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Category: cosmology

Do decoherence, gravity, dark matter and dark energy all originate from quantum corrections?

Only about 5% of the universe is composed of normal matter that we can directly observe, while the remaining 95% is widely believed to consist of dark matter and dark energy. Paradoxically, however, the nature of these dark components remains unknown. Is this due to limitations in our observational capabilities, or does it reflect a more fundamental incompleteness in the classical laws of physics that have long underpinned our understanding of the universe?

In a recent study published in the International Journal of Modern Physics D, I proposed that dark matter and dark energy may not correspond to physically existing substances, but could instead emerge as effective phenomena arising from the quantum nature of gravity.

The Universe Is Expanding Too Fast and Scientists Can’t Explain Why

The most precise measurement yet shows the Universe is expanding faster than expected, deepening the Hubble tension. The result hints that something may be missing from our current understanding of the cosmos.

An international team of astronomers has produced one of the most accurate measurements so far of how quickly the nearby Universe is expanding. Rather than settling a long-standing debate, the new result intensifies one of the biggest unresolved problems in cosmology. The collaboration includes John Blakeslee of NSF NOIRLab, which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, and draws on data from telescopes across two NSF NOIRLab Programs.

Two competing ways to measure cosmic expansion.

CHIME tracks a hyperactive repeating fast radio burst source

Using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), an international team of astronomers has performed radio observations of FRB 20220912A—a highly active source of repeating fast radio bursts. Results of the monitoring campaign, published April 10 on the preprint server arXiv, could help us better understand the nature of these enigmatic sources.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense bursts of radio emission lasting milliseconds showcasing the characteristic dispersion sweep of radio pulsars. The physical nature of these bursts is yet unknown, and astronomers consider a variety of explanations ranging from synchrotron maser emission from young magnetars in supernova remnants to cosmic string cusps.

Our Universe Might Be a Giant Brain, According to New Theories

There’s something quietly unsettling about placing a photograph of a human neuron next to a simulated image of the large-scale cosmic web. The two look almost identical: delicate, branching filaments connecting dense clusters, with vast open spaces in between. One fits inside your skull. The other stretches across billions of light-years. The resemblance is hard to dismiss, and for a growing number of researchers, it’s far more than a visual coincidence.

What started as a striking observation in cosmology and neuroscience has evolved into a serious theoretical question. Could the universe, at its most fundamental level, operate the way a brain does? The ideas being put forward aren’t purely philosophical. Some of them come with testable mathematics, published peer-reviewed papers, and the names of well-regarded physicists attached. What follows is an honest look at where the science currently stands.

The estimated 200 billion detectable galaxies aren’t distributed randomly, but are lumped together by gravity into clusters that form even larger clusters, which are connected to one another by “galactic filaments,” long thin threads of galaxies. This vast architecture is what scientists call the cosmic web. When you zoom far enough out, the structure of the entire observable universe begins to take on a shape that looks startlingly familiar.

Monster black holes are silencing star formation across the universe

Giant black holes may be secretly controlling how entire clusters of galaxies grow. A blazing supermassive black hole can influence far more than its own galaxy. Scientists found that quasars emit radiation strong enough to shut down star formation in nearby galaxies millions of light-years away. This could explain why some galaxies near early quasars appear faint or missing. The finding suggests galaxies grow and evolve together, not in isolation.

Powerful radiation from active supermassive black holes, which are believed to sit at the center of most galaxies, can do more than shape their own surroundings. A new study led by Yongda Zhu at the University of Arizona suggests these black holes can also slow the formation of stars in galaxies located millions of light-years away.

“Traditionally, people have thought that because galaxies are so far apart, they evolve largely on their own,” said Zhu, the study’s lead author, whose findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “But we found that a very active, supermassive black hole in one galaxy can affect other galaxies across millions of light-years, suggesting that galaxy evolution may be more of a group effort.”

Does the Universe SPIN once every 500 billion years?!

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Does the Universe spin? Think about it, planets spin, the Sun spins, galaxies spin, even black holes spin — so what about the entire Universe? And if it was spinning could this help solve one of the biggest problems in astrophysics today — the \.

ALMA and JWST investigate giant disk galaxy’s formation and evolution

European astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a recently discovered giant disk galaxy known as ADF22.1. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the formation and evolution of this galaxy.

ADF22.1, also known as ADF22.A1, is a giant disk barred spiral galaxy residing in a proto-cluster known as SSA22 at a redshift of 3.09. It has an effective radius of some 22,800 light years and a stellar mass of about 100 billion solar masses. Previous observations have found that it is a dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) hosting an intrinsically bright yet heavily obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN).

Giant disk galaxies with high stellar masses, like ADF22.1, are generally expected to be quiescent, bulge-dominated systems. Given that ADF22.1 is a starburst galaxy, it is perceived by astronomers as a unique laboratory to explore how early universe galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) accumulate their mass and ultimately evolve into the most massive elliptical galaxies.

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