Recent content by lark

Does the shape of the Higgs potential change if the energy of the vacuum changes? According to Wikipedia, If a more stable vacuum state were able to arise, then existing particles and forces would no longer arise as they presently do. Different particles or forces would arise from (and be...

Would the Higgs potential change shape if the vacuum changed to a lower energy state? It's apparently because of the unusual shape of the Higgs potential, where the highest-symmetry spot is not the lowest energy, that the Higgs boson can generate mass. So if the vacuum were in a lower...

Not knowing is totally different from knowing not. IF the vacuum tunnelled to a lower energy state, could this result in the disappearance of rest mass?

That's not what they're saying more recently. Apparently with a more exact idea of the Higgs mass, the vacuum is metastable (could tunnel to a lower energy state). Again, I'm not asking whether this is likely to happen anytime soon. Even if it takes a googol of years to happen, I'm still...

I'm not worried about it, I hope that rest mass could go away, if the vacuum tunneled to a lower energy state. The link you gave doesn't say what might happen to physics.

I read that the mass of the Higgs boson is such that we may be living in an unstable vacuum state, and if a region of the universe tunnels to a lower energy vacuum state, and eventually the whole universe would be in that lower energy state (ending life on earth). Do physicists have guesses...

Here are a couple of references about effects on chemistry of changing the fine structure constant: http://pra.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v81/i4/e042523 http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Hogan/Hogan3_1.html at least so far it seems like consequences for everyday chemistry aren't huge unless...

Looking at the Schroedinger equation you can see that if \alpha is multiplied by F, then the potential V is multiplied by F^2; so if \Psi is a solution before changing the fine structure constant, then if you divide the length scale of \Psi by F, and divide the time scale of \Psi by F^2, you...

Good point that it would change nuclear physics, because the ratio of electromagnetic force to strong force would change. Why would the periodic table change? Looking at the wavefunction for the 1s orbital of atomic hydrogen, it looks like if the fine structure constant is multiplied by a...

What would be the consequences of slightly changing the fine structure constant, i.e. changing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction - but not changing gravitation or the strong force? In the everyday world? You might imagine that the strength of chemical forces etc. would change...

I had a mysterious illness that I ended up self-diagnosing. See http://camoo.freeshell.org/allergies.html By googling and looking on Medline, I found there's a lot of evidence for local allergies, i.e. you can have an allergy to something even though allergy tests are negative. This could...

This motor is a universal motor, does a universal motor have inductance? I asked Sola about voltage regulators and they said with an inductive load, there are short-term current spikes that might overload the voltage regulator, causing it to go to 0 V. So they say, for a motor the voltage...

The line voltage is 120 V +/- about 5%, so it's already pretty good. Could I get somewhere a voltage regulator that takes 120 V +/- 5% and outputs a voltage accurate to +/- 1%, either as 120 VAC or some amount that you specify? Would the bench supply unit do that? Laura

I get sick for several days when the turbine fails (allergies). But it's not life-threatening. Is there a good speed sensor for a universal motor? The utility voltage is pretty good - the engineer I talked to said it's usually between 120 and 124 V. Perhaps since the input voltage is...

Again, I'd probably do fine with a sensor for the line voltage, then something like a rheostat that would be adjusted based on the line voltage. That's what I'm doing right now by hand. I have a voltmeter, and for a given line voltage, I know how the rheostat should be adjusted. It seems...