RE: Quick question about Quarks
January 24, 2016 at 11:07 am
(This post was last modified: January 24, 2016 at 12:39 pm by Alex K.)
(January 24, 2016 at 7:23 am)MrNoMorePropaganda Wrote: Is is true that only Up and Down Quarks appear in nature? (Those that make up protons and neutrons). I remember hearing this somewhere but I can't remember where. It's bee on my mind recently as I've been thinking about whether it's a good argument to use against religionists.
So my question comes in two parts: Do Strange, Charm, Top and Bottom Quarks appear naturally?
And two: If they don't, could I use this against religionists as an example of something that humans can do but their favourite deity cannot?
They should all be created all the time in cosmic ray collisions of protons with the atmosphere , which reach almost 50 times the collision energy of the LHC (which is arguably even enough to make the superheavy top quark, although more rarely), but they are all unstable and very quickly decay. Only the proton is by itself a stable combination in which u and d quarks survive very long or indefinitely. Even the neutron is unstable by itself because one of the down quark decays.
Strange and charm quarks regularly appear as virtual particles in protons, depends on whether that counts...
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition