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KENNEWICK — The LIGO Hanford Observatory near Richland is expected to detect 60% more cataclysmic cosmic events — like colliding neutron stars and black holes — thanks to a quantum limit breakthrough.

Since the observatory was turned back on in May after three years of upgrades, including adding new quantum squeezing technology, it can probe a larger volume of the universe.

“Now that we have surpassed this quantum limit, we can do a lot more astronomy,” said Lee McCuller, assistant professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology and a leader in the study published in the journal “Physical Review X.”

The mini-halos of dark matter scattered throughout the cosmos could function as highly sensitive probes of primordial magnetic fields. This is what emerges from a theoretical study conducted by SISSA and published in Physical Review Letters.

Present on immense scales, magnetic fields are found everywhere in the universe. However, their origin is still a subject of debate among scholars. An intriguing possibility is that magnetic fields originated near the birth of the universe itself; that is, they are primordial magnetic fields.

In the study, the researcher showed that if magnetic fields are indeed primordial then it could cause an increase in dark matter density perturbations on small scales. The ultimate effect of this process would be the formation of mini-halos of dark matter, which, if detected, would hint towards a primordial nature of magnetic fields. Thus, in an apparent paradox, the invisible part of our universe could be useful in resolving the nature of a component of the visible one.

A team of researchers has analyzed more than one million galaxies to explore the origin of the present-day cosmic structures, reports a recent study published in Physical Review D as an Editors’ Suggestion.

Until today, precise observations and analyses of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure (LSS) have led to the establishment of the standard framework of the universe, the so-called ΛCDM model, where cold dark matter (CDM) and dark energy (the cosmological constant, Λ) are significant characteristics.

This model suggests that primordial fluctuations were generated at the beginning of the universe, or in the early universe, which acted as triggers, leading to the creation of all things in the universe including stars, galaxies, galaxy clusters, and their spatial distribution throughout space. Although they are very small when generated, fluctuations grow with time due to the gravitational pulling force, eventually forming a dense region of dark matter, or a halo. Then, different halos repeatedly collided and merged with one another, leading to the formation of celestial objects such as galaxies.

In a public lecture titled “The Meaning of Spacetime,” renowned physicist Juan Maldacena outlined ideas that arose from the study of quantum aspects of black holes.

V/ Perimeter Institute

Continue reading “The Meaning of Spacetime: Juan Maldacena public lecture webcast” »

India launched its first satellite on Monday to study black holes as it seeks to deepen its space exploration efforts ahead of an ambitious crewed mission next year.

This whirling image features a bright spiral galaxy known as MCG-01–24-014, which is located about 275 million light-years from Earth. In addition to being a well-defined spiral galaxy, MCG-01–24-014 has an extremely energetic core known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and is categorized as a Type-2 Seyfert galaxy.

Seyfert galaxies, along with quasars, host one of the most common subclasses of AGN. While the precise categorization of AGNs is nuanced, Seyfert galaxies tend to be relatively nearby and their central AGN does not outshine its host, while quasars are very distant AGNs with incredible luminosities that outshine their host galaxies.

There are further subclasses of both Seyfert galaxies and quasars. In the case of Seyfert galaxies, the predominant subcategories are Type-1 and Type-2. Astronomers distinguish them by their spectra, the pattern that results when light is split into its constituent wavelengths. The spectral lines that Type-2 Seyfert galaxies emit are associated with specific ‘forbidden’ emission lines. To understand why emitted light from a galaxy could be forbidden, it helps to understand why spectra exist in the first place.

ESA’s Euclid mission is on a quest to unveil the nature of two elusive ‘dark’ entities. As the renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking remarked in 2013, “The missing link in cosmology is the nature of dark matter and dark energy”

During the last 70 years, scientists have made enormous progress in understanding the very initial phases of the Universe and its evolution to the present day. Thanks to advances in observations and theoretical modelling, a clear picture has emerged of how stars form, and how galaxies grow and interact with each other, coming together to form groups and clusters.

Continue reading “Euclid: Gate to the dark” »

A universe that continually expands has long been the dominant cosmological framework. But a universe that undergoes cycles of expansion and contraction, perhaps for all time, has recently been analyzed mathematically, and its proponents claim that it provides a more convincing cosmological paradigm. Join leaders of this renegade approach as they make the case for a new kind of cosmology that reimagines time.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

Continue reading “Was the Big Bang the Beginning? Reimagining Time in a Cyclic Universe” »

The death of cosmology in an age of chaos.

The new tension, centered around a value for cosmic lumpiness known as S8, could join the Hubble tension in dethroning our best picture of how the universe evolved.