New particle experiment goes against standard physics
Results from an experiment using the Large Hadron Collider challenges the accepted model of physics.
26 March, 2021
Credit: Imperial College London
- Researchers working on the Large Hadron Collider experiments obtained unusual results.
- The data suggests possible existence of new particles or interactions.
- The findings aren't accounted for by the Standard Model of particle physics.
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<p>Scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider discovered new particles whose unusual behavior doesn't conform to the Standard Model of particle physics. The find may indicate the existence of entirely new particles or interactions and can result in new physics being formulated.</p><p>The Standard Model of particle physics, our best current theory, says that particles known as "beauty quarks" or "B mesons" should decay equally into muons or electrons. However, measurements from a new experiment on the <a href="https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider" target="_blank">Large Hadron Collider (LHC)</a>, the world's largest scientific instrument and its most powerful particle accelerator based at the CERN lab on the Franco-Swiss border, show that is not taking place. B mesons decaying in the LHC produced more electrons and less muons than the theory predicted. These measurements may mean that new, yet-to-be-detected particles are contributing to the imbalance. </p>
<p>The research, carried out by physicists from Imperial College London and the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, was part of the LHCb experiment, one of the four particle detectors at the Large Hadron Collider.</p><p>One of the study's co-authors, Dr. Mitesh Patel from Imperial College, explained the significance of their achievement: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We were actually shaking when we first looked at the results, we were that excited," shared Patel in a <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/218134/new-result-from-lhcb-experiment-challenges/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "Our hearts did beat a bit faster. It's too early to say if this genuinely is a deviation from the Standard Model but the potential implications are such that these results are the most exciting thing I've done in 20 years in the field. It has been a long journey to get here."</p>
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The LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Credit: CERN
<p>Imperial College Ph.D. student Daniel Moise, who was involved in the study, thinks the findings can lead to new discoveries:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The result offers an intriguing hint of a new fundamental particle or force that interacts in a way that the particles currently known to science do not," <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/218134/new-result-from-lhcb-experiment-challenges/" target="_blank">said Moise</a>. "If this is confirmed by further measurements, it will have a profound impact on our understanding of nature at the most fundamental level."</p><p>The scientists are looking next to verify their results in follow-up experiments. </p>
<p>This is not the only discrepancy with the Standard Model that physicists have uncovered. The nature of dark matter and the unequal distribution of matter and antimatter in the Universe have also been thrown wrenches into most accepted physics ideas.</p><p>Check out the new paper "<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.11769" target="_blank">Test of lepton universality in beauty-quark decays</a><strong>" </strong>published as a preprint. </p>
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Extreme black holes may have "hair," find scientists
Researchers discover black holes that violate the uniqueness theorem and have "gravitational hair."
30 January, 2021
Credit: Adobe Stock
- Scientists discover that some extreme black holes may violate the "no hair" theorem.
- These black holes feature properties outside of the three classical black hole traits of mass, spin, and charge.
- The researchers ran sophisticated simulations to discover these space oddities.
<p>Black holes are wonderfully weird, sparking the imagination with the many mysteries surrounding their formation and functions in our universe. Now scientists found a new kind of extreme black hole, one that breaks the so-called "ho hair" theorem. In other words, this black hole has "hair."</p><p>The idea of the "no hair" or "black hole uniqueness" theorem was encapsulated by the American theoretical physicist John Wheeler who claimed: "Black holes have no hair." What he meant is that black hole solutions to Einstein's field equations of general relativity can be completely characterized by only three physical quantities: mass, spin, and charge. There aren't supposed to be any other "hairy" traits that can make one black hole different from another. Black holes with the same mass, spin, and charge should be identical, explains the <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/tr-ebh012621.php" target="_blank">press release</a> from Theiss Research, which was behind the new discovery. </p>
<p>The team involved Dr. Lior Burko of Theiss Research, Professor Gaurav Khanna of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the University of Rhode Island, as well as his former student Dr. Subir Sabharwal.</p><p>They found there's an extremal black hole that may violate the "no hair" theorem. This type of black hole is "saturated" with the maximum charge or spin it can potentially carry. The researchers discovered that there exists a conserved quantity or property that can be constructed from the spacetime curvature at such a black hole's horizon. It may be measurable from Earth by gravitational wave observatories like LIGO and LISA. Since this property is dependent on how the black hole was formed, it breaks the black hole uniqueness theorem and is considered "gravitational hair."</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"This new result is surprising because the black hole uniqueness theorems are well established, and in particular their extension to extreme black holes," <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/tr-ebh012621.php" target="_blank">shared</a> Dr. Burko. "There has to be an assumption of the theorems that is not satisfied, to explain how the theorems do not apply in this case." </p>
The mind-blowing science of black holes | Michio Kaku, Bill Nye, Michelle Thaller & more
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eb09e1523b36414f39878e596a1875ff"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F76Gxu7vJLY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>For their findings, the researchers employed elaborate numerical simulations running on dozens of the top Nvidia graphics-processing-units (GPUs) that had over 5,000 cores each, working in parallel. "Each of these GPUs can perform as many as 7 trillion calculations per second; however, even with such computational capacity the simulations look [sic] many weeks to complete," <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/tr-ebh012621.php" target="_blank">shared</a> Khanna.</p><p>Another type of black hole "hair" was proposed by Stephen Hawking who predicted that quantum particles would leak out of black holes, in a phenomenon dubbed "Hawking radiation." This claim was possibly proven correct by a <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/black-hole-event-horizon" target="_self">2020 study</a> that found evidence of "quantum fuzz" and gravitational wave "echoes" beyond black hole event horizons.</p><p>Check out the new study published in <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.L021502" target="_blank">Physical Review D.</a></p>
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Astrophysicists discover exotic merger of black holes
Gravitational wave researchers observe black holes of different sizes colliding for the first time.
21 April, 2020
Simulation of two black holes of different size orbiting each other, while emitting gravitational waves. Blue colors are weaker gravitational radiation and red is stronger.
- Gravitational wave researchers at LIGO and Virgo observatories spot black holes of different sizes colliding.
- The finding is unusual because previous black hole mergers involved partners of similar size.
- The new information re-confirms Einstein's theory of relativity.
<p>Gravitational wave researchers discovered a very unusual merger of black holes 2.4 billion light-years away. They spotted a collision where one black hole was almost four times larger than another, expanding our understanding of such space cataclysms with help from Einstein (and even Elvis). </p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">All mergers detected previously involved partners of comparable sizes. The event detected on April 12th, 2019 </span><span style="background-color: initial;">was called "exceptional" by <strong>Maya Fishbach</strong>, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago in Illinois. What she and her colleagues found proves that very unevenly matched black hole pairs exist. </span><span style="background-color: initial;">"This is the first event in which we can confidently say the mass-ratio is not one," she stated during an <a href="https://aps-april.onlineeventpro.freeman.com/" target="_blank">online meeting</a> of the </span><span style="background-color: initial;">American Physical Society.</span></p>
<p>The research was carried out in collaboration between the <a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/" target="_blank">Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) </a>— twin detectors in Washington and Louisiana — as well as the <a href="http://www.virgo-gw.eu/" target="_blank">Virgo observatory</a> near Pisa, Italy. They both detected the merger. One of the black holes observed was <strong>30 times</strong> more massive than the sun and was spinning, said the scientists, while the other had a mass about <strong>eight times</strong> that of the sun.</p><p>In an amusing note, the scientists say that the very different masses created gravitational waves at multiple frequencies, which were actually in harmony with an Elvis Presley song. This cosmic music also confirms yet again Einstein's theory of general relativity.</p><p>Normally, two spiraling black holes of the same size would emit a single frequency, which would be double the rate at which they are orbiting one another, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/gravitational-waves-reveal-unprecedented-collision-heavy-and-light-black-holes" target="_blank">explains</a> Science Magazine. In this case, as predicted by Einstein, the very different masses, also produce <em>overtones</em> - weaker waves at higher frequencies. And if you were to transpose these frequencies to piano notes and intervals, you would get the beginning of Presley's classic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSaxhqJG1Mw" target="_blank">"I Can't Help Falling in Love with You."</a></p>
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<p>The scientists hope that this uniqueness of the detected event could help provide more information about how black holes form. Of special interest is how the variation in mass could have arisen. Under one scenario, the pair could be the result of two massive stars who were orbiting each other, collapsing into black holes. Under another theory, the black holes could have formed independently and found each other in dense star clusters.</p><p>You can read more of the new findings on the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.08342" target="_blank">arXiv preprint server.</a></p>
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Astrophysicist claims "dark fluid" fills the missing 95% of the Universe
An Oxford scientist's controversial theory rethinks dark matter and dark energy.
29 October, 2019
Credit: YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images.
- An astrophysicist and cosmologist Dr. Farnes published a paper while at Oxford University with a novel explanation for dark energy and dark matter.
- His theory claims to explain the missing 95% of the observable universe by the existence of "dark fluid".
- This fluid has negative mass, repelling other materials.
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<p>While it seems we are making great strides in unlocking the mysteries of the Universe, there is a sizable hole in what we know –<strong> up to 95%</strong> of the cosmos appears to be missing. We are talking about <strong>dark matter </strong>and <strong>dark energy, </strong>two useful, groundbreaking, but yet-to-be-directly-observed explanations for the vast majority of what exists. While there have been various attempts to pin down these ideas, inferred from their gravitational effects, a recent theory from a University of Oxford scientist claims to do away with them entirely. Instead, his model proposes something which may be even more unusual – what if the Universe is actually filled with a <strong>"dark fluid"</strong> possessing <strong>"negative mass"</strong>?</p><p>Dark matter takes up<strong> 27% </strong>of the known Universe (<a href="https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy" target="_blank">per NASA</a>), while dark energy, a repulsive force that makes the Universe expand, gets <strong>68%</strong>. Only<strong> 5%</strong> of the Universe is the observable world, including us and our planet. According to the model, proposed by <a href="http://jamiefarnes.co.uk/" target="_blank"><strong>Dr. Jamie Farnes,</strong></a> both dark matter and dark energy are unified in a fluid which has <strong>"negative gravity".</strong> It repels all other material away.</p>
<p>"Although this matter is peculiar to us, it suggests that our cosmos is symmetrical in both positive and negative qualities," <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-12-universe-theory-percent-cosmos.html" target="_blank">wrote</a> Farnes, astrophysicist, cosmologist and data scientist who worked at Oxford at the time of publishing his paper, and has since moved on to <a href="https://faculty.ai/" target="_blank">Faculty</a>, a leading AI company.</p><p>Negative matter was previously discredited because it was concluded that such a material would become less dense with the further expansion of the Universe. Yet that's not how dark energy seems to be, with research showing it would not thin out over time. The study by Dr. Farnes proposes there's a <strong>"creation tensor"</strong> that would allow for negative masses to be continuously created and not become diluted, behaving "exactly like dark energy, as the <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/bizarre-dark-fluid-with-negative-mass-could-dominate-the-universe-what-my-research-suggests" target="_self">cosmologist explains.</a></p><p>Dr. Farnes sees his work to be building on Albert Einstein's, who in 1917 discovered the <strong>cosmological constant</strong>, which became associated with dark energy in modern research. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Previous approaches to combining dark energy and dark matter have attempted to modify Einstein's theory of general relativity, which has turned out to be incredibly challenging," <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-12-universe-theory-percent-cosmos.html" target="_blank">said Dr. Farnes,</a> adding "This new approach takes two old ideas that are known to be compatible with Einstein's theory—negative masses and matter creation—and combines them together."</p>
Check out the dark matter halo simulation created by Dr. Farnes:
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="59f6c66842846f023dcfd178ade37e0e"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/56AIR9ZDv3w?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p><em>This computer simulation is based on the properties of negative mass, predicting the formation of dark matter halos like those inferred by observations via radio telescopes.</em></p><p>Testing the theory by Dr. Farnes will fall to the <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/" target="_blank">Square Kilometre Array (SKA), </a>the world's largest telescope to be built in Australia and South Africa between 2020 and 2025. This international radio telescope project would have an area of one square kilometer and be <em>50 times</em> more sensitive than any other radio instrument in existence.</p><p>Since Farnes's theory is speculative at this point, the scientific community has been split in its reviews of his work. </p><p>Physicist <strong>Krzysztof Bolejko</strong> from the University of Tasmania in Australia, <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/could-negative-mass-unify-dark-matter-dark-energy" target="_blank">said</a>: "Farnes' maths is fine", and that he believes "Inside cosmic voids the signal will be clearer and so it will be easier to distinguish between processes caused by dark energy and those caused by a constantly created matter with negative mass".</p><p><strong>Alex Murphy,</strong> Professor of Nuclear & Particle Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/most-universe-missing-dark-fluid-negative-mass-could-explain-why-1245014" target="_blank">conceded</a> that Farnes's discoveries had an elegance and that "It's one of many efforts trying to provide answers to deeply troubling issues with our understanding of the contents of the universe. It's just possible that an idea like this might provide the breakthrough that's needed".</p><p>However, others were more critical with <strong>Sabine Hossenfelder</strong> from the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, <a href="http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/no-negative-masses-have-not.html" target="_blank">noting</a> that: "negative masses have not revolutionized cosmology" while "Farnes in his paper instead wants negative gravitational masses to mutually repel each other. But general relativity won't let you do this". She also took issue with the "creation tensor," stating "A creation term is basically a magic fix by which you can explain everything and anything".<br></p><p>Further tests will show whether the theory holds, but in the meantime you can read Dr. Farnes's paper yourself in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201832898" target="_blank"><em>Astronomy and Astrophysics</em></a>.</p>
Physicist Lisa Randall on Dark Matter:
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Physicist advances a radical theory of gravity
Erik Verlinde has been compared to Einstein for completely rethinking the nature of gravity.
14 August, 2019
Photo by Willeke Duijvekam
- The Dutch physicist Erik Verlinde's hypothesis describes gravity as an "emergent" force not fundamental.
- The scientist thinks his ideas describe the universe better than existing models, without resorting to "dark matter".
- While some question his previous papers, Verlinde is reworking his ideas as a full-fledged theory.
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<p>The Dutch theoretical physicist <strong>Erik Verlinde </strong>is no stranger to big ideas. His 2009 hypothesis about gravity earned him comparisons to Einstein for its complete rethinking of what gravity could be. Verlinde proposed that gravity was not a fundamental force of nature but rather emerged out of the interactions of information that fills the universe. He also <a href="https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/remarkable-new-theory-says-theres-no-gravity-no-dark-matter-and-einstein-was-wrong" target="_self">didn't think</a> there was such a thing as <strong>"dark matter" </strong>– a useful construct which is supposedly taking up 27% of the known universe (but is yet to be observed). Now, in a new interview, Verlinde reveals he is taking steps towards conceptualizing his groundbreaking ideas in a full-fledged theory.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.nwo.nl/en/common/news--events/social-media/onderzoek-online/2019-1-undecided" target="_blank">reported</a> by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Verlinde understands why many had trouble accepting his original proposal. After all, the previous leading explanations of gravity have been by Newton, who saw it as an invisible pulling force, and Einstein, who conceived of it as a curvature of space-time by mass and energy.</p>
<p>In Verlinde's view, based on string theory, quantum information theory and the physics of black holes, gravity is an "<strong>entropic</strong>" force that comes into existence as a result of "information associated with the positions of material bodies," as he wrote in his <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FJHEP04%282011%29029" target="_blank">2011 paper.</a> What drives gravity is the quantum entanglement of tiny bits of spacetime information.</p><p>Ten years after publishing his ideas in a paper that caused much discussion, both from admirers and critics, Verlinde shares that he is still fleshing them out, based on the research and advancements that have taken place since then.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Over the past ten years, we have gradually learned a lot more about how you should talk about space and time information," <a href="https://www.nwo.nl/en/common/news--events/social-media/onderzoek-online/2019-1-undecided" target="_blank">said Verlinde to NWO</a>. "I am seriously considering rewriting my story from 2009, but now formulated much more precisely. I think that could remove some of the scepticism that still exists.'</p>
Verlinde: Gravity Doesn't Exist
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-media_id="4lCPiAum" data-player_id="FvQKszTI" data-rm-shortcode-id="787abade05e8e84b3bb5a5f51a14a60c"> <div id="botr_4lCPiAum_FvQKszTI_div" class="jwplayer-media" data-jwplayer-video-src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/4lCPiAum-FvQKszTI.js"> <img src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/thumbs/4lCPiAum-1920.jpg" class="jwplayer-media-preview" /> </div> <script src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/4lCPiAum-FvQKszTI.js"></script> </div><p>In 2016, Verlinde's ideas were tested by a team from Leiden Observatory, which found that a key prediction of the physicist held up. <a href="https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/controversial-new-theory-that-says-theres-no-gravity-or-dark-matter-actually-passes-its-first-test" target="_self">They studied</a> the lensing effect of gravitational fields that are far away from the centers of more than 33,000 galaxies and found the numbers to be consistent with what the Dutch scientist's theory showed. The only way to get these calculations to match under the prevalent gravitational theory would have been to invoke dark matter – a potential fudge factor more than fact at this point. </p><p><a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-check-space-time-to-see-if-its-made-of-quantum-bits-20170621/" target="_blank">A 2017 study</a> from Princeton University found against Verlinde's ideas, however, showing that they are not consistent with the observed data on the rotation velocities of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_galaxy" target="_blank">dwarf galaxies.</a></p><p>While some have accused of Verlinde of publishing his thoughts too early, before they are packaged in a theory that explains all of the implications, the scientist thinks such naysayers don't really understand the way theoretical physics works. "You need to elaborate and test a new idea step-by-step," <a href="https://www.nwo.nl/en/common/news--events/social-media/onderzoek-online/2019-1-undecided" target="_blank">he explains,</a> adding "We must find the correct formulations and techniques.'</p>
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<p>Scientists like the theoretician <strong>Koenraad Schalm</strong> from Leiden University defend Verlinde, <a href="https://www.nwo.nl/en/common/news--events/social-media/onderzoek-online/2019-1-undecided" target="_blank">saying</a> that "Contrary to the sceptics' opinions, Verlinde's work is definitely taken seriously". In fact, Verlinde, who is the winner of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinoza_Prize" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spinoza Prize,</a> has been cited over <strong>700 times </strong>by other scientists. </p><p>The physicist himself feels his overall thesis that information is the fundamental building mechanism of the universe is becoming more accepted. Perhaps his long-awaited new paper on the subject can bring it to an even stronger position amidst the main physics ideas of our time.</p>
Dark matter and dark energy explained | Erik Verlinde
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