Is the Universe fine-tuned for life? A team of physicists is looking
at the conditions necessary to the formation of carbon and oxygen two
elements in the universe that are the foundation of life as we currently
know it. They’ve found that when it comes to supporting life, the
universe leaves very little margin for error.
“The Hoyle state of carbon is key,” says NC State physicist Dean Lee. “If the Hoyle state energy was at 479 keV or more above the three alpha particles, then the amount of carbon produced would be too low for carbon-based life.
The same holds true for oxygen,” he adds. “If the Hoyle state energy
were instead within 279 keV of the three alphas, then there would be
plenty of carbon. But the stars would burn their helium into carbon much
earlier in their life cycle. As a consequence, the stars would not be
hot enough to produce sufficient oxygen for life. In our lattice
simulations, we find that more than a 2 or 3 percent change in the light
quark mass would lead to problems with the abundance of either carbon
or oxygen in the universe.”
Both carbon and oxygen are produced when helium burns inside of giant
red stars. Carbon-12, an essential element we’re all made of, can only
form when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very
specific way. The key to formation is an excited state of carbon-12
known as the Hoyle state, and it has a very specific energy – measured
at 379 keV (or 379,000 electron volts) above the energy of three alpha
particles. Oxygen is produced by the combination of another alpha
particle and carbon.
The international team -- Lee and German colleagues Evgeny Epelbaum,
Hermann Krebs, Timo Laehde and Ulf-G. Meissner-- had previously
confirmed the existence and structure of the Hoyle state with a
numerical lattice that allowed the researchers to simulate how protons
and neutrons interact. These protons and neutrons are made up of elementary particles called quarks. The light quark mass is one of the fundamental parameters of nature, and this mass affects particles’ energies.
In new lattice calculations done at the Juelich Supercomputer Centre
the physicists found that just a slight variation in the light quark
mass will change the energy of the Hoyle state, and this in turn would
affect the production of carbon and oxygen in such a way that life as we
know it wouldn’t exist.carbon and oxygen production and the viability
of carbon-based life.
In new lattice calculations done at the Juelich Supercomputer Center
the physicists found that just a slight variation in the light quark
mass will change the energy of the Hoyle state, and this in turn would
affect the production of carbon and oxygen in such a way that life as we
know it wouldn’t exist.
The researchers’ findings appear in Physical Review Letters.
Image credit: Dean Lee. Earth and Mercury images from NASA
Source: The Daily Galaxy
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