Do cosmologists or astrophysicists have any hypotheses or theories on the stuff of which the universe is made? By this I mean the “space-time stuff” in which matter, light, time etc “float” or, in other words, the expanding vacuum or ether etc.
I initially thought that it was probably dark matter but was corrected on that assumption.
Are you asking what space and time are made of? I don’t think that scientists claim that they’re made out of anything more primitive or fundamental than “space-time.” That’s the turtle way down at the bottom.
I’m so reluctant to mention it given all the people here who actually know about this stuff, but, I think that if you look up Higgs-Boson Particles you will find some information.
Cheese.
Next question.
What kind of cheese?
Mousetrap variety.
We could also call it quantum foam, I suppose.
String theorists think we’re all living on a matrix of little tiny strings that rearrange themselves in different ways to make up all the various particles. They’d be tiny even on the scale of subatomic particles. As I understand it, even empty space would be made up of strings, with the “emptiness” property defined by the configuration of the strings. There’s some interesting math regarding string theory, but not a lot of experimental evidence.
The Higgs Boson (or more technically the Higgs field) may provide mass to certain other particles but it is in no way is what space-time is “made of.”
Coincidentally my latest issue of Scientific American came in yesterday with an article about gluons. I don’t think that there is an answer to my question, yet, though I’m sure that something will be theorized or discovered in the next several years.
How does the old quote go? Particles can’t be made of stuff, because stuff is made of particles.
The problem with answering the question is that it’s a little hard to define it without being self-referential. For example, we can say an atom is made of protons and protons are made of quarks, but what are quarks made of? There’s only two answers: 1) something smaller than a quark we don’t know about or 2) nothing smaller; a quark is a quark.
If #2 is the case, asking “What is a quark made of?” is almost a metaphysical question rather than a scientific one.
Obviously, something with even less physical definition.
Peeps.
Loop quantum gravity suggest spin networks or “spin foam”.
“More precisely, space can be viewed as an extremely fine fabric or network “woven” of finite loops. These networks of loops are called spin networks. The evolution of a spin network over time is called a spin foam. The predicted size of this structure is the Planck length, which is approximately 10−35 meters. According to the theory, there is no meaning to distance at scales smaller than the Planck scale. Therefore, LQG predicts that not just matter, but also space itself has an atomic structure.”
When I read about this a few years ago, I thought I understood the spin networks to be ‘events’ or interactions.
To paraphrase Dave Barry: universe molecules.
I’m no expert, but I have heard people who speak quantum field theory say things like “the universe is made of fields”. (Hey, what can I say, I go on some strange dates sometimes.)
Particles can be thought of as excitations of fields. Every type of particle has an associated field, which extend through space. (Sometimes infinitely, and sometimes, I think, not. I’m not sure, I got distracted by my date’s cleavage when she got to that part.) There’s your electromagnetic field, your gravitational field, other fields for types of quark, your Higgs field, and so forth.
Of course, then the question is: “What are fields made of?”
Thankfully, the answer to that one is simple: Venezuelan beaver cheese.
Quarklettes:p
I thought it would be String Cheese, in theory.
It would take a mousetrap the size of our solar syatem to PROVE that it it is string cheese.
I would have never guessed that I would Google the search term “venezuelan string cheese quantum theory”.
But I did.
(OK, I am off to my corner now, where I will sit quietly until called).
Space is made of ummm…space?