Lifeboat Foundation

Neutron stars are incredibly dense remnants of stars that collapsed and exploded as supernova, making them spin at immense speeds. By definition, they have lived for millennia, died, and then been reborn as something new.

In any case, a press statement reveals that astronomers discovered one of the youngest known neutron stars while analyzing data from the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS).

Using a newly developed technique, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg have measured the very small difference in the magnetic properties of two isotopes of highly charged neon in an ion trap with previously inaccessible accuracy. Comparison with equally extremely precise theoretical calculations of this difference allows a record-level test of quantum electrodynamics (QED). The agreement of the results is an impressive confirmation of the standard model of physics, allowing conclusions regarding the properties of nuclei and setting limits for new physics and dark matter.

Electrons are some of the most fundamental building blocks of the matter we know. They are characterized by some very distinctive properties, such as their negative charge and the existence of a very specific intrinsic angular momentum, also called spin. As a charged particle with spin, each electron has a magnetic moment that aligns itself in a magnetic field similar to a compass needle. The strength of this magnetic moment, given by the so-called g-factor, can be predicted with extraordinary accuracy by quantum electrodynamics. This calculation agrees with the experimentally measured g-factor to within 12 digits, one of the most precise matches of theory and experiment in physics to date. However, the magnetic moment of the electron changes as soon as it is no longer a “free” particle, i.e., unaffected by other influences, but instead is bound to an atomic nucleus, for example.

The fastest-growing black hole of the last 9 billion years has been discovered by an international team led by astronomers at The Australian National University (ANU).

The black hole consumes the equivalent of one Earth every second and shines 7,000 times brighter than all the light from our own galaxy, making it visible to well-equipped backyard astronomers.

Lead researcher Dr. Christopher Onken and his co-authors describe it as a “very large, unexpected needle in the haystack.”

Circa 2006 string theory would explain everything even extradimensional beings or even weird phenomenon. Basically it could even explain something even greater about our existence that even a God level entity had a grand design of our universe. It could even explain miracles by these entities using string theory. Even Einstein thought that there could be a great designer and oddly enough this could explain all things in physics and our world even an infinite multiverse that our universe is much more odd then we previously thought. String theory could even essentially be the next step after quantum mechanics.

In the first part of this paper, we explain what empirical evidence points to the need for having an effective grand unification-like symmetry possessing the symmetry SU-color in 4D. If one assumes the premises of a future predictive theory including gravity — be it string/M-theory or a reincarnation — this evidence then suggests that such a theory should lead to an effective grand unification-like symmetry as above in 4D, near the string-GUT-scale, rather than the standard model symmetry. Advantages of an effective supersymmetric G(224) = SU _L × SU _R × SU ^c or SO(10) symmetry in 4D in explaining (i) observed neutrino oscillations, (ii) baryogenesis via leptogenesis, and (iii) certain fermion mass-relations are noted. And certain distinguishing tests of a SUSY G(224) or SO(10)-framework involving CP and flavor violations (as in μ → eγ, τ → μγ, edm’s of the neutron and the electron) as well as proton decay are briefly mentioned.

Recalling some of the successes we have had in our understanding of nature so far, and the current difficulties of string/M-theory as regards the large multiplicity of string vacua, some comments are made on the traditional goal of understanding vis a vis the recently evolved view of landscape and anthropism.

Continue reading “Grand Unification as a Bridge Between String Theory And Phenomenology” »

Now, an international team of researchers say they have discovered a supermassive black hole that gobbles up the equivalent of one Earth every second.

By looking at other luminous objects that are billions of years old, the team confirmed the newly discovered behemoth was the brightest and fastest-growing supermassive black hole of the past 9 billion years (that we know of).

Located in the bright constellation of Centaurus, this luminous cosmic beast is more than 500 times larger than the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy.

For the first time, the Hubble Space Telescope has detected a lone object drifting through our Milky Way galaxy – the invisible, ghostly remains of a once radiant star.

When stars massive enough to dwarf our sun die, they explode in a supernova and the remaining core is crushed by its own gravity, forming a black hole.

Sometimes, the explosion may send the black hole into motion, hurtling across the galaxy like a pinball. By rights, there should be a lot of roving black holes known to scientists, but they are practically invisible in space and therefore very difficult to uncover.

The object could be the first isolated stellar-mass black hole identified in the Milky Way — or it might be an unusually heavy neutron star.