controlling strong and weak forces

[foofighter]

since we have discovered gluons and W and Z bosons, which control the strong and weak nuclear forces, what is stopping us from lording over them in terms of applied technology, just as we "lord over the photon" and electromagnetism has such an impact on our daily lives because of how we channel it? wat kinds of technology could we invent if we were able to control gluons and w and z bosons, thus manipulating strong and weak forces? thx

[Severian]

There is a problem with each of them, unfortunately.

 

The problem with the W and Z bosons is that they are very heavy. It takes a lot of energy to make them and then they decay very fast. This is why the weak interaction is so short range: the W and Z bosons which 'mediate' the force can't get very far from the source before they decay.

 

The problem with the strong interaction is that it is too strong. If you take two colored objects lift quarks and move them apart, it becomes increasingly difficult with greater distance, just like having an elastic string between them. Eventually the string breaks, or more correctly you put enough energy into the system to make a quark-antiquark pair out of the vacuum. They then move towards your original color charges, making them color neutral.

[foofighter]

are u saying that according to current knowledge they will never be controllable? or is this merely a GIGANTIC technological hurdle, like on the caliber of an anti-matter engine to propel spacecraft or more? and if it is the latter, then lets say we do control these forces, wat could we do technologically? thx

[insane_alien]

even if we could control them to the extent of EM they wouldn't be of any use to us. they don't operate over large enough scales. and cannot due to the ass of their force carriers.

[foofighter]

i thought tho that we'd at least be able to create stable synthetic elements that won't decay. we could make them very heavy, even perhaps new synthetic elements as high in the (wat would then be expanded) periodic table as we want. and they wouldn't decay. perhaps this would have practicality?

[Reaper]

Well, technically there is already a practical application for the weak force, one of which is carbon dating. But we don't have any control over that.

 

As Severian pointed out, the particles require an enormous amount of energy and only work over extremely small distances, 10^-18 m for the weak force and 10^-15 m for the strong force respectively. For comparison, an atom is about 10^-11 m.

 

i thought tho that we'd at least be able to create stable synthetic elements that won't decay. we could make them very heavy' date=' even perhaps new synthetic elements as high in the (wat would then be expanded) periodic table as we want. and they wouldn't decay. perhaps this would have practicality?

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This, as far as I know, takes place only under energies comparible to that of a nuclear explosion. This was how Unununium was discovered, I think. Plutonium can be created at lower energies than that, usually during a nuclear reaction.

 

However, most of these elements are radioactive because of their large unstable nucleus, and as such they will decay very quickly. The higher up you go on the periodic table, the more unstable the elements are. Also, the higher up they are, the more energy is required to make them.