A paper published in 2024 theorizes that time may have existed before the Big Bang, but we’re still not entirely sure.
Category: cosmology
Extreme cosmic events such as colliding black holes or the explosions of stars can cause ripples in spacetime, so-called gravitational waves. Their discovery opened a new window into the universe. To observe them, ultra-precise detectors are required, but designing them remains a major scientific challenge for humans.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) have been working on how an artificial intelligence system could explore an unimaginably vast space of possible designs to find entirely new solutions. The results were recently published in the journal Physical Review X.
More than a century ago, Einstein theoretically predicted gravitational waves. They could only be directly detected in 2016 because the development of the necessary detectors was extremely complex.
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Could entropy and coherence change everything we know about the universe? How does quantum information flow in the cosmic superweb? And will quantum mechanics reveal our universe’s deepest secrets?
Today, I’m joined by the one and only Dick Bond, a theorist who has helped reshape our understanding of dark matter, entropy, and quantum mechanics, to discuss how every aspect of the universe could be a result of quantum mechanics. Dick is a renowned astrophysicist known for his significant contributions to cosmology and the study of the universe’s large-scale structure. He has worked extensively on topics such as dark matter, dark energy, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and quantum cosmology.
We also have a treat for you at the end of the episode, as Dick will grace us with a lecture titled Entropy in a Coherent Universe: Quantum Information Flows in the Cosmic SuperWeb. Don’t miss out!
Key Takeaways:
00:00 Intro.
Neutrinos are among the most enigmatic particles in the universe. They are omnipresent yet interact extremely rarely with matter.
In cosmology, they influence the formation of large-scale galaxy structures, while in particle physics, their minuscule mass serves as an indicator of previously unknown physical processes. Precisely measuring the neutrino mass is therefore essential for a complete understanding of the fundamental laws of nature.
This is precisely where the KATRIN experiment with its international partners comes into play. KATRIN utilizes the beta decay of tritium, an unstable hydrogen isotope, to assess the mass of neutrinos. The energy distribution of the electrons resulting from the decay enables a direct kinematic determination of the neutrino mass.
Neutrinos, the mysterious and nearly massless particles that barely interact with anything, are revealing new secrets through the KATRIN experiment.
Using tritium decay and advanced spectrometry, KATRIN has slashed the upper limit on neutrino mass, pushing our understanding of fundamental physics into new territory. With 250 days of data already analyzed and more to come, researchers are optimistic about uncovering even more surprises. Future upgrades aim to detect hypothetical sterile neutrinos, potential dark matter candidates, and possibly revolutionize our view of the universe’s invisible side.
Neutrinos: The Universe’s Ghost Particles.
Astronomers tallying up all the normal matter—stars, galaxies and gas—in the universe today have come up embarrassingly short of the total matter produced in the Big Bang 13.6 billion years ago. In fact, more than half of normal matter—half of the 15% of the universe’s matter that is not dark matter—cannot be accounted for in the glowing stars and gas we see.
New measurements, however, seem to have found this missing matter in the form of very diffuse and invisible ionized hydrogen gas, which forms a halo around galaxies and is more puffed out and extensive than astronomers thought.
The findings not only relieve a conflict between astronomical observations and the best, proven model of the evolution of the universe since the Big Bang, they also suggest that the massive black holes at the centers of galaxies are more active than previously thought, fountaining gas much farther from the galactic center than expected—about five times farther, the team found.
Using the unique infrared sensitivity of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers can examine ancient galaxies to probe secrets of the early universe. Now, an international team of astronomers has identified bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in an unexpectedly early time in the universe’s history. The surprise finding is challenging researchers to explain how this light could have pierced the thick fog of neutral hydrogen that filled space at that time.
The Webb telescope discovered the incredibly distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1, observed to exist just 330 million years after the big bang, in images taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) as part of the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Researchers used the galaxy’s brightness in different infrared filters to estimate its redshift, which measures a galaxy’s distance from Earth based on how its light has been stretched out during its journey through expanding space.
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Here in this video today we will explore something that has been demanded by viewers of the channel for quite sometime, the Xeelee rings, one of the largest megastructures in fiction. We first have to take a look at the universe we are discussing about. So, The Xeelee Sequence is a series of science fiction novels and short stories by British author Stephen Baxter, exploring the grand scale of the universe from the Big Bang to its ultimate end. The series follows humanity’s evolution over billions of years, its conflicts with alien species, and the mysterious, hyper-advanced Xeelee, who are engaged in a cosmic war against the enigmatic dark matter entities known as the Photino Birds. The books blend hard science fiction with cosmic wonder, delving into themes of time travel, black hole physics, alternate universes, and the limits of human potential. Major works in the series include \.
How did complex systems emerge from chaos? Physicist Sean Carroll explains.
Up next, The Universe in 90 minutes: Time, free will, God, & more ► https://youtu.be/tM4sLmt1Ui8
How did life on Earth originate? Scientists still aren’t sure, and this remains one of the world’s most fascinating and mind-boggling mysteries.
One way of approaching the question is to think generally about how complex systems emerge from chaos. Since the 1800s, scientists have known that entropy is always increasing, with everything in our Universe trending toward disorder over time.
A more nuanced understanding of entropy is helping today’s scientists make progress on the question of the origin of life, as Sean Carroll explains in this Big Think video.
Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/great-question/entropy-origin-of-life/