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Category: cosmology

Hydrogen puts quantum wormhole conjecture to the test

A new Physical Review Letters study places constraints on the ER = EPR conjecture, showing that under the authors’ assumptions, the conjecture would imply possible alterations to the hyperfine structure and effective charge of the hydrogen atom—effects that have never been observed.

In 1935, Einstein co-authored two distinct papers. The first proposes the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox describing the quantum entanglement of particles. The second one introduces Einstein-Rosen (ER) bridges connecting distant regions of spacetime, which we today call wormholes.

Nearly a century later, in 2013, physicists Juan Maldacena and Leonard Susskind proposed the ER = EPR conjecture, proposing a link between quantum entanglement and wormholes. This links entanglement, a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, with spacetime connectivity, general relativity. This remains one of the major open questions in modern physics.

Universe’s most distant ‘Hot DOG’ yet may owe extreme infrared glow to polar dust, Webb reveals

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed fresh details about one of the most luminous known objects in the universe: the dust-shrouded quasar W2246−0526, seen just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. The paper outlining the results was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on May 14.

W2246−0526 is a hot dust-obscured galaxy, also known as Hot DOG, that is mainly powered by an actively feeding supermassive black hole at its center. Hot DOGs are extremely luminous, with their luminosities at infrared wavelengths exceeding 1014 times that of the luminosity of the sun, making astronomers wonder what causes them to reach such extreme brightness.

At z = 4.6, W2246−0526 is the most distant and luminous of its kind discovered so far. Previous studies have shown that it is dominated by hot dust whose temperatures reach 450 Kelvin or almost 180 degrees Celsius. The high temperature of this range suggests the domination of an active galactic nucleus (AGN).

Black hole jets measured in real time, revealing 10,000-sun power

For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets blasting from a black hole.

The jet power from this relatively close black hole-star system is equivalent to 10,000 suns, an international research team reported Thursday. They also tracked the jet speed: roughly 355 million mph (540 million kph)—half the speed of light.

Located 7,200 light-years away, Cygnus X-1 features not only a black hole—the first one ever identified more than a half-century ago—but a blue supergiant star, its constant companion. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

Why the intrinsic quantum effects of axion dark matter are completely undetectable

Dark matter is an elusive form of matter that almost never emits, absorbs or reflects light, while only weakly interacting with regular matter. These properties make it very difficult to detect using conventional experimental techniques and instruments.

Over the past decades, physicists have inferred the existence of dark matter indirectly, by probing its influence on the gravity of stars, galaxies and other cosmological objects. As it has never been directly observed before, the exact composition and nature of dark matter remain unknown.

A hypothetical dark matter particle is the axion, an ultralight particle that is predicted to be highly abundant in the universe. Most existing work describes axions as a classical field, a wave-like entity that resembles an electromagnetic field.

Using pulsars as ultra-precise gravitational probes to ‘weigh’ neighboring galaxies

Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, have identified a promising new method for measuring the mass of galaxies orbiting the Milky Way by using pulsars, some of the universe’s most precise natural clocks, to detect tiny gravitational effects across our galaxy.

The work, published on the arXiv preprint server, offers a novel approach for studying the hidden dark matter contained within nearby satellite galaxies. The findings could have broad implications for astrophysics and cosmology.

The study was authored by UAH astrophysicists Dr. Thomas Donlon, postdoctoral research assistant II, and Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, a professor and Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in the College of Science, in collaboration with Dr. Jason A. S. Hunt, an astrophysicist at the University of Surrey, U.K. The research examines how the gravitational pull of neighboring dwarf galaxies subtly disturbs the Milky Way.

Black holes may avoid singularities when charge and Hawking radiation combine, theoretical physicist argues

Black holes are regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, even light, can escape. Einstein’s theory of general relativity breaks down inside black holes, either by the presence of a so-called “curvature singularity” or “Cauchy horizon.”

A curvature singularity is a point where density and spacetime curvature become infinite, the laws of physics break down, and matter is crushed into an infinitely small space. A Cauchy horizon, on the other hand, is a boundary beyond which the future cannot be reliably predicted by known physics theories.

Francesco Di Filippo, a researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Frankfurt, recently carried out a theoretical study that challenges the assumption that black holes must inevitability possess either a singularity or a Cauchy horizon. His paper, published in Physical Review Letters, shows that the combination of electromagnetic repulsion from electric charge and quantum effects described by Stephen Hawking’s radiation theory could prevent the formation of singularities and Cauchy horizons in some black holes.

Crystals of space and time: A structural phenomenon that may collapse into tiny black holes

A team from Vienna and Frankfurt has found a formula describing a strange phenomenon: Space and time can form a kind of “crystal” that may turn into a black hole. The results are described in Physical Review Letters.

Alongside the famous gigantic black holes, physics also allows for microscopic versions. They emerge from so-called critical states, when spacetime organizes itself into a regular, crystal-like structure during a process known as critical collapse. A team from Goethe University Frankfurt and TU Wien has now succeeded, for the first time, in describing this phenomenon with an exact mathematical formula using an unusual mathematical trick.

Black holes usually form in spectacular events, such as the death of a massive star. But in theory, arbitrarily small black holes are also possible: tiny microscopic objects that can emerge from special critical states after the slightest addition of energy. Such states may have existed shortly after the Big Bang, when the universe was still a chaotic mixture of particles, potentially giving rise to so-called primordial black holes.

The complete evolution of spin glass from order to chaos

How come our universe is full of disorder, when all elementary particles appear to follow strictly ordered laws of physics? And are there organizing principles behind disorder and apparent chaos?

One avenue of studying these fundamental questions is through an assembly of spins: the quantum property that makes electrons behave like tiny bar magnets, with a preferred orientation of either up or down. Neighboring spins align either in parallel (up-up) or antiparallel (up-down-up-down), as in ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, respectively. This simple ruleset makes spin systems very attractive for studying the emergence of order.

However, while the theory of spin is well-established, creating the material conditions for observing spin disorder has proven notoriously elusive. While physicists have been able to create exotic materials that exhibit spin disorder, tracing the evolution from order to disorder within materials has been challenged by the lack of a clean starting point.

NASA’s Fermi glimpses power source of supercharged supernovae

LSU researchers helped uncover what may be the first clear detection of gamma rays from a superluminous supernova, using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope—a breakthrough that offers new insight into the powerful magnetars believed to drive some of the universe’s brightest stellar explosions.

An international team studying data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope concludes the mission detected a rare, unusually luminous supernova. The researchers say it likely received its power-up from a supermagnetized neutron star born in the stellar collapse that triggered the explosion.

The Fermi mission is part of NASA’s fleet of observatories monitoring the changing cosmos to help humanity better understand how the universe works.

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