The Ghost of Paley
Posts: 1703
Joined: Oct. 2005
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Cogzoid, you are priceless; you're not just a peach, you're an Evopeach! With your permission, I'd like to dub thee "Roshi" - you've certainly earned the title. But I digress.
Let's back up and take stock of the situation. Apparently, Roshi-san finds me a rather dull student who needs polishing before being permitted to share knowledge with the other daiya no genseki. Clothed with this conviction, Roshi-san's yuurei journeys to a shadow world in which he sees ignorance in a bad choice of words, fear in a mote of expression. Since I am not blessed with Roshi-san's insight, I will use the humble methods available to gaijin.
1) Did Paley confuse dark matter with dark energy?
Not really. Paley was just following the train of Cogzoid's thought. Since we were discussing matter at the time, Paley correctly divined Cogzoid's real meaning. Since Cogzoid owned up to this gaffe, the discussion wasn't harmed.
2) Was Paley wrong when he used the phrase, "requisite quark structure"?
As Cogzoid so elegantly explained, electrostatic forces govern intermolecular attraction. These range from weak London forces to stronger dipole-dipole forces, which result from partial charge separation in the molecule. One particularly strong force is hydrogen bonding, which results from a positive hydrogen atom in one molecule being tugged to molecules containing lone pairs of negative electrons (they are called lone pairs because they don't participate in the covalent bonds between valence, or outer shell, electrons). Molecules with flourine, nitrogen or oxygen atoms are particularly prone to this attraction.
What about intramolecular forces? Electrons play a big role here as well. Recall that the atom is composed of three particles: electrons, neutrons, and protons. Neutrons and protons reside in the nucleus, while electrons inhabit "concentric" shells that surround the nucleus. Complex probability density equations describe the regions where electrons may be found in these shells, while other equations govern the movement of electrons between shells. Much to Cogzoid's probable displeasure, I will ignore them, as well as the accompanying jargon, in favor of a common and very loose analogy.
Think of the nucleus as being a small village in the center of concentric, circular towns. Or imagine the conventional model of the solar system. Let's say a villager wishes to locate an electron in a surrounding town. One might start by finding which town, or orbit, the electron inhabits. Then one would locate the hotel at which the hotel rests. Then one calls the hotel clerk to find the room number. With this information, one goes to the room, opens the door, and finds the electron sleeping on the left side of the bed. We've accomplished our goal at last! This represents the heart of quantum numbers and electron configurations.
Why is this important? Because electrical interactions govern bonding as well as the structure of the atom. The problem is, they are in turn influenced by the nucleus. After all, without the nucleus, there is no atom; without the atom, no baryonic matter (you know, the stuff of Cogzoid's dreams). And what is the nucleus made of? Quarks, of course (with a little help from gluons).
In fact, there is a specific quark blueprint that determines whether or not a particle will be a proton or neutron. Recall that a proton possesses a +1 charge. Why? Because protons are composed of three quarks - two up quarks, each with a +2/3 charge, and a down quark, with a -1/3 charge. Neutrons reverse this scheme, with two down quarks and only one up quark. If you sum the charges, you'll see why neutrons are, well, neutral.
Now here's the interesting part. A particle isn't necessarily frozen in one identity: a neutron, for example, can decay into a proton, electron, and antineutrino during beta decay (in this case, beta - decay). But if you check a Feynman diagram, you will see that there is an intermediate step in which the neutron emits a proton and W-boson, which in turn splits into the electron/antineutrino lepton/antilepton pair.
How does this transformation happen? By a down quark "flipping" into an up quark! Although electrons themselves are considered point particles, they can be created by a quark flavor change, which in turn changes the identity of the matter in question. Of course, there are other examples, but this will suffice for now. For more detail, check here.
In other words, I stand behind my statement. 
3) Was Paley's lepton comment appropriate?
In a word, no. Although literally true - "heavier particles" such as the gauge W / Z bosons do carry the weak force - the statement, despite the insertion of the word "or", clearly implies that leptons carry the weak force. But in gloating over this error, Cogzoid made a mistake of his own in implying that protons carry the electromagnetic and weak forces:
| Quote | Looking at your website it's apparent that leptons DO NOT carry the electro-weak force. Photons and W and Z Bosons do that. First paragraph, too. I'm dissappointed, Paley.
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So if my mistake constitutes an impeachable sin, how should we interpret Cogzoid's blunder? Being charitable, I will pass it off as sloppy wording. Notice, however, that I corrected my mistake, while Cogzoid snipped around his. Don't worry Cogzie, I forgive you. 
4) Finally, do I imply that neutrinos aren't leptons?
Perhaps, but if you check the structure of the offending sentence, you'll see that I was attempting to contrast the neutrino's small rest mass with the mass of W/Z gauge bosons. In other words, I created an objection by attempting to thwart another. Oh well.
I hope this helps.
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Dey can't 'andle my riddim.
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