T.D. Lee dies, theorized physics doesn't work in a mirror

August 12, 2024 10:48 AM

Tsung-Dao Lee (November 24, 1926 to August 4, 2024) shared his Nobel with Chen Ning Yang. Many say the experimentalist Chien-Shiung Wu who validated Lee and Yang's hypothesis should have also shared the prize. That the laws of physics don't work in a mirror image universe (parity violation) came as a big surprise.

...Nobel-prizewinning physicist Isidor Rabi, said at a press conference: “A rather complete theoretical structure has been shattered at the base and we are not sure how the pieces will be put together.”

posted by Schmucko (14 comments total)

⧑ ≠ ⧒

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posted by lalochezia at 10:58 AM on August 12 [12 favorites]

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posted by notyou at 11:21 AM on August 12

I wonder if anyone has informed evil Captain Kirk.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:39 PM on August 12 [3 favorites]

is this related to the thing about how we can’t technically be certain of the “one-way speed” of light, only the sum of the speeds at which it is emitted and then reflects back to a detector?
posted by Jon_Evil at 1:44 PM on August 12 [2 favorites]

No, it's about how the weak interaction violates parity simmetry - or, in other words, how the weak interaction acts differently on a mirrored version of a nuclear reaction:

Wu Experiment

PBS Spacetime: Quantum Physics in a Mirror Universe

(I am not a physicist myself, and have a rather tenuous grasp on this topic).
posted by LaVidaEsUnCarnaval at 2:12 PM on August 12 [5 favorites]

PBS Space Time did an episode explaining this concept. I love this show. Matt does a great job of fully explaining advanced physics concepts to a general audience without dumbing them down at all, which you just don't really get from most science journalism in my experience.
posted by zixyer at 2:12 PM on August 12 [5 favorites]

The round, swirling shape of ‘The Tao of All Matter’ invokes the yin and yang of ancient Chinese philosophy — a representation of the inseparable opposites said to form the basis of all things — as well as the ring of the modern particle accelerator
. . .
☯️
posted by HearHere at 2:16 PM on August 12 [2 favorites]

Seconding Space Time: it really makes a YT subscription worth the expense, and notably, in addition to not dumbing things down, Matt covers physics ground broken in new papers, which keeps the episodes pertinent.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:11 PM on August 12 [2 favorites]

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And thirding Space Time.
posted by Pouteria at 9:28 PM on August 12

In some sense, it is easy to explain. When you look in the mirror, that other 'mirror world' has the same physics as our world, or appears to. Balls bounce in the same way. Many molecules exhibit left-right asymmetry but there's no reason why its mirror image wouldn't work in the same way.

But, there are a small number of interactions that violate this rule. If you had put a mirror in the lab, the experiment going on in the mirror is not one whose result we can replicate in our universe. It appears to give our entire Universe a handedness. It was a profound result.

To quote from the Wikipedia article:

The results of the Wu experiment provide a way to operationally define the notion of left and right. This is inherent in the nature of the weak interaction. Previously, if the scientists on Earth were to communicate with a newly discovered planet's scientist, and they had never met in person, it would not have been possible for each group to determine unambiguously the other group's left and right. With the Wu experiment, it is possible to communicate to the other group what the words left and right mean exactly and unambiguously.

And, yes, Wu was cheated out of the Nobel Prize. She was in fact the actual discoverer in the same way that Penzias and Wilson got the Nobel for the CBE and not, say Dicke and Peebles.
posted by vacapinta at 2:12 AM on August 13 [4 favorites]

There's an excellent book all about this: Martin Gardner's "The Ambidextrous Universe: Left, Right, and the Fall of Parity". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ambidextrous_Universe
posted by vincebowdren at 2:25 AM on August 13 [3 favorites]

Interesting. Also I loved the entropic gravity episode this lead me to,
posted by jeffburdges at 9:14 AM on August 13

Anybody know why Lee and Yang fell out?
posted by klangklangston at 10:42 PM on August 13

Lee was yin?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:45 PM on August 14 [3 favorites]