Exotic matter
The term exotic matter in particle physics is very broad. It generally refers to particles that are not made up of electrons , protons and neutrons , and in particular to hypothetical matter with negative energy density . The latter type of matter has not yet been observed.
For example, geophysicists try to explain unusual earthquakes with the impact of particles of exotic matter with masses in the nanogram range, the density of which equals that of atomic nuclei . These particles are called strangelets or strange quark nuggets because they are supposed to be made up of strange quarks . Based on theoretical considerations, this type of exotic matter was proposed by Edward Witten as early as 1984 .
The assumption that exotic matter can be found inside neutron stars as free quarks or as Bose-Einstein condensate has since turned out to be very unlikely.
Exotic matter with a negative energy density is not antimatter . Although the antiparticles can be formally described by states of negative energy, at least for fermions , the antiparticles in the context of this theory are holes in the Dirac Sea , i.e. missing particles of negative energy, and thus have positive energy again. The Feynman-Stückelberg interpretation describes the antiparticles as particles of positive energy that move backwards through time. Wormholes and the fictional warp drive by Miguel Alcubierre (see superluminal speed ) require exotic matter with negative energy.
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b D. P. Anderson, ET mistress, VL Teplitz, IM Tibuleac: Unexplained sets of Seismographic Station Reports and A Set Consistent with a quark nugget passage . Open Access to Astrophysics, 2003, arxiv : astro-ph / 0205089
- ↑ F. Öze: Soft equations of state for neutron-star matter ruled out by EXO 0748 - 676 . In: Nature 4411, 2006, pp. 1115–1117 ( abstract )
- ↑ D. Hochberg, M. Visser: Null Energy Condition in Dynamic Wormholes . In: Phys. Rev. Lett. , 81 (4), 1998, pp. 746-749.