On Jan 9, 2008, at 8:51 AM, OrionWorks wrote:
Also, wouldn't a sizable macro-scale amount of mirror matter appear to
weigh less than predicted? In fact If I understand this correctly if a
sample was composed more than 50 percent (volume-wise) of mirror
matter wouldn't it manifest negative weight, or antigravitation
influences? If so, the stuff would obviously be difficult to locate!
Would have likely floated away millions & billions of years ago! ;-)
No. Mirror matter weakly binds with ordinary matter. If light
mirror matter nuclei bind with heavier ordinary matter nuclei, then
the result is net ordinary matter, but with low density. It is of
great interest that the binding is so weak that mirror matter can be
separated by use of a strong centrifuge. See:
Robert Foot, 2002, Shadowlands: Quest for Mirror Matter in the
Universe, Universal Publishers, ISBN 158112645X
Foot does not say or think mirror matter is negative gravitational
matter. That is a consequence of my theory. Other than that, what
I'm saying here is consistent with his theory.
Note: it is possible that there are even greater families of matter
than I proposed in my theory. In other words there may exist
positive gravitational charge containing mirror matter. I don't
think so, though, otherwise black holes, by symmetry, could eject
ordinary matter having negative gravitational charge. Maybe some
evidence of that happening will occur tough.
I wonder if both normal and mirror matter would actually have the
chance to coalesce (to solidify before escaping the Earth's gravity)
in certain rare meteor strikes.
It likely arrives already coalesced (bound) to some degree, but would
be separated by the high g's of impact, but certainly would
immediately bind with earth matter at the site of the impact or just
beyond.
I presume you are theorizing that,
realistically speaking, its more likely that we would only be able to
collect a very small percentage of mirror matter dispersed within the
confines of normal matter.
It can be accumulated by use of a centrifuge. The (stationary) walls
of the centrifuge can be lined with a foil to bind with the separated
mirror matter as it flies off. The centrifuging would have to occur
in a vacuum.
If such rare species exist it seems to me that it might be feasible to
heat up a suspected sample - basically melt it down. If the sample
could be liquefied, wouldn't the mirror matter gradually migrate to
the top where it would eventually concentrate in greater percentages?
Yes, mirror matter *adhered* species can be separated by density.
However, I think it would be better to centrifuge it out onto and
thus bound with a single atomic species, like aluminum foil, and then
dissolve the foil and do a separation using lighter centrifuging. It
would be difficult to find the boundaries between differing matter
types though. In final application mirror matter might be of use in
a lithium foil form, and indeed, in either liquid or solid form, be
capable of floating.
Seems to me that this might turn out to be a more dramatic way to
discover whether mirror matter actually exists.
The odds of success are slim and the expense would be high. A high
mirror matter content object can probably be detected by merely
holding it in your hand. A large quantity underground can be
identified by a temperature drop. There would be a strong
temperature gradient in the vicinity. It is of interest that
temperature is often take in wire line surveys of oil wells. It
would be interesting to look at wire line surveys of wells in some
areas, and also to manually examine mineral cores taken from some
mining areas. I think these cores are stored for extended periods in
some jurisdictions, like Canada.
Conceivably one might
be able to collect sufficient quantities to be able to physically
observe a small amount rolling about at the top of the collection box!
It depends on the source of the mirror matter. Dense mirror matter I
think would come from a supernova of a mirror matter star. Heavy
mirror matter might be very rare in our part of the neighborhood. I
would expect it to arrive mostly in the form of cosmic rays. It
might also be found primarily in mirror electron or positron form.
In this case its value would be in its cooling properties, and in its
possible use in making sensors for mirror radiation. If we had
sensors for thermal infrared mirror radiation we could locate the
stuff with great ease! We could even see it deep in the earth. If
we could accumulate enough to build mirror antennas, we could
communicate directly in a straight line through the earth. We could
build really nifty telescopes too.
I just realized your above question may have a meaning that
differs from my interpretation of it. I probably wrongly
interpreted "a significant percentage of them are composed
entirely of mirror matter" to mean that "a significant
percentage of each of the observable galaxies is probably
mirror matter", that is to say some significant percentage
of every observable galaxy is probably mirror matter. A
galaxy entirely comprised of mirror matter would not be
observable except maybe through negative gravitational
lensing. The interaction of highly energetic mirror
matter and ordinary matter is visible on a galactic scale
due to the very weak (primarily nuclear) coupling that
exists between the two.
That's a bummer! The implication is that half the universe is
incapable of seeing the other half. It's beginning to sound more like
political and/or philosophical conjecture.
Socially credible though. 8^)
IOW, the invisibility is due to the fact that light (from our
perspective) would tend to bend away from the centers of mirror mass
galaxies.
No. Ordinary light would be *gravitationally* repelled from a mirror
galaxy center, or mirror black hole. Mirror photons simply do not
interact much with ordinary matter. They can pass right through it.
Our telescopes can't detect mirror photons. Mirror photons would
exhibit the photo electric effect only with mirror matter.
Likewise, I would assume civilizations inhabiting mirror
galaxies would not be able to directly see our "normal" matter
galaxies either.
That is correct, except for the fact they are probably chock full of
mirror matter generated in the center. Our galaxy would probably
look like an elliptical galaxy or even just luminous oblate gas cloud
to a mirror astronomer, while we look like a spiral galaxy to ourselves.
BTW, due to the nature of light bending to the will of normal mass,
wouldn't normal galaxies on average have a tendency to look a little
bigger than they really are? This seems to me to be a logical
conclusion.
Reverse gravitational (repulsive) lensing would only occur around
extremely massive galaxies or black holes. It would create a ring
around the galaxy just like ordinary gravitational lensing does, and
a black center. The main difference is that the source reflected
would be to the side of the ring, and visible, as opposed to behind
the object, as with ordinary gravitational lensing. I think gaseous
dark matter in a mixed matter galaxy must be somewhat visible due to
collisions with extremely high energy mirror matter, i.e. mirror
cosmic rays.
BTW, there are some spectacular galaxy photos located at:
http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html
Great photos. Thanks.
The STS is indeed superb and must be saved.
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
