it is seen that light bends around sources with a high mass due to gravity. The mass does not
affect the photon directly, but rather it warps the space-time through which the photons travel.
Space-time is four-dimensional, and we can imagine it as a fabric that the object of high mass sits
on. Its mass causes the fabric to warp, curving space-time. Despite having no mass, the photon must
bend with the fabric. This causes the light to bend.

The theory of gravity works fine when you have a massive object warping space-time, but what if
you only have two particle-sized objects? Again, I would like you to imagine space-time as a
fabric, such as a blanket. If you have two marbles and you scale them down to the size of particles
and you place them on the blanket, the fabric would not experience any change. In other words, the
fabric of space-time would not be warped in any way.

Einstein's Theory of General Relativity defines gravitation in current physics. It is his theory that
describes how massive objects curve space-time, causing a gravitational effect. Unfortunately, this
theory breaks down when we consider the effect of gravity on elementary particles. The String
Theory of quantum gravity attempts to combine the Theory of General Relativity with the theory of
quantum mechanics. In string theory, particles are imagined as vibrating 'strings'. Strings are one-
dimensional, and can be loops (closed strings) or segments (open strings). String theory predicts the
existence of 11 dimensions, including the four dimensions of space-time, and strings can vibrate
and 'wrap around' extra dimensions, leading to many potential quantum states. One closed, low-
energy string called the graviton carries the force of gravity. It has no mass, is self-interacting, and
has a spin of two.

Although the graviton offers great potential in helping to explain gravity, it is merely hypothetical.
Many theories relating to gravity are difficult to test experimentally, and thus remain only theories.
The uncertainty principle limits our ability to measure a graviton or other particle's position,
momentum, or other parameters except by measuring. However, measuring involves an interaction
that will disturb the graviton, and at this atomic scale even a small disturbance is significant. Also,
the fact that gravitons are massless and self-interacting makes them hard to detect. String theory is,
as the name suggests, just a theory. General relativity, although well established and widely
accepted, is also hard to prove. This is because it occurs on such a large astronomical scale that it is
difficult to prove experimentally. Although at the present theories regarding gravity cannot be
proven, they are widely accepted as true by the scientific community and yield much important
information about how our universe works, including at the scale of elementary particles.
Newton's First Law states than an object remains at rest or in a state of uniform motion unless acted
on by an external force. This law applies to nearly all objects, yet as is often the case with physical
laws , things work a little differently at the particle scale. An interesting case is the electron, which
has a charge of -1 and a tiny relative mass of 1/1836. Electrons obey the laws of motion; if they
didn't, how could we have particle accelerators and colliders? However, they don't obey Newton's
First Law in the classical sense. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that we can not know a
particle's precise measurements of momentum and position at the same time. This is represented by
the equation . This makes it very difficult to determine how a particle actually
moves. What we do know is that in particle, accelerators electromagnetic fields can be used to
accelerate particles to very high speeds. From this we can conclude that the electron does obey
Newton's First Law of Motion.

Newton's second law states that force = mass x acceleration. This law applies to all objects with
mass, but if we rearrange the equation to acceleration = force/mass we can see that for an object
with little mass, such as an elementary particle, a relatively small force can produce a huge
acceleration. This also implies that for a particle with no mass, such as a photon, huge speeds can be
reached with tiny force. This explains why nothing can travel faster than light. Since photons are
massless, nothing with mass can travel as fast if the same force is applied. Thus, nothing with mass
can travel as fast as light, which is massless.

Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is merely
an expression of the conservation of momentum, which states that in a closed system, the
momentum remains constant. Momentum is equal to velocity x mass. This law applies to all
objects, including elementary particles, whether massless or massive. If a particle has a tiny mass,
such as an elementary particle, the momentum will remain tiny unless there is a great velocity. For a
massless particle, such as a photon or graviton, the momentum will always be zero, regardless of
the velocity. This implies that for a massless or near-massless object, a force is required to continue
acting on the object in order for it to keep moving.

Another important scientific law is the Law of the Conservation of Energy. This law states that
energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another. This
law is described by the equation k + u = k + u , where k and k are initial and final kinetic
energy, and u and u are initial and final potential energy. This is perhaps one of the most well
established scientific laws and is obeyed even on the particle level. There are, however, some cases
where the Law of Conservation of Energy appears to be violated, such as in nuclear fusion, but even
these can be explained. In beta decay, an atom emits either a positively charged particle called a
positron along with a neutrino (positive beta decay), or a negatively charged electron with an
antineutrino. If beta decay is simply the emission of an electron or positron, then the charge of the
particle should take a particular value. The fact that the charge of the electron or positron emitted
can take a range of values appears to contradict the Law of Conservation of Energy, but these
charges do have a maximum. The charge on the emitted particle cannot be larger than the charge of
the particle while it was inside the atom. From this we can conclude that, for now at least, the Law
of the Conservation of Energy remains solid and cannot be violated in any way.

The Law of Conservation of Mass is closely related to the Law of Conservation of Energy. This law
says that the mass of objects in a closed setting remains constant. The Law of Conservation of Mass
worked in the simple quantum mechanics of the 1920's, but the development of quantum field
theory proved different. In this theory, particles can be created and destroyed. A particle and
antiparticle, both of which have positive masses, can destroy each other and turn into a pair of
massless photons. The most frequent annihilation occurs when an electron and a positron collide. In
quantum field theory, you have one field for each type of particle in the universe – one photon field,
one Higgs field, etc. This means that having n particles is just a particular state of the field, so
creation and annihilation are possible. A field also does not have a constant number of particles. You
can have superpositions in the particle number. Once again, quantum mechanics and the study of
particles is rewriting the laws of physics.

There are four major laws of thermodynamics, but in this essay I will concentrate on the second.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that heat will always flow from a hotter object to a
colder one, unless energy is used to reverse the direction of heat flow. This law is deeply ingrained
in quantum mechanics, where we allow the substitution of the Boltzman Constant k and
temperature with the Planck Constant and quantum numbers. In particular, what is important in
quantum mechanics is the change in entropy. Entropy is a measure of the randomness of a system,
and also describes how much energy is available to do work. Another interesting topic relating to
the Second Law of Thermodynamics is the concept of a quantum heat engine. In a quantum heat
engine, a three-level amplifier uses a hot and cold water bath to maintain population inversion
between two energy levels, which is used to amplify light by stimulated emission. If energy is
supplied, a quantum refrigerator can also be created, which drives heat from the cold bath to the hot
bath. These devices are only hypothetical at the moment, but they could exist in the future.

Coulomb's Law is an experimental law that calculates the amount of force between two electrically
charged particles. It is represented by the equation , where F is the electric force, k is
the coulomb force, q and q are the charges, and r is the distance of seperation. Coulomb's law,
however, is not universal, as it only applies to certain circumstances. It is responsible for the
attraction between negatively charged electrons and the positive charge of the nucleus in an atom,
as well as the repulsion between two electrons. One problem, however, with Coulomb's Law is that
in quantum mechanics the wave or particle doesn't have a definite position, rather it has a
probability distribution. As shown by the equation of Coulomb's Law, we need to know the distance
of seperation of the particles, r. This simply isn't possible in quantum mechanics. Perhaps a new
equation needs to be worked out that is adapted for use in these situations.

There are four fundamental forces affecting elementary particles – the weak force, strong force,
electromagnetic force, and gravity. We have already discussed the force of gravity and gravitational
laws, but now I want to come back to the other three forces, starting with the weak force. The weak
force is the force that causes radioactive decay. The particles that carry the weak force are called
weakons (or intermediate vector bosons) and include the positively and negatively charged W
particles and the neutral Z particle. The weak force acts on left-handed fermions, which are
elementary particles with half-integer values of spin, and right-handed antifermions. It creates beta
decay by allowing protons to turn into neutrons and vice versa by releasing an electron and a
neutrino or a positron and an antineutrino.

The strong nuclear force is the strongest of all the fundamental forces. It acts only over very small
distances (within the nucleus of an atom) and is responsible for binding together quarks to form
hadrons, and for binding together protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom; they are the 'glue'
that hold particles together. The gluon is the carrier of the strong nuclear force. Gluons have no
mass and no charge. They cannot exist on their own, and instead join together to form 'glueballs',
which act as a single particle. The strong force is described by quantum chromodynamics, which is
a gauge field theory. In this theory, gluons carry a charge called the colour charge. This can take
values from one to eight, known as a 'colour octet'. They exist in a four-vector field. Gluons can be
detected even though they have no mass or charge. They are detected in particle detectors by the
hadrons that they produce, and can be distinguished by protons, which are also massless and have
no charge, by the fact that they always exist in groups known as 'glueballs'.
The electromagnetic force is the force carried by the photon. Photons are massless, chargeless, and
have a spin of one. One very important theory regarding the electromagnetic force is quantum
electrodynamics. This theory describes how light and matter interact, and unifies the theories of
quantum mechanics and special relativity. Quantum electrodynamics can be described as a precise
way to calculate the probability of the position and movement of particles, even particles like
photons that have no mass. Another important theory relating to electromagnetism is the Kaluza-
Klein Theory, which seeks to combine electromagnetism with the theory of gravity. It attempts to do
this by adding another dimension, and is considered to be a precursor to string theory. However
solid theories regarding electromagnetism may be, a particle called the muon is showing properties
that seem to defy electrodynamics. Muons are supposed to wobble at a certain rate when exposed to
a magnetic field, but instead they wobble faster. Scientists claim that this increased rate may be
caused by a force currently unknown and undiscovered. Perhaps new research into muons will yield
important information on electromagnetism and the laws of electrodynamics.

New research has revealed that the laws of physics may actually be changing over time. This theory
is known as the Audodidactic Universe and likens the universe to a system of artificial intelligence
in which it learns its own physical laws. The theory of the autodidactic universe uses mathematical
modelling of a learning system to develop a correspondance between each solution of the physical
law and a run of a neural network. This theory implies that the laws of the universe could have been
very different the distant past, such as at the time of the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago. This
brings to attention another interesting theory involving telescopes being used to 'look back in time'.
Because light takes time to travel from one place to another, we see objects in distant galaxies as
they were when they released the light. New and advanced telescopes are being used to see further
and further into space, and therefore further back in time. In the future, an an advanced telescope
could be used to observe the light released by distant galaxies and other cosmic structures during
the early seconds after the Big Bang. This could be used to observe physical laws that were
different from the ones that we have today.

Dark matter makes up some 90-99% of the mass of the universe, yet cannot be detected or even
shown to exist. Theories of the composition of dark matter include unknown atomic particles (cold
dark matter), or fast-moving neutrinos (hot dark matter), or a mixture of both. If proven to exist,
dark matter could help to explain many of the effects of gravity, including the movement of
galaxies. Interestingly, dark matter appears to violate many of the well-established laws of physics.
One law that it doesn't appear to obey is the law of conservation of energy. This is because the
energy density of space that comes from dark energy is constant and space is expanding. Therefore,
as space expands the energy in the universe that comes from dark energy would increase. Another
way that dark matter differs from regular mattter is that it doesn't interact electromagnetically, or its
electromagnetic interactions are so weak that they cannot be observed. One law that does hold true,
however, is the first law of thermodynamics. This is represented by the equation dU = -PdV + …
Since the pressure in this system is negative, this is one way of explaining the origin of the extra
energy as the space grows.

Although I have discussed many topics relating to physical laws and elementary particles in my
essay, there are still many questions that are yet to be answered. Perhaps in the future scientists will
develop new and improved laws of physics that will provide greater insights into this rich and
fascinating subject.