Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine taking a star twice the mass of the sun and crushing it to the size of Manhattan. The result would be a neutron star—one of the densest objects found anywhere in the universe, exceeding the density of any material found naturally on Earth by a factor of tens of trillions. Neutron stars are extraordinary astrophysical objects in their own right, but their extreme densities might also allow them to function as laboratories for studying fundamental questions of nuclear physics, under conditions that could never be reproduced on Earth.

Because of these exotic conditions, scientists still do not understand what exactly neutron stars themselves are made from, their so-called “equation of state” (EoS). Determining this is a major goal of modern astrophysics research. A new piece of the puzzle, constraining the range of possibilities, has been discovered by a pair of scholars at IAS: Carolyn Raithel, John N. Bahcall Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences; and Elias Most, Member in the School and John A. Wheeler Fellow at Princeton University. Their work was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Continue reading “New tool allows scientists to peer inside neutron stars” »

Yitang Zhang, a Chinese-American mathematician, reportedly disclosed in an online salon organized by the Peking University Alumni Association on October 15 that he has proven the longstanding Landau-Siegel zeros theory. This finding is related to the Riemann hypothesis, a formula for the distribution of prime numbers that has remained unsolved for more than a century. However, the claim has not yet been fully verified, and it is reported that a relevant article of more than 100 pages will be sent to a preprint website in early November.

The Landau-Siegel zeros topic has represented one of the most difficult problems in number theory this century. It is a weak form of the Riemann hypothesis, which studies the existence of zeros in the DirichletL-function (a function defined on the whole complex plane). A century of research has shown that the Landau-Siegel zeros can be more difficult to solve than the Riemann hypothesis. Therefore, if Zhang Yitang has really proven that Landau-Siegel zeros exist, the Riemann hypothesis would be wrong. But for now, many people are more inclined to believe that Zhang proved the opposite result.

Regarding the news, a well-known Chinese blogger stated that “if Yitang Zhang proves the existance of Landau-Siegel zeros, then the Riemann conjecture could ‘die.’ Zhang will be the greatest mathematician in the past and future 50 years, no one else.” Others commented, “If Zhang can prove Landau-Siegel zeros, the probability can be equivalent to a person being struck by lightning twice.”

In February 2016, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first-ever detection of gravitational waves (GWs). Originally predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, these waves are ripples in spacetime that occur whenever massive objects (like black holes and neutron stars) merge. Since then, countless GW events have been detected by observatories across the globe – to the point where they have become an almost daily occurrence. This has allowed astronomers to gain insight into some of the most extreme objects in the Universe.

In a recent study, an international team of researchers led by Cardiff University observed a binary black hole system originally detected in 2020 by the Advanced LIGO, Virgo, and Kamioki Gravitational Wave Observatory (KAGRA). In the process, the team noticed a peculiar twisting motion (aka. a precession) in the orbits of the two colliding black holes that was 10 billion times faster than what was noted with other precessing objects. This is the first time a precession has been observed with binary black holes, which confirms yet another phenomenon predicted by General Relativity (GR).

Continue reading “Shortly Before They Collided, two Black Holes Tangled Spacetime up Into Knots” »

DeepMind has created an AI capable of writing code to solve arbitrary problems posed to it, as proven by participating in a coding challenge and placing — well, somewhere in the middle. It won’t be taking any software engineers’ jobs just yet, but it’s promising and may help automate basic tasks.

The team at DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is aiming to create intelligence in as many forms as it can, and of course these days the task to which many of our great minds are bent is coding. Code is a fusion of language, logic and problem-solving that is both a natural fit for a computer’s capabilities and a tough one to crack.

Of course it isn’t the first to attempt something like this: OpenAI has its own Codex natural-language coding project, and it powers both GitHub Copilot and a test from Microsoft to let GPT-3 finish your lines.

Recent explorations of unique geometric worlds reveal perplexing patterns, including the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio.

Florida is reporting a surge in deadly infections caused by the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

Driving the news: Lee County alone has recorded 29 cases and 4 deaths as of Friday, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The state’s overall numbers have risen to 65 cases and 11 deaths, compared to 34 cases and 10 deaths in 2021.

Details: Found in warm, brackish water, Vibrio vulnificus usually enters human bodies through the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood, though it can also cause infections through open wounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

BECOMING a parent for the first time is a major moment for anyone — but for Laura Gayton, giving birth to a healthy, crying baby boy…

With the help of NASA’s QueSST mission, aeronautical innovators hope to break the sound barrier once more, but this time in a totally different fashion that…

Keep an eye on the sky.

New models show that stars about to blow up in a supernovae begin exhibiting strange behaviors a few months in advance.