This Tank of Water Could Change Physics Forever

No one has ever conclusively seen a proton turn into other, lighter particles, but fifty million liters of water in Japan might change that and our ideas about subatomic particles forever.

Thank you to Jean Descole for the "yotta years" joke!

Host: Caitlin Hofmeister

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Sources:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/no-proton-decay-means-grand-unification-must-wait-20161215/
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/a-gut-feeling-about-physics
https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.03597
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.32.438
http://nautil.us/issue/46/balance/a-brief-history-of-the-grand-unified-theory-of-physics
http://www-sk.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sk/sk/pdecay-e.html
https://bigthink.com/robby-berman/beneath-japans-mount-ikeno-is-a-dazzling-particle-detector
https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.03597
https://arxiv.org/abs/1307.0162
https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0312325
https://physicsworld.com/a/what-is-the-lifetime-of-a-photon/
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.231802
https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/why-do-particles-decay/most-particles-decay-yet-some-dont/
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Particles/qrkdec.html
https://socratic.org/questions/what-is-beta-decay-in-terms-of-quarks
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Particles/proton.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Particles/delta.html
https://home.cern/science/physics/standard-model
http://sierra.lbl.gov/~deg/cpep/grand.html
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Images:
http://www-sk.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sk/tankopen2018/photo-e.html
https://www.videoblocks.com/video/an-animated-zoom-in-on-a-hydrogen-atom-to-reveal-quarks-at-the-center-hizlil3zgxjiyxvwyt
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_Model_Feynman_Diagram_Vertices.png
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E8Petrie.svg
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12656
https://www.videoblocks.com/video/new-version-magical-rain-of-sparkling-orbs-with-light-rays-from-sky-seamless-loop-motion-background-4k-ultra-hd-gold-brown-orange-golden-yellow-bu7fpaedeiyswl4bm