On Feb 3, 8:52 pm, "Robert L. Oldershaw" <
rlolders...@amherst.edu>
wrote:
> I do not mean to be disrespectful or excessively negative,
> but when I read insufficiently qualified evaluations of the
> merits of the Standard Model of particle physics,
> scientific integrity would seem to demand that the
> following well-known facts are also considered.
>
> The Standard Model is primarily a heuristic model
> with 26-30 fundamental parameters that have to be
> “put in by hand”.
Completely agree that the Standard Model cannot be the final
fundamental model of nature because of this.
>
> The Standard Model did not and cannot predict
> the masses of the fundamental particles that make
> up all of the luminous matter that we can observe.
This is also true.
>
> The Standard Model did not predict the existence
> of the dark matter that constitutes the overwhelming majority
> of matter in the cosmos. The Standard Model describes
> heuristically the "foam on top of the ocean".
This is also true.
>
> The vacuum energy density crisis clearly suggests a
> fundamental flaw at the very heart of particle physics.
> The VED crisis involves the fact that the vacuum energy
> densities predicted or measured by particle physicists
> (microcosm) and cosmologists (macrocosm) differ by
> up to 120 orders of magnitude (roughly 10^70 to 10^120,
> depending on how one ‘guess-timates’ the particle
> physics VED).
It certainly is a puzzle.
>
> The conventional Planck mass is highly unnatural, i.e.,
> it bears no relation to any particle observed in nature,
> and calls into question the foundations of the quantum
> chromodynamics sector of the Standard Model.
The Planck mass has no reason to be even thought of as having any
bearing on a real particle mass. It is an energy scale and nothing
more. This is also true for a Planck length or a Planck time, both of
which are interesting combinations of constants but don't seem to have
any bearing on anything. It *certainly* doesn't mean that quantum
chromodynamics is at risk, because there is absolutely NOTHING from
QCD that feeds into the Planck mass.
>
> Many of the key particles of the Standard Model have
> never been directly observed. Rather, their existence
> is inferred from secondary, or more likely, tertiary
> decay products.
This is true, but that is also true of *any* short lived state,
including short-lived nuclear/isotopic states as well. The presumption
is that the conservation laws observed also hold in these rapid
decays, and as long as that's true, then we can reliably reconstruct
the parent state, no matter how short-lived it is.
> Quantum chromodynamics is entirely
> built on inference, conjecture and speculation.
That's true of ANY physical model. The evidence for QCD is quite
strong.
> It is too complex for simple definitive predictions and testing.
That is flatly false. There are a number of definitive tests that are
clearly in support of definite predictions of QCD.
The fact that you can't predict what you want from it is not
particularly relevant.
Quantum mechanics and the electromagnetic interaction should in
principle allow you to calculate protein synthesis from the ground up,
but no one tries because of the complexity of doing so.
>
> ;)