The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe is not Designed for us by Victor J. Stenger

Author:Victor J. Stenger
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2011-05-19T05:00:00+00:00

10.5. STRENGTH OF THE STRONG INTERACTION

One of Martin Rees's “six numbers” that determine the structure of the universe he calls nuclear efficiency.14 It is defined specifically as ε = the fraction of the mass of helium that is greater than the mass of two protons and two neutrons.

The value in our universe is ε = 0.0010. It is a measure of the stickiness of the glue that holds a nucleus together and is ultimately determined by the dimensionless strong interaction strength parameter αS. If the glue isn't sticky enough to overcome the electrical repulsion of the two protons, the nucleus will be unstable. Rees asserts that if ε < 0.006, deuterium and many other nuclei would not exist.

On the other hand, if ε > 0.008, the proton-proton repulsion is insufficient to keep protons from sticking together. In that case, you would have no free protons and no hydrogen. Instead, two protons would bind together directly to produce He2, helium without any neutrons in the nucleus, which is unstable in our universe.

This is a beautiful example of how many of the fine-tuning arguments can be misleading. Fine-tuners make the common mistake, and it is purely and simply a mistake, of holding everything fixed and varying just a single parameter. Let's see what happens when the electromagnetic strength α is also a free parameter: If ε is too small to overcome the electrical repulsion of protons, then we can simply lower the value of α, the electromagnetic strength, thereby weakening the repulsion and allowing the nuclei to stick together. Let's assume, for illustration, a linear relationship between ε and α place an upper bound on ε above which there are no free protons and a lower bound where nuclei are unstable, as shown in figure 10.3.

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