The study of X-ray emission from astronomical objects reveals secrets about the universe at the largest and smallest spatial scales. Celestial X-rays are produced by black holes consuming nearby stars, emitted by the million-degree gas that traces the structure between galaxies, and can be used to predict whether stars may be able to host planets hospitable to life.
“Dark matter searches are currently one of the hot topics in the high energy physics community. We look for weakly interacting particles in a number of different facilities ranging from accelerator experiments to tabletop laboratory setups,” Alina Kleimenova and Stefan Ghinescu, part of the NA62 Collaboration, told Phys.org.
“While LHC experiments rely on the high collision energy, smashing protons at about 14 trillion electron volts, NA62, being a fixed-target experiment, focuses on the high intensity approach with a quintillion (1018) of protons on target per year. This intensity creates a unique opportunity to probe various rare processes and beyond Standard Model scenarios.”
Dark photons, also referred to as A’, are among the hypothetical particles beyond the Standard Model whose existence could be probed by the NA62 detector. These particles could act as mediators between known visible matter and dark matter.
Utilizing a novel AI-driven method, researchers enhanced the precision of estimating critical cosmological parameters by analyzing galaxy distributions.
This breakthrough allows for more refined studies of dark matter and energy, with implications for resolving the Hubble tension and other cosmic mysteries.
Continue reading “AI-Powered Insights Reveal the Universe’s Fundamental Settings” »
With no conclusive laboratory results, researchers are turning to other methods to find the elusive substance.
Black holes are some of the most mysterious and awe-inspiring celestial objects in science, and while pairs of black holes or a black hole orbiting another object like a star, known as binary black holes, have been confirmed to exist, what about triple systems? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) announced the discovery of a “black hole triple”, meaning three black holes are orbiting each other simultaneously. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of black holes and what this can teach us about the universe, overall.
For the study, the researchers examined the binary black hole system V404 Cygni, which consists of a central black hole being orbited by two stars, with one orbiting in 6.5 days while the other takes approximately 70,000 years to complete one orbit. It is this second object that has scientists scratching their heads, as it is confounding how an object so far away can be influenced by a black hole’s gravity. While black holes are often created from a supernova, or the collapse and explosion of a large star, this means the explosion should have pushed away the farther star in this system. Therefore, the team postulates this black hole was formed by what’s known as a “direct collapse”, which is a smaller and gentler process when a star collapses in on itself as opposed to producing an outward explosion.
“We think most black holes form from violent explosions of stars, but this discovery helps call that into question,” said Dr. Kevin Burdge, who is a Pappalardo Fellow in the MIT Department of Physics and lead author of the study. “This system is super exciting for black hole evolution, and it also raises questions of whether there are more triples out there.”
‘’Exploring black holes’’ by Wheeler and Taylor.
A primer on black holes and general relativity.
https://pubs.aip.org/aapt/ajp/article/89/1/121/1045741/Exploring-Black-Holes
Continue reading “Exploring Black Holes, 2nd edition, FREE download” »
T he astoundingly complex LHC “atom smasher” at the CERN center in Geneva, Switzerland, are fired up to its maximum energy levels ever in an endeavor to identify — or perhaps generate — tiny black holes.
If successful a very new universe is going to be exposed – modifying completely not only the physics books but the philosophy books too.
Brian Keating is an experimental physicist at the UCSD, author of Losing the Nobel Prize, and host of the Into the Impossible podcast. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex and use code Lex25 to get 25% off.
Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil.
Magic Spoon: https://magicspoon.com/lex and use code LEX to get $5 off.
MasterClass: https://masterclass.com/lex to get 15% off.
Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off.
EPISODE LINKS:
Brian’s Twitter: / drbriankeating.
Brian’s YouTube: / drbriankeating.
Books and resources mentioned:
Losing the Nobel Prize: https://amzn.to/3E6GSHI
Into the Impossible: https://amzn.to/3Fb6F2E
