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Article #3974

Massive Photons Tomorrow (was Scientists Plan...)

#3974
From: Del Cotter
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1992 14:11
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In article <4NOV199214241699@csa1.lbl.gov> SCOTT I CHASE writes:
>
>Another small thing to keep you up at night:  What if a mechanism analogous
>to electoweak symmetry breaking is eventually going to break the remaining
>electromagnetic symmetry?  As the Universe continues to cool, it might
>reach a point when it freezes out into a state in which the photon has mass.
>(Just like the W and Z have mass right now.) What if the range of the 
>electromagnetic interaction became .01 meters all of a sudden?  My nervous
>system might fail.  Heck - atoms might not be stable.  I'm not sure.
>
>And the neat thing is that it could happen at any time.  You folks might
>cease to exist before you ever read this post.  Farewell (just in case).

Someone told me once that a massive photon might not be fatal if the mass
was low enough.  The range of the electromagnetic interaction would shrink
from infinity to a length of the order of a metre or so, with no practical
consequences (?), and there would be a lower frequency limit to the EM spec-
trum.  Atoms, nervous systems and Usenet would be unharmed; we would simply
wake up one morning without TV. 
-- 
 ',' ' ',','  |                                                  |  ',' ' ',','
   ', ,','    |       Del Cotter       mt90dac@brunel.ac.uk      |    ', ,','  
     ','      |                                                  |      ','    
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References: <Bx5qtw.Cvw@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> <Nov.4.13.31.48.1992.25862@ruhets.rutgers.edu> <4NOV199214241699@csa1.lbl.gov>

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!pipex!warwick!uknet!brunel!mt90dac
From: mt90dac@brunel.ac.uk (Del Cotter)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Massive Photons Tomorrow (was Scientists Plan...)
Message-ID: <Bx8y2F.3wD@brunel.ac.uk>
Date: 5 Nov 92 14:11:02 GMT
References: <Bx5qtw.Cvw@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> <Nov.4.13.31.48.1992.25862@ruhets.rutgers.edu> <4NOV199214241699@csa1.lbl.gov>
Organization: Brunel University, West London, UK
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