Scientists see 'rarest event ever recorded' in xenon isotope decay

[essentialsaltes]

This article has a few iffy bits of science journalism, but the result is not iffy at all.

They witnessed the decay of xenon-124 via double electron capture. This is a very rare decay mode for isotopes only detected in two other isotopes previously. "The research came from the XENON Collaboration, which runs an instrument known as XENON1T. That is a ... vat filled with [3500 kg of] super-pure liquid xenon, which can be shielded from cosmic rays by being buried in water, 1,500 meters beneath the Gran Sasso mountains in Italy."

With so much xenon in one place with detectors around it and only one event, you can appreciate how rare it is. Doing the math, it turns out that the estimate of the half-life of this isotope is 1.8 × 10^22 years or 18 sextillion years.

The detector is designed to look for signs of dark matter interactions, but this serendipitous discovery is very welcome.

Nature

 

[Halbhh]

This article has a few iffy bits of science journalism, but the result is not iffy at all.

They witnessed the decay of xenon-124 via double electron capture. This is a very rare decay mode for isotopes only detected in two other isotopes previously. "The research came from the XENON Collaboration, which runs an instrument known as XENON1T. That is a ... vat filled with [3500 kg of] super-pure liquid xenon, which can be shielded from cosmic rays by being buried in water, 1,500 meters beneath the Gran Sasso mountains in Italy."

With so much xenon in one place with detectors around it and only one event, you can appreciate how rare it is. Doing the math, it turns out that the estimate of the half-life of this isotope is 1.8 × 10^22 years or 18 sextillion years.

The detector is designed to look for signs of dark matter interactions, but this serendipitous discovery is very welcome.

Nature

I looked up the news at Phys.org, which nicely doesn't have as much video advertisements clouding the screen, and nice detail --

https://phys.org/news/2019-04-dark-detector-rarest-event.html

 

[GodsGrace101]

This article has a few iffy bits of science journalism, but the result is not iffy at all.

They witnessed the decay of xenon-124 via double electron capture. This is a very rare decay mode for isotopes only detected in two other isotopes previously. "The research came from the XENON Collaboration, which runs an instrument known as XENON1T. That is a ... vat filled with [3500 kg of] super-pure liquid xenon, which can be shielded from cosmic rays by being buried in water, 1,500 meters beneath the Gran Sasso mountains in Italy."

With so much xenon in one place with detectors around it and only one event, you can appreciate how rare it is. Doing the math, it turns out that the estimate of the half-life of this isotope is 1.8 × 10^22 years or 18 sextillion years.

The detector is designed to look for signs of dark matter interactions, but this serendipitous discovery is very welcome.

Nature

Could you say why this is so great in a simple way?
What does it show/prove?
Why do we care?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Could you say why this is so great in a simple way?
What does it show/prove?
Why do we care?

I suppose it's just nifty in an astonishing Guinness Book of World Records sort of way. We directly measured the longest half-life for an isotope … and that half-life is a trillion times longer than the age of the universe.

 

[usexpat97]

Ionized xenon is much more useful. That's rocket propellant.

 

[Halbhh]

Could you say why this is so great in a simple way?
What does it show/prove?
Why do we care?

It is pretty obscure in a way, even though it's amazing of course that we measured, and that the half life is so long.

More amazing would be if we could ever see definite evidence of a half life for a proton (one hypothesis puts that if it exists on the order or 10^32 years). This is significant just intellectually, not at all practically. But it would remind of another question some physicists wonder about.

So it's more an intellectual curiosity another question this brings to mind. I know we are protected by God, so I don't wonder about this with any worry at all, but it is still interesting --

Whether the Higgs energy level implies the Universe may not be eternally stable (as it currently exists, and stability only as conceived of by only physics alone) --

"Under the simplest assumptions, the measured mass of the Higgs could mean the universe is unstable and destined to fall apart." (most likely vastly far in the future in that scenario)
How the Higgs Boson Might Spell Doom for the Universe

Wonderfully, we learn that God will bring a New Earth and a New Heavens though.

 

[GodsGrace101]

I suppose it's just nifty in an astonishing Guinness Book of World Records sort of way. We directly measured the longest half-life for an isotope … and that half-life is a trillion times longer than the age of the universe.

Yes, it sounds amazing.
Is it "normal" that the half life of something could be more than the age of the universe?
I mean, how could we have something that lasts longer than the age of the universe? And a trillion times?

Thanks.

 

[GodsGrace101]

It is pretty obscure in a way, even though it's amazing of course that we measured, and that the half life is so long.

More amazing would be if we could ever see definite evidence of a half life for a proton (one hypothesis puts that if it exists on the order or 10^32 years). This is significant just intellectually, not at all practically. But it would remind of another question some physicists wonder about.

So it's more an intellectual curiosity another question this brings to mind. I know we are protected by God, so I don't wonder about this with any worry at all, but it is still interesting --

Whether the Higgs energy level implies the Universe may not be eternally stable (as it currently exists, and stability only as conceived of by only physics alone) --

"Under the simplest assumptions, the measured mass of the Higgs could mean the universe is unstable and destined to fall apart." (most likely vastly far in the future in that scenario)
How the Higgs Boson Might Spell Doom for the Universe

Wonderfully, we learn that God will bring a New Earth and a New Heavens though.

Will be reading the link on Higgs.
I thought it assured the survival of material...not its doom.

 

[Halbhh]

Yes, it sounds amazing.
Is it "normal" that the half life of something could be more than the age of the universe?
I mean, how could we have something that lasts longer than the age of the universe? And a trillion times?

Thanks.

"Half life" refers to how isotopes of atoms can decay into other atoms, emitting energy/radiation, and is the time length needed for 1/2 of the unstable isotopes to decay, so that only 1/2 are left in the original state. Example: the radioactive material used as a source in an X-ray machine, for instance -- some of the atoms decaying and emitting X-rays, because the half life of the material isn't so long.

When something has a vastly longer half life, it's simply fun that we could find out what that half life is. It merely is a very long half life if the number is larger than 13.8 billion years (or a lot longer), and simply means that decay is very rare, really.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Is it "normal" that the half life of something could be more than the age of the universe?

In principle, like that saying about a person's age "a half-life is just a number". It could be anything. There's no reason that it should have any relation to the present age of the universe.

But when you think of your typical Geiger counter in a movie or science show, you hear it clicking away. Each of those clicks is a radioactive decay like the one in the OP. But for the discovery in the OP, you need to gather several tons of xenon and wait for days to hear one single solitary click.

 

[Of the Kingdom]

Is it "normal" that the half life of something could be more than the age of the universe?
I mean, how could we have something that lasts longer than the age of the universe? And a trillion times?

The half-life is so long that for all practical purposes it is stable "forever". The bulk of it will never be observed to disappear or substantially diminish, but occasionally one atom will decay. "Normal" doesn't hardly apply here, we're talking about the limits of the laws of physics.

The only way I can understand the idea of normal here is that we observe the Xenon to be stable over whatever time period. Seeing an atom of it decay is amazing, and not normal.

 

[Halbhh]

Will be reading the link on Higgs.
I thought it assured the survival of material...not its doom.

To me of some extra interests, only intellectual (not practical!), was the sentence

But assuming that everything is known about the Standard Model and no new particles and forces will be found in the future, then the universe might be in the gray region where it is long-lived but somewhat unstable and therefore might disappear a few billions of eons from now.

Since I know since that article date in 2013 no new expected particles were found to go with the Higgs.... (and that itself is actually far more interesting than any Higgs metastability, as the lack of accompanying particles makes our Universe look exceedingly "unnatural" physicists say, and has lead to a lot of compensating speculations such as the untestable multiverse speculative theories)

 

[GodsGrace101]

To me of some extra interests, only intellectual (not practical!), was the sentence

But assuming that everything is known about the Standard Model and no new particles and forces will be found in the future, then the universe might be in the gray region where it is long-lived but somewhat unstable and therefore might disappear a few billions of eons from now.

Since I know since that article date in 2013 no new expected particles were found to go with the Higgs.... (and that itself is actually far more interesting than any Higgs metastability, as the lack of accompanying particles makes our Universe look exceedingly "unnatural" physicists say, and has lead to a lot of compensating speculations such as the untestable multiverse speculative theories)

Re multiverse theories....
Doesn't this raise more questions than it would answer?
I mean, how far back would we then have to go?
We'd never learn anything because there would be no practical beginning and we'd be back where we started some 50 years ago when scientists believed the universe had always existed.

 

[Of the Kingdom]

Re multiverse theories....
Doesn't this raise more questions than it would answer?
I mean, how far back would we then have to go?
We'd never learn anything because there would be no practical beginning and we'd be back where we started some 50 years ago when scientists believed the universe had always existed.

The multiverse theory is highly speculative and totally philosophical, not subject to any possible experimental verification as far as I can see. It may make sense to speculate some about "wild ideas" like that, but it's no longer physics. I believe such ideas are overemphasized because some scientists are desperate to find an alternative to an intelligent creator.

 

[HitchSlap]

I believe such ideas are overemphasized because some scientists are desperate to find an alternative to an intelligent creator.

This is a tired, worn out creationist trope. You should resist the temptation to perpetuate this bogus assertion.

 

[Strathos]

Still not as rare as 45 making a tweet without any lies.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Could you say why this is so great in a simple way?
What does it show/prove?
Why do we care?

It provides an unexpected way of checking that our fundamental theory of physics is correct in that area. This kind of decay is predicted by the theory, and a real-world observation can potentially tell us how closely our model corresponds with observation, and whether there are any unpredicted aspects.

How useful it turns out to be will depend on the quality of the data they obtain.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

The multiverse theory is highly speculative and totally philosophical, not subject to any possible experimental verification as far as I can see. It may make sense to speculate some about "wild ideas" like that, but it's no longer physics. I believe such ideas are overemphasized because some scientists are desperate to find an alternative to an intelligent creator.

The various multiverse ideas are predictions of the most popular current physical theories, given certain plausible assumptions.

 

[GodsGrace101]

The multiverse theory is highly speculative and totally philosophical, not subject to any possible experimental verification as far as I can see. It may make sense to speculate some about "wild ideas" like that, but it's no longer physics. I believe such ideas are overemphasized because some scientists are desperate to find an alternative to an intelligent creator.

I see that @HitchSlap disagrees with you...but I have to agree.

Why? Because when I post a SCIENTIFIC mind, either in physics, or math, or chemistry, I'm told that THOSE scientists don't count because they don't know what they're talking about.

Apparently ONLY those that agree with NON ID make any sense to some.

I say we keep an open mind on all sides...but I doubt we'll ever have an answer.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Still not as rare as 45 making a tweet without any lies.

Can we put him in a vat far underground and try to measure one?