This thread is my dream come true! I've been wiki surfing about astrophysics and quantum theory for a while, but some things still aren't clear to me:
What exactly is Quantum Field Theory?
Sometimes time is referred to as "the fourth dimension", but then there are theories that refer to additional spacial dimensions (past the first 3 I mean). What's the deal with this? Is time actually a dimension, or is it separate?
How exactly do particles "mediate" a force? What does that mean?
What's the deal with virtual particles. More specifically, how do they make Hawking Radiation and black hole evaporation possible?
If the universe is currently expanding, does that mean that more empty space is being created everywhere, or are things like galaxies etc just flying farther apart from each other? In other words, will the acceleration of the expansion of the universe mean that one day the universe will be expanding so quickly that it'll overcome things like the strong nuclear force?
Sorry if that's too many questions. If you only want to answer one or two the QFT and the Hawking Radiation questions are the ones that have been bothering me the most.
What exactly is Quantum Field Theory?
Sometimes time is referred to as "the fourth dimension", but then there are theories that refer to additional spacial dimensions (past the first 3 I mean). What's the deal with this? Is time actually a dimension, or is it separate?
How exactly do particles "mediate" a force? What does that mean?
What's the deal with virtual particles. More specifically, how do they make Hawking Radiation and black hole evaporation possible?
If the universe is currently expanding, does that mean that more empty space is being created everywhere, or are things like galaxies etc just flying farther apart from each other? In other words, will the acceleration of the expansion of the universe mean that one day the universe will be expanding so quickly that it'll overcome things like the strong nuclear force?
Sorry if that's too many questions. If you only want to answer one or two the QFT and the Hawking Radiation questions are the ones that have been bothering me the most.