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Category: cosmology

We recently observed the strongest magnetic field ever recorded in the Universe. The record-breaking field was discovered at the surface of a neutron star called GRO J1008-57 with a magnetic field strength of approximately 1 BILLION Tesla. For comparison, the Earth’s magnetic field clocks in at about 1/20,000 of a Tesla – tens of trillions of times weaker than you’d experience on this neutron star…and that is a good thing for your general health and wellbeing.

Neutron stars are the “dead cores” of once massive stars which have ended their lives as supernova. These stars exhausted their supply of hydrogen fuel in their core and a power balance between the internal energy of the star surging outward, and the star’s own massive gravity crushing inward, is cataclysmically unbalanced – gravity wins. The star collapses in on itself. The outer layers fall onto the core crushing it into the densest object we know of in the Universe – a neutron star. Even atoms are crushed. Negatively charged electrons are forced into the atomic nuclei meeting their positive proton counterparts creating more neutrons. When the core can be crushed no further, the outer remaining material of the star rebounds back into space in a massive explosion – a supernova.

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Two experiments hunting for a whisper of a particle that prevents whole galaxies from flying apart recently published some contradictory results. One came up empty handed, while the other gives us every reason to keep on searching.

Dark bosons are dark matter candidates based on force-carrying particles that don’t really pack much force.

Unlike the bosons we’re more familiar with, such as the photons that bind molecules and the gluons that hold atomic nuclei together, an exchange of dark bosons would barely affect their immediate surroundings.

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A new D-Theory of Time, or Digital Presentism, is predicated on reversible quantum computing at large, including the notion of ‘Anti-Time’ around which the present article revolves. If you think Anti-Time is nothing but fiction, and doesn’t apply to our reality, think again. As Dr. Antonin Tuynman writes in his Foreword to The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics by Alex M. Vikoulov: “Whereas quantum physics and relativity theory have been solidly in place for over a century now, stubbornly and forcedly we still cling to atavistic interpretations, which are no longer in line with the well-established findings of our experiments in physics. Amidst the turmoil of this spinning convoluted dreamtime of our digital Cyberbardo, Vikoulov carves out a trajectory for understanding.”

#AntiTime #PhysicsofTime #DTheoryofTime #DigitalPresentism #TemporalMechanics

Many temporal concepts are undoubtedly extremely counterintuitive. Time directionality and time symmetry are especially notorious ones. Any of the possible pasts may have led to the present “digital” conscious instant. This is a strange idea if you are accustomed to looking at the world in a strictly linear, deterministic way, but it reflects the uncertain world described by quantum mechanics. A major counterargument to the multitude of pasts could be a combinatorial explosion of observer ‘anti-time’-lines, i.e., digital timelines extending in the opposite temporal direction from the present temporal singularity to the Alpha Point (Digital Big Bang). So, how in the quantum multiverse are those digital anti-timelines supposed to converge once again at the Alpha Point?

The answer has to do with reversible entropy (not observable, of course, in the Newtonian classicality). Reversing information entropy is like going from higher complexity to lower complexity. As long as you continue to unwind the complexity bit-by-bit, you’ll end up at the point of the lowest possible complexity with, perhaps, 1 bit of entropy — the Alpha Point — the convergent point of all anti-timelines and simultaneously the point of origin of all observer probable timelines.

All theoretical roads lead to the physics of information, otherwise known as Digital Physics. Researchers suspect that ultimately the axioms of quantum theory will be about information: what can and can’t be done with it. One such derivation of quantum theory based on axioms about information was proposed in 2010. “Loosely speaking,” explained Jacques Pienaar, a theoretical physicist at the University of Vienna, “… principles state that information should be localized in space and time, that systems should be able to encode information about each other, and that every process should in principle be reversible, so that information is conserved.”

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While the future of the clean energy proposal remains uncertain, the majority of Americans have been reading from the same page regarding what needs to be done: Dramatically cutting down the country’s reliance on fossil fuels over the next two decades is critical to lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and address climate change, with six in 10 U.S. adults saying they would favor policies with this energy goal. Thankfully, scientists have been researching alternative energy solutions like wind and solar power for decades, including lesser-known sources that may seem a little unusual or even downright ridiculous and unrealistic.

You can chalk up harvesting energy from blackholes to the latter category.

Fifty years ago, British mathematical physicist, Roger Penrose, proposed a seemingly absurd idea how an alien society (or future humans) could harvest energy from a rotating black hole by dropping an object just outside its sphere of influence also known as the ergosphere where it could gain negative energy. Since then, nobody has been able to verify the viability of this seemingly bizarre idea— that is until now.

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The twisting patterns created by the multiple spiral arms of NGC 2835 create the illusion of an eye. This is a fitting description, as this magnificent galaxy resides near the head of the southern constellation of Hydra, the water snake. This stunning barred spiral galaxy, with a width of just over half that of the Milky Way, is brilliantly featured in this image taken by the NASA /ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Although it cannot be seen in this image, a supermassive black hole with a mass millions of times that of our Sun is known to nestle in the very center of NGC 2835.

This galaxy was imaged as part of PHANGS-HST, a large galaxy survey with Hubble that aims to study the connections between cold gas and young stars in a variety of galaxies in the local Universe. Within NGC 2835, this cold, dense gas produces large numbers of young stars within large star formation regions. The bright blue areas, commonly observed in the outer spiral arms of many galaxies, show where near-ultraviolet light is being emitted more strongly, indicating recent or ongoing star formation.

Expected to image over 100 000 gas clouds and star-forming regions outside our Milky Way, this survey hopes to uncover and clarify many of the links between cold gas clouds, star formation and the overall shape and morphology of galaxies. This initiative is a collaboration with the international Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescopes MUSE instrument, through the greater PHANGS program (PI: E. Schinnerer).

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Three physicists won a $3 million Breakthrough prize for proving there is no fifth force (that we know of). And it all started with a series of table-top experiments using cheap equipment.

Eric Adelberger, Jens Gundlach and Blayne Heckel together lead the “Eöt-Wash Group,” which is devoted to precise tests of physical laws. They take their name from the early-1900s physicist Loránd Eötvös and the University of Washington, where they work. These Eöt-Wash researchers got their start in the mid-1980s, using a device known as a “torsion balance” to disprove claims of an undiscovered fifth force in physics. Since then, they’ve used more elaborate versions of the same device to test the true strength of gravity, detect the tug of dark matter in the Milky Way and search for theoretical physical effects like extra dimensions and “axion wind.”

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