Mirror universe out there?

[Robert Treat]

I've seen an interesting article on "mirror matter" at wikipedia. While this doesn't necessarily mean a "mirror universe" has a ruthless empire or alliance (maybe that's us) the article is interesting. http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_matter

 

[Dayton3]

IIRC, "mirror matter" is the term Robert L. Forward preferred for antimatter. His book on using antimatter is called "Mirror Matter".

It has nothing to do with alternate universes which is what the so called "Mirror Universe" was.

At any rate, the "Mirror Universe" as portrayed in Star Trek is utterly ridiculous from a realistic standpoint.

 

[nx1701g]

^ Not necessarily ridiculous from a realistic standpoint. Every action has potential consequences that could come into play in different combinations. Who's to say some action that a government - or even one person - will make in the upcoming years couldn't result in more than one outcome (one creating an empire, another a peaceful nation, a third status quo).

 

[PurpleBuddha]

Well, all I know is that my action of clicking on the link in the OP brings me to a broken link page. Anyone get a different result?

 

[bryce]

Well, all I know is that my action of clicking on the link in the OP brings me to a broken link page. Anyone get a different result?

Try this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_matter


^NOT the same thing as Dark Matter!

(But I have a *HUGE* headache right now so I gave up on trying to make sense of any of it... )

ETA: From "How Stuff Works"

Shadow matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is thought to interact with ordinary matter only through the force of gravity. If shadow matter exists, it is a form of dark matter. Dark matter is invisible matter that scientists believe makes up most of the mass of the universe. Dark matter is invisible because it does not give off, reflect, or absorb light. Unlike other hypothetical forms of dark matter, shadow matter cannot be detected in any laboratory experiment (see Dark matter).

 

[bryce]

IIRC, "mirror matter" is the term Robert L. Forward preferred for antimatter. His book on using antimatter is called "Mirror Matter".

Yeah, the article mentions that:

The phrase "mirror matter" was also introduced by physicist and author Dr. Robert L. Forward as an alternative term for what is commonly called antimatter, in an attempt to emphasize that antimatter is identical to ordinary matter, except reversed in all possible ways (i.e., CPT). (Forward was apparently not aware of the use of the word "mirror particles" by Russian physicists to mean parity reversed matter that does not interact strongly with "ordinary" matter). This is elucidated in his book Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics[31] (1988), and his editing the small review journal Mirror Matter Newsletter (1986-1990). However, this use of the term "mirror matter" for antimatter was never widely picked up by others and is not currently in common use.

But, that's not what the OP means by "Mirror Matter":

In physics, mirror matter, also called shadow matter or Alice matter, is a hypothetical counterpart to ordinary matter. Modern physics deals with three basic types of spatial symmetry: reflection, rotation and translation. The known elementary particles respect rotation and translation symmetry but do not respect mirror reflection symmetry (also called P-symmetry or parity). Of the four fundamental interactions electromagnetism, the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravity, only the weak interaction breaks parity.

Parity violation in weak interactions was first postulated by Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang [1] in 1956 as a solution to the τ-θ puzzle. They suggested a number of experiments to test if the weak interaction is invariant under parity. These experiments were performed half a year later and they confirmed that the weak interactions of the known particles violate parity.[2] [3] [4]

However parity symmetry can be restored as a fundamental symmetry of nature if the particle content is enlarged so that every particle has a mirror partner. The theory in its modern form was written down in 1991 [5], although the basic idea dates back earlier [1][6][7]. Mirror particles interact amongst themselves in the same way as ordinary particles, except where ordinary particles have left-handed interactions, mirror particles have right-handed interactions. In this way, it turns out that mirror reflection symmetry can exist as an exact symmetry of nature, provided that a "mirror" particle exists for every ordinary particle. Parity can also be spontaneously broken depending on the Higgs potential. [8][9] While in the case of unbroken parity symmetry the masses of particles are the same as their mirror partners, in case of broken parity symmetry the mirror partners are lighter or heavier.

Mirror matter, if it exists, would have to be very weakly interacting with ordinary matter. This is because the forces between mirror particles are mediated by mirror bosons. With the exception of the graviton, none of the known bosons can be identical to their mirror partners. The only way mirror matter can interact with ordinary matter via forces other than gravity is via so-called kinetic mixing of mirror bosons with ordinary bosons or via the exchange of Holdom particles.[10] These interactions can only be very weak. Mirror particles have therefore been suggested as candidates for the inferred dark matter in the universe.[11][12][13][14][15]

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_matter

 

[yellowdingo]

IIRC, "mirror matter" is the term Robert L. Forward preferred for antimatter. His book on using antimatter is called "Mirror Matter".

It has nothing to do with alternate universes which is what the so called "Mirror Universe" was.

At any rate, the "Mirror Universe" as portrayed in Star Trek is utterly ridiculous from a realistic standpoint.

Not entirely unrealistic: the ST Mirror Universe where Kirk is a ruthless tyrannt -yet we expect history to progress to include People in a DS9 future is horsepoo.
The concept of a Mirror Universe as they present it is associated with this: A={1} Basically our Universe made up of our Mathematical reality.
/A (NOTA) = {xia} A completely different Universe defined by a Mathematics that is unrelated except at superposition to our own.

Transfer from Our Universe into Their Universe: A/0=NOTA. I cop a lot of flack for suggesting a Universe where the number One doesnt exist (nor any compound of One) but hey...Maths gets us answers we dont like.

If they realy want to get into Mirror Universe it would be like the Strings generating Universe A collide with Mirror Strings generating Mirror Universe /A and Black hole forms as A&/A=0rk (Zero remainder K)...

Now we know we have a Singularity r Debris, THe Universe being Debris of CHange in Possibility.