What is the Origin of Symmetry and Mass?

Symmetry Matters

For some of us, it's like a disease, we feel uncomfortable if something is not symmetrical. Or let's say if it's not in proper form. For example, most of us pay attention when placing chairs around the table, we want them to be properly spaced. I don't know about you, but I am like that. It's not to the extent of a disease, of course, sometimes I say let it be messy, but for example, if a painting hanging on the wall is a little crooked, I can't stand it, I immediately straighten it.

It is also possible to see symmetry in nature. For example, a butterfly has two identical wings. Birds have symmetrical wings. Most flowers are also symmetrical. Even if you pay attention to the leaves of trees, you will see symmetry. 

I think it goes without saying that we humans are also symmetrical in appearance. Some of us may have a little bit of symmetry disorders, if you have such a problem, don't worry, at the end of the article you will realize that this is not something to worry about.

Yes, if you noticed, in the previous paragraph I said appearance, because our internal organs are not so symmetrically arranged. First of all, most of our organs are one. We have a heart, we have a liver, we have a spleen, we have many other organs and they are not symmetrically arranged inside our body. Even if some of our organs are paired, even if they are symmetrical in appearance, sometimes they are different in function. For example, our brain has two symmetrical lobes, but each lobe has a different function. So do our arms, even though they look identical, they have different functions. Most of us are right-handed. Few of us play ball with our left foot. I don't like to play ball, but for example, I am right-handed when I write, but left-handed when I play ball. Sometimes I think there is something wrong with me.

Anyway, that's not the point now.

What is Symmetry?

There is one more thing to point out about symmetry. Physically, we see symmetry best in mirrors, in fact, our exact symmetrical reflection is formed in the mirror. It would be more accurate to say that everything has a symmetry.

Generally, all living things are symmetrical on the outside, but sometimes there are living things that do not have symmetry on the outside. The turbot is an example of this. It looks like a fish lying on its side on the sand. Even though it is a horizontal fish, when you look at it from above, you think that the other half is in the sand, but there is no symmetry on the side facing the sand. The face facing the sand is like that of a stingray. Some crabs also have one claw bigger than the other. Again, you can see the lack of symmetry on the outside. Even though the parts of snails coming out of their shells are symmetrical, the shell part is not symmetrical. In nature, in the world of living things, we see many other examples that are not symmetrical.

When we say symmetry, it doesn't necessarily have to be paired, sometimes a single organ in our body can also be placed in a way that does not disturb the symmetry. For example, our nose can be an example of this, right in the middle of our face, if they were to split us in half, it could be symmetrically divided so that one half of our nose falls on one side and the other half on the other side. So it is actually symmetrical in itself.

Of course, when we say symmetry, we should also say according to which axis it is symmetrical. For example, a sphere is symmetrical with respect to every axis passing through its center. But a cube is not symmetrical with respect to every axis passing through its center. It is symmetrical only with respect to certain axes. Continuing from geometry, an equilateral triangle is also symmetrical with respect to its center axis.

We living beings are symmetrical only with respect to the perpendicular axis that centers our face. Except for some living things, of course, as I mentioned above with a few examples. 

I think this is enough to explain symmetry in detail. What I want to talk about is actually something a little different. I want to talk about symmetry distortion.

Just as our heart is on the left side of our chest and many of our internal organs are not symmetrically placed in our body, so even though everything is symmetrical, when there is only one thing that breaks the symmetry, this is called symmetry distortion, or symmetry breaking. 

Although I read somewhere that there are people whose heart is on the right, so it's not a necessity for the heart to be on the left. But for some reason, most creatures have their heart on the left. One day we should investigate this issue, maybe there is a reason.

Yes, to get to the point, the origin of life is thought to be due to this symmetry distortion. Scientists are working on a theory that not only the origin of life, but everything we see around us has come into existence because of the distortion of symmetry. In fact, we can say that they are now sure. The work continues only on the nuances.

In other words, at the beginning of our article, I said that people whose appearance is sometimes a little bit unsymmetrical should not worry too much, symmetry distortion is not a bad thing, you see, the existence of life and the universe is due to symmetry distortion. That's why I said that at the beginning of the article. If these nuances are resolved through experiments, that is, if this theory can be proven conclusively, perhaps we will really understand the reason for the existence of life. 

At this stage of the article, I feel I have to clarify one thing first.

There are many forms of asking questions in our lives.

Who? Who? How many? Which? How? Why? Why? Where? When?

Science is more focused on the question of "how" than these. When human beings have been searching for answers to the question of "who", they have been able to find answers from a theological point of view. Likewise, the "why" and "what" questions are perhaps answered in philosophy. But when it comes to science, the answers to these questions lose their meaning. Science concentrates on the question of "how" and in a sense tries to figure out how we exist; scientists will probably never have an answer to the question of why we exist, no matter how hard they try. So I don't know what to say to people of faith who sometimes distance themselves from scientists. One is certainly not an alternative to the other. Science is not a threat to the world of faith.

Science is actually trying to show us the right way to live by investigating the secrets of matter and energy in the universe. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that science makes life easier. 

After all, we all benefit from the results of scientific research in terms of technological developments. Today, everyone from the most religious person to the most atheist travels in cars, planes, trains and ships. Everyone has a cell phone in their hands, everyone uses sunscreen in the sun, if they have bad eyesight they wear glasses, if they are sick they see a doctor in the hospital. No one says they don't want a doctor when they are sick. 

I have not seen anyone going on pilgrimage by camel yet, they used to go on pilgrimage by camel in the time of the prophet, but then they did not have the technological advancements of today. Today, for some reason, believers usually use airplanes for pilgrimage. They stay in air-conditioned hotels, and no one even thinks of staying in a tent, saying it is the Sunnah of the Prophet. 

What I am saying is that science is good, it benefits us all. If we are using so much technology today, we should pray to the scientists. It may also be time to change some things. Things don't have to stay the same, it's better to adapt to the developing world in a logical way.

Well, let's not get too distracted, let's get back to the topic at hand. 

Four Basic Physical Forces

Scientists have observed that there are four fundamental physical forces in nature. For three of these forces, namely the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force, they were able to find an explanation and some formulas after many experiments. Today, these forces can be explained by field theory, and in accordance with the desire of matter to remain at the minimum energy level, these forces act symmetrically on matter interacting with force fields. But for the fourth force, gravitation, similar to the other forces, no accurate formulas have been developed. In other words, the magic formula called the theory of everything has not yet been found. 

At the end of the studies and experiments, it was understood that the reason for this incompatibility was symmetry distortion. Scientists say that the gravitational field, the symmetry decay in the higgs field, that is, the fact that the higgs field is not symmetrical like other force fields, is the reason why mass exists. It is not possible to know what is the reason for this symmetry distortion in the higgs field, but this is what has been observed in the experiments for now.

If you remember, Turkish television was also very excited at the beginning of the experiments, excited announcers were constantly making news about the "God particle" on every channel. I remember that there were channels that wanted to broadcast the particle experiments at CERN almost live. A lot of scientists came on the screens and told us all about those tiny particles of the quantum world for hours. Believe me, I don't know who understands and remembers what. 

In fact, since so many channels covered the news, these issues must have attracted people's attention. The scientists who conducted the experiments first said, out of respect for the excitement of the moment, "I think we have found the God particle. People were not expecting this answer. Everyone was expecting the God particle to be found for sure. When the machine broke down at CERN and the experiment was suspended, things cooled down. 

When it became clear that the God particle had nothing to do with God, the enthusiasm disappeared completely. People's excitement died down for good. 

Now nobody is interested in the god particle anymore. So the enthusiasm was wasted. 

I really don't know who was excited at that moment. Months later, scientists said okay, we proved the existence of the Higgs boson. But even this news didn't interest people anymore. 

Because, as I said, it turned out that the particle they were looking for was not the God particle at all. Leon Lederman, the famous physicist who wrote a book on this subject in 1993, and Dick Teresi, the science writer who helped him write the book, actually wanted to call it "the particle that is the bane of God" because it could not be observed with the existing apparatus under the conditions of the day. However, the publisher of the book removed the word "scourge" from the title of the book and called it "God particle", as it would be more sensational. Although it is known as the "god particle" inspired by this book, the real name of the sought-after particle is the "higgs boson". The first aim of the CERN project, which was founded by many countries pouring money together and costing billions of dollars, was to prove the existence of this boson. This boson could only be observed when the CERN project was completed. In previous years, similar machines built in other countries had not been able to perform this experiment because their capacities were not sufficient, but no successful results were obtained.

Peter Ware Higgs, one of the three theorists of this subject, who also gave his name to the boson in question, and François Englert, one of the other two scientists in the team, received the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in 2013. The third scientist in the research group, Robert Brout, was deprived of the prize because he passed away in 2011. For those who don't know, Nobel prizes are awarded to those who are still alive as a rule.

In fact, the gravitational force, like other forces, is based on field theory. Affected by the Higgs field, the Higgs boson was known as the subatomic quantum particle that gives matter its mass. However, this is not entirely true. In reality, the Higgs boson gives matter some of its mass, while a very large proportion of the mass of matter consists of the mass gained by other subatomic particles through the Higgs mechanism. 

What is this Higgs mechanism?  

According to the formulas, subatomic particles interacting with other forces have zero total charge because their force fields work in symmetrical order. 

To simplify, since an electron and a proton have the same amount of charge, one minus and the other plus, the charges can eventually neutralize each other. Moreover, according to the formulas, these particles should be massless. But scientists have realized that this is not the case and have observed that some of these subatomic particles in the standard model actually interact with the Higgs field. 

Unlike other force fields, the Higgs field is not a field with a minimum energy level at zero. It's like a bowl with the center turned up. A particle that interacts with this field and wants to stay at the minimum energy level has to fall into the minimum energy groove on the sides of the bowl. But in this case, symmetry is lost, symmetry is broken. In other words, there is no negative gravitational charge to neutralize gravity. This is the reason for the existence of matter. Particles like photons, which do not interact with the Higgs field, naturally have no mass. 

However, if you remember, earlier in this article, I mentioned some of our organs that have the same appearance but different functions. I said that this is a symmetry distortion, let's call it functional symmetry distortion. A similar situation occurs in subatomic particles, when some particles, which have spins in different directions and should neutralize each other's energy when they interact with each other under normal conditions, interact with each other under the influence of the higgs field, because this functional symmetry between them is broken, their energy levels increase excessively and therefore the masses they gain from their interaction with the higgs field are much higher than normal. This is called chiral symmetry decay. In other words, while the mass gained by the matter in the universe from their interactions with the higgs field on their own is 1%, 99% of the mass is due to their interactions with the higgs field during their interactions with each other, that is, the chiral symmetry decay effect I mentioned. This mass gain mechanism is called the Higgs mechanism.

I know it's very technical, but let me get rid of this dense technical information in a humorous way by briefly saying that the higgs field is the source of both the particles and the decay of the bond symmetry between them.

Of course, these things are not yet fully confirmed, experiments are still ongoing. The beauty of science is that if something is not observed as planned or predicted, there is a chance to rethink some factors that have been overlooked or not taken into account, and it is possible to develop new theories in accordance with the available information. In science, nothing is blindly believed, nothing is 100% true.

For now, this is the level scientists have reached in the fields of mass gain and gravitation. I have tried to explain the developments as best I can and in as simple a language as possible.

The world of subatomic particles is a very small world, but it is also a very vast and mysterious world. What really happens in this world is a matter of curiosity, but unfortunately we don't have a microscope to directly observe the behavior of subatomic particles. So they developed various other methods to observe the outcome of the experiments.

One way to observe these subatomic particles is by observing the bubbles they create in a special liquid due to their energy. Because of the charge panels positioned around the collision point, electrons move in a curved line due to their electrical charge, while other subatomic particles are scattered in different directions according to their charge. Some of them are not affected by these charge fields around the collision point and move in a straight line in the liquid, some move in a twisty line, some move in a completely different line, and some are immediately damped. 

So physics is an interesting branch of science, at least it interests me. Not professionally, of course, but as an amateur. Who knows what else we will learn in the future. What materials will come to the market, scientists continue their work at full speed. 

I think this is enough for today. It's been quite long again, but I understand that a lot has been learned from the experiments on gravity at CERN.

Who knows, maybe one day the "theory of everything" that puzzled Einstein even in his last days will be found, and then maybe we will understand a little bit what God was thinking when he created us.

Personally, I think that God will appear to us one day somewhere in the depths of physics. 

Stay with science, stay with physics.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow for now.