It should be stressed that AB’s cited definition is pure student humour (and rather weak humour, to boot!), and of little help in deciding what VN meant, if anything, by orgitron! The phrase ‘smallest existing particle in the Universe’ is extremely misleading, as are references to being able to ‘see’ it.
In the current (admittedly incomplete) Standard Model (quod googlet), several so-called elementary particles (e.g., photon, quark and electron) are taken as point-sized, i.e., having no discernible inner structure. That doesn’t prevent them from being detected via their other properties (such as mass/energy, momentum, charge/magnetism and spin) and diverse measurable interactions.
In QFT (Quantum Field Theory) terms, the notions of physical size and location are far removed from our commonsense, everyday experience of tape-measures. Even more frustrating, the terms observable and existence have triggered inconclusive near-theological arguments. Poets and novelists lacking a few years exposure to the mathematics must be warned against mystical Quantum hype!
Strictly, assigning zero to an electron’s radius simply reflects our inability to detect lengths below approx 10^-18 m (Current Quantum dogma is that distances below the Planck length (~10^-35 m.) are essentially unobservable.
On 19/10/2011 19:53, "A. Bouazza" <mushtary@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
As an addendum to my too brief note, and let it be understood that I believe "orgitron" is a Nabokovian neologism morphologically analogous to magnetron, cosmotron etc., see the following where another meaning is defined:
The Felix, Student Newspaper of Imperial College, Friday 7th February, 1997, Issue 1078:
In a move which is sure to make die hard scientists slap their forehead with a Homer Simpson like "Doh" our Roy EXCLUSIVELY reveals the existence of the smallest particle in the Universe: the orgitron.
Unfortunately for scientists, they will never be able to see it because "it is unlikely that any electron microscope will ever be able to see it because it is so tiny as to be virtually undetectable; in fact it is so tiny, it
practically doesn't exist at all." He also shows how "matter is simply pressurised 'crystallised' pre-time force flowing now in what has become a river of time"
http://www.felixonline.co.uk/archive/IC_1997/1997_1078_A.pdf
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of A. Bouazza
Sent: dinsdag 18 oktober 2011 16:08
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: Orgitrons in ADA?
Hello,
I always understood the word "orgitron" to mean "electronic/mechanical organ."
Kind regards,
A. Bouazza
From: NABOKV-L <NABOKV-L@HOLYCROSS.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 3:48 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: Orgitrons in ADA?
Dear listers,
Gennady Kramer, who's translating my Nabokov's Ada into Russian, wonders what to make of "orgitrons" in "organs and orgitrons," ADA 539, about four pages into Part Four. Can anyone see anything specific?
Brian Boyd
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