by Theodore R. Frimet
No Taurus
We spoke. We speak often with those we outreach, under the night sky. It is an impermanent relationship. One that is marked by conversation, sight and awe. Among the two-way talks that glanced thru the veil, were The Standard Model, a new flavor of neutrino, and an Awakening.
When faced with the prospect of speaking beyond my comprehension, there will come the time when a question is also far out of the boundaries of Astronomy. The question begs its genesis. Whatever did I say to encourage a question on the composition of the Standard Model, during outreach?
I flopped and flailed about, like a fish out of water. Creeping to the innermost part of my temporal lobes, was an attempt by my raging hippocampus to unleash the dogs of war. And out it came. ‘Shot, over. Shot, out’!
Spoken softly, we engaged a brief incursion to QED, the Quantum Electrodynamics Theory. Briefly, I took pause to mention the few flavors of Quarks that I could taste. Salty, bitter, were at the tip and back of my tongue, as thus Sprach Zarathustra: Charmed, Up and Down. Never enough time to chat about bottom, top and strange. Although the utterances rang true, they had little to do with the Standard Model, as it is the framework that describes boson carrying forces between quarks and leptons. Well, at least my brain had it a third right. There were Quarks in there, somewhere. Maybe charges do come in thirds, after all? Yes. I recall they do.
Earlier, that afternoon, a Superman of math, and engineering, queried, “what do you make of sub-neutrinos”? I turned partially on my heel, and answered out of the corner of my mouth, “there is no such thing. Why do you ask?” “I was checking to see if you were paying attention”, he replied.
I was. Once again, the fluttering of Quantum change took place, as information was displaced from our future selves, to the present. It is with deep regret, that one of our time lines has forever been erased. Having borrowed information, from the future, that future has now become your past. When we apply what we gleaned, from the wheat, to be felled in the field, our ‘morrow becomes a new yesterday. Sorry for that. We must move forward. I always wanted to know more about sub-neutrinos (warning: hyperbole ahead).
I will not mention the Physicist, by name, that gave her lecture to our club, a year, or few ago. I do not wish to do harm, to the good name of a great scientist, while spewing my own brand of insanity. It was, however, an excellent lecture. Here, we sat, listening in on the flavors of Neutrinos, and their conversion from electron, to tau, or muon, and not necessarily all in that order. I thought briefly, that neutrinos, being so plenty, and exotic, that they could pass thru the fabric of space time? So, I asked. The reply was professional, succinct, and non-exclusive. Think, the good doctor said, and ask yourself how a photon would behave in the curvature of space-time. I replied that it would follow the curve. Apply that to the neutrino, was the unspoken answer, as our guest lecturer nodded her head, as if to agree.
The answer did not take root. The question stuck for months. Years even. Until the Superman asked it, as a glancing afternoon blow to my cerebrum. I told my flighty friend that in my world, sub-neutrinos exist. To be of good manner, I acquiesced to a second Astronomer, on site. And asked how to put the “sub” in sub-neutrino. He replied, “Submarine”, as in water, water, everywhere. He knew not what he had just said. You do, if you read one of our previous essays, don’t you? Keep it safe. Keep it secret.
I then let them into my world, as I revealed that the sub-neutrino exits, and pierces the curvature of space-time. Where our photon observations are bound to follow the stiff curves, the sub-neutrino travels the human observed distance that is shorter than photonic flight.
Yes, of course, in relativity, massless photons travel without respect to time or distance. It is you, the observer that slows the reference frame, and to have beams of light take eons to reach your retina. Not so, with the sub-neutrino. It defies relativity, and even within the reach of the observer, it destinates itself, as quickly as it was instantiated. That is, it travels without regard to the measurement of time, or distance; despite the observers reference frame. Coupled with the faster than light expansion of space-time, which is not bound by relativity, we now have formed the basis for faster than light (FTL) travel. Einstein rode a beam of light. You and I, however, will take spin on a Magic Carpet Ride.
Then the Ghost Catcher article was published. It is a featured story, authored by Adrian Cho, Science, 9 August 2019, pps 532-535. It wasn’t concerning my hyperbolic sub-neutrino. Cho captures the flavor of the sterile-neutrino. It is a particle we are now on the hunt for. It will doggedly make up the difference in a neutrino flavor count, as our nearly massless particle covets electron, tau, or muon, moieties. We envision the largest detectors on the job, vying to account for these transpositions. These nearly massless particles will shortly be accompanied by the detection of the far heavier sterile-neutrino. My hyperbole, continues to be safe, so far, as they have decided not to take on a massless solution. FTL, it seems, is not on their radar. Creating or maintaining mathematical symmetry in the standard model, no doubt, is.
After many tear soaked investitures of making a little human come into their life, in its place, there came a dream. Seven woman gathered about a common point. A circle was made. Our dream catcher saw them, as I see you, in the night. Some color, and mostly shades stemming from the near ultra-violet. Crying emanated from the locus.
Her dream-time color was now no longer impeded. They appeared, all at once, to be dressed in blue and white. One by one, they left the circle. Unveiling a child that cried to the night sky. Our dreamer, too, turned to take her leave. The last of the blue and white clad, dream-time dwellers called out to our departing, sleep walking, mother, “Here is your baby. Don’t leave without her. She is yours.” Cradling the newborn infant, in her arms, she awoke. Several days later, she was pregnant with child. Hers, finally, would be birthed upon this Earth.
Years later, she spoke of her mothers dream, and owned it as her own genesis. I told her that the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, were a constellation of interest. These Seven Sisters are clad in blue-white hot stars. We remarked on the coincidence. We learned to appreciate that this nebulous cluster appears at the tip of the constellation Taurus, the Bull. And quick was she to be telling that her Astrological sign was Taurus.
How much data sampling is required to reject the null hypothesis? There is too much burden, within an essay, an apparent work of fiction, to yield to the inner workings of advanced statistical mathematics. Suffice to say, that the story, although modified, is human enough an experience. You and I have found our Starchild. And yes, Starchild has traveled on a sub-neutrino, magic carpet ride. https://youtu.be/U4WiyxXpyZc
Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride 1968, last accessed Sunday, August 24, 2019, 9:44 AM EST
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton 