Dark matter axions possibly found near Magnificent 7 neutron stars
A new study proposes mysterious axions may be found in X-rays coming from a cluster of neutron stars.
16 January, 2021
Credit: D. Ducros; ESA/XMM-Newton, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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<p>A study tantalizingly promises a possible location for new elementary particles called axions, which may also constitute the elusive dark matter. A team led by a theoretical physicist from <span style="background-color: initial;">the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)</span> has pinpointed axions as the potential source of the high-energy X-rays coming out of a cluster of neutron stars called the Magnificent Seven.</p><p>Axions were first theorized as fundamental particles as far back as the 1970s but have yet to be directly observed. In a fun fact, the idea for the name "axion" came to the theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek from a laundry detergent brand. If they exist, they'd be produced in the core of stars, converting into photons (particles of light) upon encountering electromagnetic fields. Axions would likely have small masses and come into contact with other matter quite rarely and in a way that's hard to detect. </p><p>They may also be responsible for dark matter, which could comprise about 85% of the known universe but is also yet to be seen. We think we know about it from its gravitational effects. If axions are real, they could account for this "missing" mass of the universe. Astronomical observations tell us that visible matter, including all the galaxies with their stars, planets, and everything else we can conceive of in space is still <em>less than one sixth</em> of the total mass of all of the universe's matter. Dark matter is thought to be making up the rest. So finding it and finding axions could be transformative for our understanding of how the universe really works.</p>
<p>The new paper from Berkeley Lab proposes that the Magnificent Seven, a group of neutron stars that's hundreds of light-years away (but relatively not so far), may be a perfect candidate for locating the axions. These stars, coming into existence as the collapsed cores of massive supergiant stars, have very strong magnetic fields and feature an abundance of X-rays. They are also not pulsars, which give off radiation at varying wavelengths and would likely obscure the X-ray signature the researchers spotted.<br></p><p>The study utilized data from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray telescopes to discover high levels of X-ray emissions from the neutron stars.</p><p>Benjamin Safdi, from the Berkeley Lab Physics Division theory group which led the study, said they aren't saying yet they found the axions but are feeling confident the Magnificent Seven X-rays are a fruitful place to look.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We are pretty confident this excess exists, and very confident there's something new among this excess," Safdi said. "If we were 100% sure that what we are seeing is a new particle, that would be huge. That would be revolutionary in physics." </p>
Are Axions Dark Matter?
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5e35ce24a5b17102bfce5ae6aecc7c14"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e7yXqF32Yvw?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Postdoctoral researcher Raymond Co from the University of Minnesota, who was also involved in the study, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-01-x-rays-magnificent-sought-after-particle.html" target="_blank">confirmed</a> that "It is an exciting discovery of the excess in the X-ray photons, and it's an exciting possibility that's already consistent with our interpretation of axions."</p><p>Building upon this research, the scientists also plan to use space telescopes like <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/main/index.html" target="_blank">NuStar</a> to focus on the X-ray excesses as well as to examine white dwarf stars, which also have strong magnetic fields, making them another possible location for the axions. "This starts to be pretty compelling that this is something beyond the Standard Model if we see an X-ray excess there, too," <a href="https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/01/15/study-x-rays-surrounding-magnificent-7-may-be-traces-of-sought-after-particle/" target="_blank">said</a> Safdi.</p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">Besides Berkeley Lab, the current study also involved support from </span><span style="background-color: initial;">the University of Michigan, the National Science Foundation, the Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Munich Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics (MIAPP), and the CERN Theory department.</span></p><p>Check out the study published in <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.021102" target="_blank">Physical Review Letters.</a></p>
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The incredible physics behind quantum computing
Can computers do calculations in multiple universes? Scientists are working on it. Step into the world of quantum computing.
15 January, 2021
- While today's computers—referred to as classical computers—continue to become more and more powerful, there is a ceiling to their advancement due to the physical limits of the materials used to make them. Quantum computing allows physicists and researchers to exponentially increase computation power, harnessing potential parallel realities to do so.
- Quantum computer chips are astoundingly small, about the size of a fingernail. Scientists have to not only build the computer itself but also the ultra-protected environment in which they operate. Total isolation is required to eliminate vibrations and other external influences on synchronized atoms; if the atoms become 'decoherent' the quantum computer cannot function.
- "You need to create a very quiet, clean, cold environment for these chips to work in," says quantum computing expert Vern Brownell. The coldest temperature possible in physics is -273.15 degrees C. The rooms required for quantum computing are -273.14 degrees C, which is 150 times colder than outer space. It is complex and mind-boggling work, but the potential for computation that harnesses the power of parallel universes is worth the chase.
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Are we living in a baby universe that looks like a black hole to outsiders?
Baby universes led to black holes and dark matter, proposes a new study.
04 January, 2021
Credit: Kavli IPMU
- Researchers recently used a huge telescope in Hawaii to study primordial black holes.
- These black holes might have formed in the early days from baby universes and may be responsible for dark matter.
- The study also raises the possibility that our own universe may look like a black hole to outside observers.
<p>A <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.181304" target="_blank">new paper</a> takes a deep dive into primordial black holes that were formed as a part of the early universe when there were still no stars or galaxies. Such black holes could account for strange cosmic possibilities, including baby universes and major features of the current state of the cosmos like dark matter.</p><p>To study the exotic primordial black holes (PBHs), physicists employed the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) of the huge 8.2m Subaru Telescope operating near the 4,200 meter summit of Mt. Mauna Kea in Hawaii. This enormous digital camera can produce images of the entire Andromeda galaxy every few minutes, helping scientists observe one hundred million stars in one go. </p>
<p>In their study, the scientists considered a number of scenarios, especially linked to the period of inflation. That is the time of quick expansion following the Big Bang, when the universe we know today came into existence with all its structures.</p><p>The researchers calculated that in the process of inflation, the climate was ripe for creating primordial black holes of various masses. And some of them reflect the characteristics predicted for dark matter.</p><p>Another way PBHs could have been created during inflation is from "baby universes" – small universes that branched off from the main one.</p>
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Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a gigantic digital camera on the Subaru Telescope
Credit: HSC project / NAOJ
<p>A baby or "daughter" universe would ultimately collapse but the tremendous release of energy would lead to the formation of a black hole, explains the <a href="https://www.ipmu.jp/en/20201224-PBH-multiverse" target="_blank">press release </a>from the <span style="background-color: initial;">Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) in Japan, one of the institutions participating in this study.</span></p><p>What's also fascinating, some of the bigger baby universes might not have gone so quietly. Above a certain critical size, the theory of gravity developed by Albert Einstein permits that such a universe may be perceived differently by observers. If you were inside it, you'd see an expanding universe, while if you were outside, this baby universe would look like a black hole. A conjecture that leads to wondering – are we potentially on the inside or outside of such a universe ourselves? </p><p>If you follow this multiverse logic, it also may be possible that while primordial black holes would appear to us as black holes, their true structural natures could be concealed by their "event horizons" – the boundaries surrounding black holes from which not even light can escape. </p><p>It should be noted, while strange or counter-intuitive, this is not the first go-around for these types of ideas. A <a href="https://www.livescience.com/bizarre-charged-black-holes.html" target="_blank">study earlier in 2020</a> found that so-called "charged" black holes may include within them endlessly-repeating fractal universes of various sizes, including miniature, that can be stretched and deformed in all directions. </p>
<p>To solidify their theories and to find a primordial black hole, the researchers <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/kift-pbh122520.php" target="_blank">will continue</a> using the Subaru Telescope, with some promising PBH candidates already emerging.</p><p>The international team of particle physicists working on the research came from the University of California, Los Angeles and the Kavli Institute. The group included cosmologists and astronomers Alexander Kusenko, Misao Sasaki, Sunao Sugiyama, Masahiro Takada and Volodymyr Takhistov.</p><p>Check out their new paper "Exploring Primordial Black Holes from the Multiverse with Optical Telescopes" in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.181304" target="_blank">Physical Review Letters.</a></p>
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Michio Kaku: 3 mind-blowing predictions about the future
What lies in store for humanity? Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku explains how different life will be for your ancestors—and maybe your future self, if the timing works out.
04 January, 2021
- Carl Sagan believed humanity needed to become a multi-planet species as an insurance policy against the next huge catastrophe on Earth. Now, Elon Musk is working to see that mission through, starting with a colony of a million humans on Mars. Where will our species go next?
- Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku looks decades into the future and makes three bold predictions about human space travel, the potential of 'brain net', and our coming victory over cancer.
- "[I]n the future, the word 'tumor' will disappear from the English language," says Kaku. "We will have years of warning that there is a colony of cancer cells growing in our body. And our descendants will wonder: How could we fear cancer so much?"
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How ‘heat death’ will destroy the universe
The expansion of the universe is speeding up—contrary to what many physicists expected. A "heat death" is coming, but it's not what you think.
25 December, 2020
- The expansion of the universe is accelerating as the force of dark energy wins out over the pull of all the universe's collective gravity.
- As every object in space moves farther and farther away from all other objects in space, the universe will reach a state of maximum entropy, and 'heat death' will ensue. As astrophysicist Dr. Katie Mack points out, heat death is not actually a hot phenomenon—it's also known as the "Big Freeze."
- Around 100 billion years from now, the universe will have expanded so much that distant galaxies won't be visible from Earth, even with high-powered telescopes. Stars will disappear in a trillion years and new stars will no longer form. The "good" news is that humans probably won't be around to witness the machine as it breaks down and dies.
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