Scientists Think They've Cracked an Unsolved Physics Problem From 'The Big Bang Theory'
Bazinga! The great physics problem that Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter weren't able to crack in 12 years on the TV show, The Big Bang Theory, an expert from the University of Cincinnati has figured out. At least they think that they have. The problem relates to the boogeyman of the physics world: dark matter. Dark matter is the mysterious, dormant glue that holds together everything visible and that exists as matter. Scientists believe certain particles called axions could help explain this gluing background force. Though hypothetical, these axions have repeatedly piqued the curiosity of researchers. In the latest study, published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, lead researcher Jure Zupan and his colleagues at the Fermi National Laboratory, MIT, and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, proposed a simulated version of cosmic chemistry in which axions can be produced inside the laboratory using a new type of fusion reactor.
Zupan, who seems to have followed every episode of The Big Bang Theory, says that the sitcom’s characters, Sheldon and Leonard, worked on the problem in three episodes of Season 5, but couldn’t crack it. Referring to the episodes, he described that it features the character scribbling an equation on the whiteboard, with a diagram that suggests how axions are generated from the Sun. In the subsequent episode, the character appears with a sad face, which depicts their failure to arrive at a solution.
Zupan and his colleagues have cracked the missing piece of the puzzle and figured out a potential way that can produce these shy, lightweight particles. “The sun is a huge object producing a lot of power. The chance of having new particles produced from the sun that would stream to Earth is larger than having them produced in fusion reactors using the same processes as in the Sun. However, one can still produce them in reactors using a different set of processes,” he said in the press release.
The reactor will be powered by deuterium and tritium in a vessel coated with lithium, an instrument that is currently being developed in global collaboration in the south of France. This reactor wouldn’t just produce energy but also a large flux of neutrons. In the same way as reactions occur on the Sun, the laboratory version of the Sun, this fusion reactor, will heat deuterium and tritium at extremely high temperatures. Deuterium and tritium, the heavy isotopes of hydrogen, will combine to form a plasma.
This plasma will be blasted with more heat until it turns into a condensed mass of gas suspended by magnetic radiation emitted by the reactor. Unlike many reactors, this reactor will not allow neutrons to escape through the walls. The walls of this reactor are shielded with a breeding blanket made of lithium-ceramic components. So when the neutrons strike against the walls, they will bounce off, collide with other particles, and slow down, releasing bursts of energy in a process Zupan calls bremsstrahlung or "braking radiation."
The general idea, Zupan boasts, was discussed in The Big Bang Theory years ago, but “Sheldon and Leonard couldn’t make it work.” The characters, he noted, never mentioned the concept of axions explicitly on the show. They were just Easter eggs of the show that incorporated physics concepts like Schrodinger’s cat and the Doppler effect in the storyline. However, when watched from a physicist’s perspective, even little details in the story could reveal something extraordinary and fascinating. “That’s why it’s fantastic to watch as a scientist,” Zupan said. “There are many layers to the jokes," he added.
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