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Archive for the ‘physics’ category: Page 185

May 17, 2019

High School Student Uses AI to Detect Gravitational Waves

Posted by in categories: cosmology, education, physics, robotics/AI, supercomputing

Before he could legally drive, high school student Adam Rebei was already submitting jobs on the Blue Waters supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (NCSA) to run complex simulations of black holes.

“My first time using Blue Waters, we did a tour first and got to see the computer, which is a very amazing thing because it’s a very powerful machine,” Rebei told the NCSA, “and I just remember thinking, ‘All of the GPUs!’ It’s an insane amount of GPUs, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

To get there, Rebei first took an astronomy class that led him to his work with the NCSA. Once there, he teamed up with research scientist Eliu Huerta, who leads the group’s Gravity Group.

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May 17, 2019

Did ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Get the Science Right? A Lesson in Supersymmetry and Economy Class

Posted by in categories: cosmology, economics, physics, science

Is super asymmetry a thing? And do big physicists really travel economy class?

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May 17, 2019

From the Farside –“Ripples in Spacetime Created By Wormholes Leading to Another Universe”

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

In June of 2018 we posted that a team of physicists explored the possibility that the black holes we ‘observe’ in nature are no such thing, but rather some type of exotic compact objects (ECOs) that do not have an event horizon. The scientific collaborations LIGO and Virgo have detected gravitational waves from the fusions of two black holes, inaugurating a new era in the study of the cosmos. But what if those ripples in space-time were produced wormholes that can be traversed to appear in another universe.

“Wormholes do not have an event horizon, but act as a space-time shortcut that can be traversed, a kind of very long throat that takes us to another universe,” says Pablo Bueno from KU Leuven University (Belgium). “The confirmation of echoes in the LIGO or Virgo signals would be a practically irrefutable proof that astrophysical black holes don’t exist. Time will tell if these echoes exist or not. If the result were positive, it would be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of physics.”

“Dark Hearts of the Cosmos” –Dazzling New Mergers of Black Holes and Neutron Stars Announced

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May 16, 2019

The Universal Pattern Popping Up in Math, Physics and Biology

Posted by in categories: biological, mathematics, physics

Quanta’s In Theory video series returns with an exploration of a mysterious mathematical pattern found throughout nature.

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May 9, 2019

Gravitational waves leave a detectable mark, physicists say

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Gravitational waves, first detected in 2016, offer a new window on the universe, with the potential to tell us about everything from the time following the Big Bang to more recent events in galaxy centers.

And while the billion-dollar Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detector watches 24/7 for gravitational waves to pass through the Earth, new research shows those waves leave behind plenty of “memories” that could help detect them even after they’ve passed.

“That gravitational waves can leave permanent changes to a detector after the gravitational waves have passed is one of the rather unusual predictions of general relativity,” said doctoral candidate Alexander Grant, lead author of “Persistent Gravitational Wave Observables: General Framework,” published April 26 in Physical Review D.

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May 9, 2019

ET might use gravitational waves to communicate, researchers

Posted by in category: physics

A minor change to interferometer parameters might reveal the Earth is not alone. Andrew Masterson reports.

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May 7, 2019

What happened before the Big Bang?

Posted by in categories: alien life, evolution, physics

In trying to answer such questions, scientists bump up against the limits of the laws of physics. Existing theories can account for the evolution of the universe from its earliest moments — from a fraction of a second after the Big Bang — but the question of what came before has been among the most vexing in all of science.


“It’s my life’s work to try to answer that question,” University of Toronto physicist Renée Hložek says.

This image represents the evolution of the universe, starting with the Big Bang. The red arrow marks the flow of time.

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May 5, 2019

Physicists Are Bewitched by Twisted Graphene’s ‘Magic Angle’

Posted by in category: physics

The stunning emergence of a new type of superconductivity with the mere twist of a carbon sheet has left physicists giddy, and its discoverer nearly overwhelmed.


May 1, 2019

The Sun Is Stranger Than Astrophysicists Imagined

Posted by in categories: physics, space

The sun radiates far more high-frequency light than expected, raising questions about unknown features of the sun’s magnetic field and the possibility of even more exotic physics.

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May 1, 2019

These Super-Precise Clocks Help Weave Together Space And Time

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics, space travel

Insanely precise atomic clocks are letting astrophysicists image black holes, steer spacecraft, and maybe one day hunt for gravitational waves.

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