![]() “We should see no neutrons” according to conventional physics theory. “It all comes down to: Are we able to shine neutrons through a wall?” she says. Broussard is looking for any telltale neutrons that managed to get past the barrier by turning into mirror neutrons, then turning back. Collecting the data and weeding out every possible source of error might then take a few weeks more. Running the experiment will take about one day. Genevieve Martin / Oak Ridge National Laboratory/ U.S. Leah Broussard at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The hard part is figuring out how to make some of the neutrons cross over into the mirror world, and then prove to her skeptical colleagues (and to her skeptical self) that it really happened. Oak Ridge has an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor that can shoot out billions of neutrons on demand, so getting enough raw material to work with isn’t an issue. But those experiments took a strange turn. Starting in the 1990s, physicists developed high-precision experiments to study how neutrons - particles found in the nuclei of atoms - break down into protons, a process related to radioactivity. ![]() Ten seconds that rocked physicsĪs with many grand scientific quests, the hunt for mirror matter grew out of a small, seemingly esoteric mystery. “If you discover something new like that, the game totally changes,” Broussard says. But if she unequivocally detects even a single mirror particle, it would prove that the visible universe is only half of what is out there - and that the known laws of physics are only half of a much broader set of rules. “This is a pretty straightforward experiment that we cobbled together with parts we found lying around, using equipment and resources we already had available at Oak Ridge,” she says. of Energyīroussard says her initial search for the mirror world won’t be especially difficult. Leah Broussard studies subatomic particles at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she will be searching for mirror matter this summer. Collectively, they could form an entire shadow world, just as real as our own but almost completely cut off from us. But current theory allows that you might find mirror atoms and mirror rocks, maybe even mirror planets and stars. You wouldn’t find a mirror version of yourself there (and no evil Spock with a goatee - sorry "Star Trek" fans). The mirror world, assuming it exists, would have its own laws of mirror-physics and its own mirror-history. “It’s pretty wacky,” Broussard says of her mind-bending exploration.
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